READ: US marathon runner’s remarkable journey to Tokyo 2020 With athletes expected to arrive in the Olympic Village five days prior to their competition and depart a maximum of two days after, fewer took part in the parade of nations compared to previous Olympics.įireworks light up the sky over the Olympic Stadium during the Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony. US First Lady Jill Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron attended the event. Instead, many lined the fences around the city’s National Stadium throughout the day, while others gathered outside the venue to protest.Īccording to Tokyo 2020 organizers, 950 people attended the opening ceremony – only a handful in a venue with a capacity of 68,000 – as the 206 delegations competing were officially welcomed to the Games. While opening ceremonies of the Olympics are usually staged in front of packed stands, spectators were kept away in Tokyo. The surreal circumstances of the Games’ curtain raiser – unlike any other previous opening ceremony – provided a glimpse of what is to come over the next 16 days with the coronavirus pandemic set to loom large over proceedings. The ceremony drew to a close around midnight in Japan as a spectacular firework display illuminated the Tokyo night sky.
The daughter of a Japanese mother and Haitian-American father, Osaka was born in Japan but moved to the US when she was three years old.Įarlier this month, citing her mental health, Osaka withdrew from the French Open, revealing afterwards that she had “suffered long bouts of depression” since winning her first grand slam title in 2018. With no fans in attendance and a reduced number of athletes joining the parade, the Tokyo Olympics’ Opening Ceremony officially kicked off the Summer Games on Friday as tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron.Įarlier on Friday, a request from Tokyo 2020 organizers to push back Osaka’s opening match of the Olympics from Saturday to Sunday was granted ahead of the opening ceremony, fueling speculation that the four-time grand slam champion, who is making her Olympic debut on home soil, might light the cauldron.
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