At the Opening Ceremony, the head of state of the host country, or his or her designee, declares open each Olympic Games. The following political figures have opened previous Olympic Games:

1896 Athens King George of Greece

1908 London King Edward VII of Great Britain

1912 Stockholm King Gustav V of Sweden

1920 Antwerp King Albert I of Belgium

1924 Paris President Gaston Doumergue

1928 Amsterdam Prince Hendrick of the Netherlands

1932 Los Angeles Vice President Charles Curtis

1936 Berlin Adolf Hitler

1948 London King George VI of Great Britain

1952 Helsinki President Juho Kusti Paasikivi

1956 Stockholm King Gustav VI of Sweden *

1956 Melbourne Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

1960 Rome President Giovanni Gronchi

1964 Tokyo Emperor Hirohito

1968 Mexico City President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz

1972 Munich President Gustav Heinemann

1976 Montreal Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain

1980 Moscow President Leonid Brezhnev

1984 Los Angeles President Ronald Reagan

1988 Seoul President Roh Tae-Woo

1992 Barcelona King Juan Carlos I of Spain

1996 Atlanta President Bill Clinton

2000 Sydney Sir William Deane, Governor General of Australia (for Queen Elizabeth II)

2004 Athens President Constantine Stephanopoulos

2008 Beijing President Hu Jintao

2012 London Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain

2016 Rio Interim President Michel Temer *

* King Gustav was the head of state at the equestrian competition, held earlier in the year in Stockholm because of

Australian livestock quarantine regulations.

* Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was suspended in May 2016, stripped of her presidential duties as she faced an impeachment trial. As a result, Interim President Michel Temer opened the Rio Games.