Russia welcomes world to Sochi at Winter Olympics opening ceremony

VLADIMIR Putin gave the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron to a figure skating champion who tweeted a racist slur.

VLADIMIR Putin got under Barack Obama's skin when Russia gave the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron to a figure skating champion who posted a collage of the US President with a banana on Twitter.

In another home ground win for the Russian president, his reputed lover Alina Kabaeva also ended up being one of the final torchbearers at the glittering Sochi opening ceremony.

● REVIEW: A NEW RUSSIA, OR JUST A SHOW?
● GALLERY: SOCHI'S OPENING CEREMONY
● 'CHUMPY' IN AWE OF OPENING CEREMONY
● SECURITY SCARE: HIJACKER WANTED TO FLY TO SOCHI

The Obama slapdown came when Irina Rodnina, a triple Olympic gold medallist, helped light a small cauldron outside the stadium, which spectacularly ignited a fiery path all the way up to a gigantic cauldron.

Snowboarder Alex Pullin leads the Australia team into the stadium at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Only five months ago Rodnina, now a pro-Kremlin lawmaker, fired up a racism row with her Twitter collage.

The image evoked the brandishing of bananas at black players by some football fans - a crude racist slur still seen at some matches in Russia.

It went viral after Russia's charismatic opposition leader Alexei Navalny reposted it.

This tweet had Irina Rodnina in hot water.

After the post sparked a storm Rodnina deleted the message but wrote, "Freedom of speech is freedom of speech! Deal with your hang-ups yourself".

Rodnina, 64, won three Olympic gold medals in figure skating in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tennis star Maria Sharapova carries the Olympic torch into the stadium during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

Vladislav Tretyak, one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the sport, assisted in setting the Cauldron alight. Russian-born tennis great Maria Sharapova, who learnt to play the game as a child in Sochi, was also a torchbearer.

The US president stayed away from Putin's party, opting to send former homeland security chief Janet Napolitano as the leader of a delegation, which was to be made up of several openly gay members, including former tennis player Billie Jean King.

Fireworks explode over Olympic Park at the end of the opening ceremony

But even King couldn't make the show, staying back in Arizona to be with her ailing mother.

The Australian team was second into the stadium after Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic movement.

"Just before we marched out my heart was really pumping and racing," snowboarder Belle Brockhoff said.

"And when I got out there I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

Putin appeared nervous at the start of the ceremony, particularly when one of five giant snowflakes symbolising the five Olympic rings failed to expand on cue.

Rollerskaters perform during the opening ceremony.

But he beamed when the Russian team entered the $779 million Fisht Stadium to the raucous cheers of 40,000-strong crowd.

Sitting five seats down from Putin was his Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who wasn't quite as excited, looking as though he had fallen asleep at one stage.

It was the first time since Sydney in 2000 that the US delegation to an Olympics did not include a president, vice president or first lady.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, German President Joachim Gauck and French President Francois Hollande also stayed away.

Chinese Premier Xi Jinping and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe showed their support, sitting in the VIP area close to Putin.

Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, whose country was being occupied by the USSR during the Moscow Olympics, was also in Sochi, sitting with leaders from a group of Central Asia and former Soviet states.