Anna Thompson
BBC Sport in Sochi

"Not long to go until the Olympic Flame is lit in Sochi. All Winter Olympic sports represented by these giant wire models."

We've been joined by hundreds of rollerbladers and constellations of stars overhead. Distant galaxies are appearing on the arena floor of the Fisht Stadium for the section of the ceremony entitled "Olympic Gods".

Soprano Anna Netrebko performs a stirring rendition of the Olympic hymn before Ruslan Zakharova takes the Olympic Oath on behalf of all the athletes.

Sochi 2014:, external The Olympic flag is 100 years old in 2014.

The Olympic flag is carried into the stadium by eight key Russian personalities, including Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space.

Time for another impressive ballet performance...

Image source, Getty Images

Bach wraps up his 10-minute speech and hands over to Vladimir Putin to officially declare the 2014 Winter Olympic Games open. He does just that. Cue the fireworks.

Bach adds: "Thousands of volunteers have welcomed us with the well known warm Russian hospitality. Many thanks to all of them.

"Russia and the Russians have set the stage for you, the best winter athletes on the planet. From this moment on, you're not only the best, you are Olympic athletes. You will inspire us with your outstanding performances."

Image source, Getty Images

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach is next up. "Welcome to the 22nd Winter Olympic Games," he says. "Tonight we are writing a new page in Olympic history. What took decades in other parts of the world has been achieved here in just seven years. This is a remarkable achievement."

Now it's time for the speeches. Dmitry Chernyshenko, the head of the Sochi Olympics, is the first man to take the platform.

"Welcome to the 2014 Olympics Winter Games in Sochi," he says. "Our city is unique, as all of Russia is unique.

"It is the largest country in the world where Europe meets Russia. We are proud to have the privilege to host the entire world."

We're seeing a nice montage of the journey the Olympic torch took to reach the Fisht Olympic Stadium.

It popped over to the North Pole before heading up to the International Space Station.

Russian mountaineers then scaled the 18,510ft Mount Elbrus - Europe's highest mountain - before divers plunged 5,387ft in Lake Baikal - the world's biggest and deepest freshwater lake.

Who will take the torch on the final stage of it's 40,000-mile journey to light the flame? That remains a secret.

Biathlete Amanda Lightfoot, who was part of the British contingent in the athlete parade, said of the opening ceremony: "It was absolutely amazing coming in. It was overwhelming. I've never been in front of such a big crowd. That was one of the proudest moments of my life. I was speechless."

Daniel Sandford
BBC News, Sochi

Image source, AP

"This is being treated as a pleasant time in Soviet history. Russian look back on it as nostalgic times, but it was a time of certainty and while they enjoy the freedom they have, there is less certainty in the world."

We're now in the mid-20th century and the Iron Curtain has been built to separate the Soviet Union and its dependent eastern and central European allies from contact with the West following World War II.

Check out some of the best photos - of which there are many and we've still go an hour or so still to go - from the opening ceremony on the BBC Sport Facebook, external page.

Vic Wild is the last of our 10 unlikely contenders. The 27-year-old snowboarder missed out on selection for the US in the run-up to Vancouver 2010 but four years later, he finds himself competing for Russia.

The story is simple. Wild started dating Russian snowboarder Alena Zavarzina and, after claiming he lacked the support and coaching in his homeland, moved to Russia.

He could not compete for Russia as he had not won an Olympic or world medal - however they found an alternative. "We decided, you know what, let's go for it, let's get married," he told NBC. "We decided it's the only chance we've got."

That was three years ago. Now, he is part of the Russia team and won world bronze last year.

A train, once more suspended by cables, pulls into the stadium as we move onto the Russian Revolution of 1917, which ended imperial rule and led to the Soviet Union's creation five years later.

Ollie Williams
BBC Sport in Sochi

"Have relocated to BBC studio for remainder of ceremony. It's nippy out on the park. Few thousand people out there."

Image source, Reuters

How far would you go to get a place at the Winter Olympics? Would you give up the name your parents gave you and rename yourself after a little known German underwear brand in return for crucial funding?

Well that's what Fuahea Semi, or Bruno Banani as he is now known, did and following a successful qualifying campaign, he will become the first winter Olympian from the Pacific islands of Tonga when he competes in the luge (that's the one where you slide down a track, feet first, on a tiny sled at speed in excess of 80mph).

The 26-year-old trained with the highly successful German team in the build up to Sochi, but the chances of the Tongan bringing home a medal are very slim.

"To be at the Olympics is a big thing, but the actual race is another story," said Banani, who hadn't even seen snow, let alone a sled, when he started his Winter Olympic bid six years ago. "I can't wait."

Richard Conway
BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent in Sochi

We've gone from an ice-skating bear to Tolstoy's War and Peace in matter of minutes.. All bases covered in this opening ceremony.