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Flag bearer and Cyclist Fatehah Mustapa of Malaysia flies the flag at half mast during the Opening Ceremony for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games at Celtic Park on July 23, 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland. Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Athletes at the 20th Commonwealth Games commemorated the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 at the opening ceremony Wednesday in Glasgow.

Malaysian athletes and officials wore black armbands at the opening ceremony, according to the Associated Press.

On Tuesday, the team observed a minute of silence during their flag-raising ceremony in the athlete’s village. The flag will remain at half-mast.

Around 1.5 billion people are expected to watch the Opening Ceremony event, where Rod Steward, Susan Boyle and the Queen will be part of the festivities.

The Commonwealth Games unite 71 Commonwealth Games Associations across the world, and the Commonwealth currently makes up about one-third of the global population.

A surface-to-air missile is believed to have brought down the Malaysia Airlines plane when it was flying over Eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.