Monday, May 27, 2013

Let the Games Begin... **

Before the Games of the Small States of Europe officially kicked off with its opening ceremony, the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess as well as the Hereditary Grand Duke and the Hereditary Grand Duchess welcomed another few guests, this time of the princely kind, at the palais.

Photo: Christian Aschman / Cour grand-ducale
The two couples were joined by (from left to right) Anne Rogge, IOC president Jacques Rogge, Prince Albert of Monaco and Princess Nora of Liechtenstein as well as a few others for a meet, greet and phototaking session. A few more of the snapshots, can be found on the Facebook page of Place Royale. RTL has a video of the reception (starting at 8:37), in which I'm also able to spot Prince Guillaume, Princess Sibilla and their two oldest sons Prince Paul-Louis and Prince Léopold and Princess Margaretha and at least one of her daughters, Princess Astrid.

Photo: Julien Garroy / Tageblatt

Together (or maybe also seperately) the royal crowd made their way to the Stade Jose Barthel, Luxembourg's national stadium named after the country's only Olympic gold medal winner, where the opening ceremony of the Games of the Small States of Europe took place. They were joined by Grand Duke Jean for the occassion.

The Games, which take place every two years, were introduced in 1985 and are organised by the National Olympic Committees of nine different European countries, namely Andorra, Cyprus, Island, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro and San Marino. These nine countries have in common that they all have less than one million inhabitants. The last edition of the Games took place in Liechtenstein in 2011.

Photo: Julien Garroy / Tageblatt
Both male and female athletes will compete in eleven different summer Olympic disciplines. During the 15th edition of the Games, the sportsmen and -women will fight for medals in eight individual sports, swimming, table tennis, tennis, judo, shooting, athletics, gymnastics and cycling, as well as two (and a half) team sports, basketball and volleyball (and beach volleyball).

The competitions will mainly take place at three different sites, around the Stade Josy Barthel, the Coque and Limpertsberg. The closing ceremony will take place at the Abbaye de Neumünster on next Saturday.

Let's hope that we will see many cheerful Grand Ducal and Princely appearances until then!

First pictures of the opening ceremony are located at Tageblatt, L'essentiel, RTL, Wort in French, Wort in English, Wort in German, Sportrevue, Volksblatt and Vaterland. Wort has a video.


Source: JPPE

4 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see more pictures. How long do the games last?

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  2. Until Saturday. I hope that also the extended family members will attend some events!

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  3. Can the royal family not afford appropriate fitting clothes for Stephanie? She looks horrible in at least half of her public appearances.

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  4. It does look better in the sideview pictures though she better has a good explanation (a.k.a. six months pregnant) as to why she wears such badly fitted clothes, I agree.

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