LET THE GAMES BEGIN : Sochi Opening Ceremony Includes Athletes, Flame Lighting And Olympic Rings Fail (PHOTOS)

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — A crowning achievement of Vladimir Putin's Russia kicked off Friday with a celebration of its past greatness and hopes for future glory, most especially for a raucous group of Russian athletes who marched into the rollicking opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics with a message.

Jamaica Bobsled Team

To the best athletes in the world, who they've invited to the edge of the Black Sea to compete on ice and snow, they sang: you're "not gonna get us."

Just after the sun set over the Caucasus Mountains and along the seashore just outside Fisht Stadium in the wet-paint-fresh Olympic Park, Russian TV star Yana Churikova shouted to a crowd still taking their seats: "Welcome to the center of the universe!" more