look at the world’s biggest party.

“As you slowly make your way toward the stadium, you can hear the crowd cheering, and I could feel the excitement rising,” recalled Christina Loukas, a diver and 2008 and 2012 Olympian who graduated from Deerfield High School.

“As Team USA walked through the tunnel we all started chanting, ‘USA, USA, USA.’ It gave me chills. You could feel the energy surrounding you and I couldn’t help but have the biggest smile on my face.”

Rhythmic gymnast Kate Nelson Nack and other women on Team USA in 1996 wore navy-blue full-length skirts with stars, red blazers, white straw hats and pumps.

Atlanta hosted the Olympics in 1996, meaning the U.S. contingent was last to enter with Nack and teammates right behind the flag bearer.

Seared in her brain is walking into the stadium on a 40-degree-angle ramp. “I remember thinking, ‘Don’t fall on the ramp in the opening ceremonies!’” said Nack, who grew up in Arlington Heights and now lives in Buffalo Grove.

“I remember the cameras flashing and being overwhelmed with the cheering. I was taking in every second,” she said. “It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced.”

But before the drama of the parade comes lengthy downtime in a holding area, Olympians recollected.

Suited up in his Team USA Ralph Lauren blazer, Rooney wilted in a warm gymnasium with his teammates for four hours or longer in Beijing.

In the middle of the wait, “in walks George W. Bush, the president, and his father (George H.W. Bush),” Rooney said. “That was a special time ... just to know you have the support of literally everyone in the country.”

While every athlete in the delegation has their moment of fame, some are a little more famous than others.

“You always knew when the NBA players arrived because the crowd would always shift toward them, and everyone’s cameras were out,” Loukas said. “Of course, I made my way over to get some pictures with them as well.”

Olympians described closing ceremonies as a more relaxed event, while the opening is more formal and anticipatory.

As they reached their place in the stadium, Rooney recalls, members of the towering U.S. volleyball team had a good vantage point to size up Russian and Brazilian rivals and exchange “gritty smirks.”

“It was ‘game on,’” Rooney said. “The games are open for business and it’s the business of everyone to represent our country.”

In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, now remembered for the murders of 11 Israelis and a West German police officer, the solemnity of the opening ceremony was broken up after the ceremonial releasing of pigeons to represent peace, recalled Brian Oldfield, a champion shot-putter from Elgin. The birds “started to defecate all over,” he recalled. “Everyone was covering their hair with anything they could use and people were dodging” the birds.

Some athletes stayed at the Olympic Village, resting up during the ceremony. Not Oldfield.

“Do you want to celebrate being there or lay up in your room?” Oldfield asked. “I chose to go out and be part of the celebration. ... I didn’t want to miss anything. You don’t know how many Olympics you’re going to be in. It was my first and only Olympics. I got a lump in my throat.”