Mutaz Barshim, Qatar's Olympic high jump champion, receives the flag at the centre of the stadium. He walks to a portal of light built on the field and opens it. Jassim Al Kuwari, a Qatari rider, comes through it on horseback, takes the flag from Barshim and rides around the stage.

The broadcast cuts between the live stadium and films made with AI, abstract and fast, that take the story outside Nagoya. Viewers at home see the two one after the other in the same frame.

For that reason the whole artistic segment runs in one colour, and the palette does not change when the picture cuts from film to stadium. The opening is lit like theatre, with a tight, quiet area around Barshim as he walks to the flag and the rest of the stadium held low.

Every beam and follow spot carried frost, so the light on the field had no hard edges. When the portal opened, the rider came out of a soft glow.

Then he rode out of the stadium with the flag, heading west, to Doha.

Photo: courtesy of Auditoire. Stills from the Mediacorp broadcast.