Australian Olympic stars get the party started with alternative opening ceremony at the beach

AUSTRALIAN athletes rocked the streets of Rio on Friday night for their very own alternate opening ceremony that saw the locals join the impromptu party.

Australian athletes who are not marching in the Opening Ceremony held their own party at Ipanema.

AUSTRALIAN athletes rocked the streets of Rio last night for an alternate opening ceremony that had the locals join the party.

A group of around 30 athletes and officials based in Ipanema did a beachside lap of the block with an Australian flag, a few stuffed kangaroos and general good humour for the opening ceremony you have when you can’t get to the real one.

Rower Will Lockwood led the celebrations down by the beach.

The group, supported by some Brazilian drummers and dancers, was much bigger by the end of its journey than at the start as tourists and curious locals safely walked, chanted and hip-swivelled their way through a potentially dangerous 20 minutes dusk stroll through a region known for petty crime.

Rower Will Lockwood was given the honour of carrying the Australian flag.

“It was a big honour with all these athletes around,’’ Lockwood said.

“They pulled me aside and told me I would carry it to represent rowing. It’s nice to get out and forget about the competition and just have fun.’’

Because the Olympic venues are scattered among four precincts Australia elected to base some athletes away from the main village in Baha in areas such as Ipanema.

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Two of those groups — the rowers and the beach volleyballers — were represented in the boisterous lap of the block which saw locals come out on their balconies high above them and smile their approval.

Many athletes base at Ipanema were competing on the first day of competition so it did not make sense to make the eight hour round trip to the main opening ceremony.

So a mock ceremony was planned, some Brazilian dancers and drummers were recruited to give the event a local pulse.

Originally published as Australian Olympic stars get the party started with alternative opening ceremony at the beach