Former Brazilian marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lights the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics at the Maracana stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 5, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian long-distance runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima lit the Olympic cauldron in the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Games on Friday.

A marathon bronze medal winner in Athens in 2004, he has been held up as a model sportsman after refusing to give up when a protestor attacked him in that race, slowing him from first to third.

Football great Pele was expected to be given the honor before ruling himself out earlier on Friday because of ill health.

The lighting the of the flame was the culmination of a stirring ceremony at the Maracana stadium that lasted almost four hours.

The ceremony cost an estimated $21 million, about half the budget for the London 2012 Games.

It included the participation of 5,000 volunteers, 300 artistic producers and more than 200 dancers.

According to the International Olympic Committee, the extravaganza was watched by up to 5 billion people around the world.