Trumpets blared. Fireworks exploded. Drums and cannons thundered. A 700-voice chorus sang hallelujah. A band played The Ballad of Rainbow and Snow. Eight hundred Japanese children on ice skates released 18,000 multicolored balloons into the air. More than 1,000 athletes from 35 countries paraded in their winter finery. And right in the middle of it all was the old ringmaster himself, Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.). In calling upon Emperor Hirohito officially to open the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, last week, Brundage said: "May the Olympic code...
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