The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event featuring both summer and winter sports, held every two years with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. During Olympic Games opening ceremonies, the sitting president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will make a speech before inviting a representative from the host country to officially declare that particular Games open. The current Olympic Charter requires this person to be the head of state of the host country, although this has not always been the case. This article lists the people who have had the ceremonial duty to declare each Olympic Games open.
The IOC factsheet on the opening ceremony states: "According to the Olympic Charter protocol, the duty of declaring the Games officially open falls to the head of state of the host country. Those who have performed this task are royalty and presidents, or their representatives, whether it was a vice-president, a member of the royal family, or a governor-general". Rule 56 of Chapter 5 of the Olympic Charter sets out the exact words that are to be declared by the person opening the Games. If at a Summer Olympic Games, the words to be said are: <blockquote>I declare open the Games of [name of the host city], celebrating the [ordinal number of the Olympiad] Olympiad of the modern era. </blockquote> When at a Winter Olympic Games, the dignitary opening the Games is to proclaim: <blockquote>I declare open the [number of the Olympic Winter Games] Olympic Winter Games of [name of the host city]. </blockquote> However, this has not always been followed strictly;
On 4 February 1932, Governor of New York State Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the Lake Placid Winter Olympics with a short speech:
On 30 July 1932, US vice president Charles Curtis opened the Los Angeles Summer Olympics with:
On 6 February 1936, Adolf Hitler, Führer and Chancellor of Germany, opened the Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen by saying in German:
On 1 August 1936, Hitler opened the Summer Games in Berlin by saying in German:
On 29 July 1948, King George VI of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, opened the Olympic Games of London by saying:
On 14 February 1952, Princess Ragnhild, in place of his grandfather King Haakon VII of Norway and father Crown Prince Olav who were in London for the state funeral of King George VI, opened the Olympic Winter Games in Oslo by speaking in Norwegian:
On 19 July 1952, Juho Kusti Paasikivi, President of Finland, opened the Olympic Games on Helsinki in Finnish and English:
On 26 February 1956, Giovanni Gronchi, President of the Italian Republic, declares the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo open by speaking in Italian:
On 22 November 1956, the Duke of Edinburgh opened the Games of Melbourne by saying:
On 18 February 1960, US vice president Richard Nixon, opened the Squaw Valley Winter Games with:
On 27 August 1960, Giovanni Gronchi, President of the Italian Republic, declares the Summer Olympics in Rome open by speaking in Italian:
On 29 January 1964, Austrian president Adolf Schärf opened the Innsbruck Winter Games by speaking in Austrian German:
On 10 October 1964, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, opened the Summer Olympics in Tokyo by speaking in Japanese:
On 6 February 1968, Charles de Gaulle, President of the French Republic, declares the opening of the Grenoble Winter Olympics by speaking in French:
On 12 October 1968, Mexican president Gustavo DÃÂaz Ordaz opened the Games of Mexico City in Spanish:
On 3 February 1972, Emperor Hirohito of Japan opened the Olympic Winter Games in Sapporo by speaking in Japanese:
On 26 August 1972, German president Gustav Heinemann opened the Games of Munich by speaking in German:
On 4 February 1976, Austrian president Rudolf Kirchschläger opened the Innsbruck Winter Games by speaking in Austrian German:
On 17 July 1976, Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, opened the Montreal Olympics (first in French followed by the English) :
On 11 February 1980, US vice president Walter Mondale opened the Lake Placid Winter Games with:
On 19 July 1980, Leonid Brezhnev, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, opened the Moscow Summer Olympics by speaking in Russian:
On 8 February 1984, Mika à  piljak, the president of Yugoslavia opened the Sarajevo Winter Olympics by speaking in Serbian:
On 28 July 1984, US president Ronald Reagan opened the Los Angeles Summer Olympics with:
On 13 February 1988, Jeanne Sauvé, the Governor General of Canada, opened the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary using the format of the Summer Games declaration by saying in French and English:
On 17 September 1988, Roh Tae-woo, President of the Republic of Korea, opened the Summer Olympics in Seoul by speaking in Korean:
On 8 February 1992, François Mitterrand, President of the French Republic, declares the opening of the Albertville Winter Olympics by speaking in French:
On 25 July 1992, King Juan Carlos I of Spain opened the Barcelona Summer Olympics by saying:
On 12 February 1994, King Harald V of Norway opened the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer by speaking in Norwegian:
On 19 July 1996, US president Bill Clinton opened the Atlanta Summer Olympics with the exact format:
On 7 February 1998, Emperor Akihito of Japan opened the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano by speaking in Japanese:
On 15 September 2000, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia Sir William Deane opened the Sydney Summer Olympics with the exact format:
On 8 February 2002, US president George W. Bush opened the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which took place five months after the September 11 attacks using a tweak of the Summer Games declaration with:
On 13 August 2004, Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, President of the Hellenic Republic, opened the Athens Summer Olympics, by speaking in Greek:
On 10 February 2006, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic, opened the Turin Olympic Winter Games using the format of the Summer Games declaration by speaking in Italian:
On 8 August 2008, Hu Jintao, as President of China, opened the Beijing Summer Olympics by saying:
On 12 February 2010, Governor General of Canada Michaëlle Jean opened the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver using the format of the Summer Games declaration by saying in French and English:
On 27 July 2012, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, declared the opening of the London Summer Olympics with the exact format:
On 7 February 2014, Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, declares the opening of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics by saying:
On 5 August 2016, Vice President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Michel Temer, as acting president during the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff's powers and duties, opened the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro by speaking in Brazilian Portuguese:
On 9 February 2018, Moon Jae-in, President of the Republic of Korea, declares the opening of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics by speaking in Korean:
On 23 July 2021, Emperor Naruhito opened the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (which was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic), by speaking in Japanese:
On 4 February 2022, Xi Jinping, as President of China, opened the Beijing Winter Olympics by saying:
On 26 July 2024, Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, declares the opening of the Paris Summer Olympics by speaking in French:
On 6 February 2026, Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic, declares the opening of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics by speaking in Italian:
As of 2026, there have been 51 different individuals who opened either the Summer or Winter Olympic Games. Four of them have done so more than once. German führer Adolf Hitler was the first person to open more than one Olympic Games; he opened the 1936 Winter and Summer Olympics, both of which were hosted in Germany. He remains the only one to open more than one Games in the same year.
Italian president Giovanni Gronchi opened the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo and the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He was the first democratically electedâÂÂalbeit by the parliamentâÂÂhead of state to open more than one Olympic Games.
Japanese emperor Hirohito opened the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. He was the first non-European to open more than one Olympic Games.
The first woman to open any Olympic Games was Princess Ragnhild of Norway in 1952, in place of her grandfather King Haakon VII of Norway and father Crown Prince Olav who were in London for the state funeral of British King George VI. Aged 21, she was also the youngest person to have opened the Olympic Games. Queen Elizabeth II, who was King George VI's eldest daughter and successor, opened the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Great Britain. The first and only head of state to open the Summer Games more than once, she was also the only woman to open any Summer Olympics as of 2024, and the only one to do so in different host countries. Aside from declaring open the Games by herself, she was represented during the declaration four times: in the 1956 and 2000 Summer Olympics which were held in Australia, as well as the 1988 and 2010 Winter Olympics, which were held in Canada. In 1988 and 2010, the Queen were represented by the sitting Canadian governor general, which happened to be female on both occasionsâÂÂJeanne Sauvé in 1988 and Michaëlle Jean in 2010. This made Canada the only country whose Olympic Games have been opened only by women. Jean also became the first Black person to open any Olympic Games.
Norwegian King Harald V became the first person to open both the regular Olympics and Youth Olympics, having opened the 1994 Winter and 2016 Winter Youth Games. He was followed by Chinese president Xi Jinping, who opened the 2014 Summer Youth and 2022 Winter Games.
King Juan Carlos I of Spain, who competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics, was the first Olympic athlete to open the Summer Olympic Games in 1992. The second was King Harald V of Norway, who competed in the 1964, 1968, and 1972 Summer Olympics and opened the 1994 Winter Olympics.
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