Opening Ceremony

World Championships 2007 - Opening Ceremony The opening ceremony will be a show never seen before! Manfred Schweigkofler’s and Oliver Pezzi’s team have been working on it for months.The organisers speak of a show that seldom has seen equals in South Tyrol. The bullet, the flying thing that decides between victory and failure, will be the centre of attention of the opening ceremony of 2.2.2007. From a breathtaking height artists will tell of mankind’s strive for victory with all allowed and not allowed means. Loudly breathing sparkling runners will flash on the snow, figures on fire will appear from the underworld with fantastic costumes to create unfailing bullets. A snow queen will guide the human conscience with her questions. The strive of an athlete, his tension, the fear to fail in the race, the responsibility for his team, the dream of glory and success, and at last the choice of a fair and clean competition will be the frame of the exciting images prepared for the opening ceremony by the director Manfred Schweigkofler. The official World Champs hymn „Glory Times“, composed by the South Tyrolean singer Barbara Zanetti, which will be performed live for the first time during the opening ceremony. There will also be a lot of local colour, South Tyrol and Italy will present themselves as the hosts of the IBU Biathlon World Championships 2007. The wildness and indomitability of nature will be represented by Noriker horses crossing the stadium in a free run, and then carrying the legends, the unforgettable stars of past World Champs, into the stadium on a sleigh. A moment of honour in memory of the big names of the past of Biathlon. About 150 children from all of the Antholz valley will perform the suggestive final that can not be told yet. The show will be rounded off by a grand display of fireworks: some effects will see their world premiere! An official part with the parade of the participating nations, the hissing of the IBU flag, the welcome speeches, and the official opening of the Biathlon World Championships by the IBU president Anders Besseberg will not be missing.