About 2,750 athletes and coaches from 80 nations, many waving mittens and colorful scarves, marched into Sullivan Arena Sunday night to open the 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games, the largest sporting event ever staged here.

The rowdy kickoff to the Games began at 7:30 p.m. when 30 athletes and several team coaches from Greece, dressed in puffy team parkas and red fleece hats, led the procession of delegations.

Fans from Canada packed the southeast corner of the arena. Scott Masterton along with several family members waved Canadian flags and clinked cowbells. Tracy Masterton, a Canadian alpine skier, waved back proudly as she marched by with her team.

The Sullivan was converted to a welcoming stadium for Sunday's events. Chairs lined the floor in front of a huge stage flanked by two large television screens.

The arena was filled to capacity and easily would have attracted many thousands more if the space -- and the city fire marshal -- would have allowed. As it was, Special Olympics organizers issued 7,700 tickets to the delegations, celebrities, families, sponsors and media. Officials conducted a lottery of sorts among volunteers, with only a few hundred out of about 5,000 receiving the surprise envelope with the ticket inside when they picked up their gear last week.

No tickets were available to the general public. The events were broadcast live on cable television in Anchorage and will be rebroadcast next weekend.

Early in the athlete procession, people stood and cheered as Arnold Schwarzenegger led Austria in to the arena.

On stage a few minutes later, Schwarzenegger said, "I tell you, it's really excellent to be back here in Alaska."

Though he had been here several times before, Schwarzenegger said, "This is the first (time) for the most important visit, the Special Olympics. This is the greatest opening ceremony I've ever been to."

Schwarzenegger introduced mother-in-law Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics and sister of President Kennedy, and father-in-law R. Sargent Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics Inc. and the first director of the Peace Corps.

Their son Timothy Shriver, president and chief executive officer of Special Olympics Inc., directed some his remarks to the spectators, urging them to enjoy the sport and spirit of athletic competition and not to feel sorry for anyone.

"Leave your pity, leave your sympathy, and come to these Games, people of the audience," Shriver said.

Athletes from six regions of the world each gave the Special Olympics oath in their native language. The English version was administered by Alaska Special Olympics athlete Ernie Barker, an 11-year-old figure skater from Anchorage: "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."

Sunday's headliners included entertainment pop singer Kristina W and the 1970s-80s soul and pop group The Pointer Sisters, along with several Alaska Native dance groups.

Back in the spectators area, Norman Dickson Sr. said of the unfolding events: "It is brilliant." Dickson, who traveled from Scotland with his wife, Betty, and son Sandy, came to watch another son, Norman Jr., compete in alpine skiing later this week.

Team USA, with more than 500 athletes divided into eight regional delegations, was the last to enter the arena, marching to the songs "Ghostbusters" and "Living in America." The crowd stood and cheered.

Before the USA Southwest Delegation was introduced, Dana Pexa wiped tears from her face while husband Revi videotaped the procession. Her son, 28-year-old Van Pexa, came to Alaska from Nevada with one dream, she said: He wanted to meet Eunice Shriver.

He was at Olympic Town Saturday at the Egan Civic & Convention Center to get his eyes checked at the medical clinic there, and sure enough, he met Mrs. Shriver.

"I said 'Van, what did you say to her,' and he said, 'Thanks for the starting the Special Olympics."'

Rows of Team USA family members waved American flags and cheered as the rest of the U.S. regional delegations were introduced.

Delegations of athletes and coaches had been arriving in Alaska over the last week. Athletes came from as far away as South Africa or as close as hometown snowboarder Bryan Carey.

Byron Pewitt, 18, said he liked all the stars -- girls especially.

"In Tennessee we don't get to see many stars," said Pewitt, who lives in Franklin, Tenn., and is competing with the USA Southeast delegation in snowboarding.

Christina Macklin, a 17-year-old snowshoer from Reno, Nev., said she liked the singing best. "It's fun," she said.

The 18 players and coaches of the Turkmenistan floor hockey team were in awe. Many had never seen anything like this. The 12- to 15-year-olds ran around the Sullivan looking for souvenir pins to trade as The Pointer Sisters performed.

The families of those athletes earn about $35 a week, said translator Joe McDonnell. The day before, they'd been to Wal-Mart to get numbers painted on their jerseys and stripes taped onto their shorts.

"Their favorite was Arnold Schwarzenegger. They'd seen his movies," McDonnell said.

"It's great, it's excellent," several of the athletes shouted in Russian.

The climax of the show was the lighting of the Special Olympics cauldron at 10:25 p.m. The torch that carried the flame from Athens began as a clump of grass 9,000 miles away in Greece.

Seward-based Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Brandon Anderson and Anchorage athlete Mike Mulcahy ran the final leg of the torch run to the arena. A Greek athlete, Nikos Babalis, circled the arena with the torch in the sled of Iditarod musher Susan Butcher, pulled by a team of six of her dogs. Then the torch was passed between five other athletes -- Leanid Sakharevich of Belarus, Walter Makoe of South Africa, Ji-Yong Min of Korea, Victor Tepata of El Salvador, Isa Ahmed of Bahrain -- before it reached Juneau snowboarder Niall Bo Johnson.

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens announced the official opening of the Games, and Johnson kindled the cauldron.

A grand finale of indoor fireworks lit the stage, with giant sparklers raining down and fountains of flame shooting up. Confetti drifted down from the rafters to the cheers of the crowd.

Finally, as if anyone needed to know who was the biggest star of the evening, someone spoke over the public address system: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Arnold has left the building. Good Night."

Reporter Molly Brown can be reached at mbrown@adn.com. Reporter Tim Pryor can be reached at tpryor@adn.com.