When the 2016 Summer Olympics in
Rio de Janeiro held its closing ceremony, part of the proceedings was the tease
for the next Summer Games venue four years on. This was accomplished by having
Nintendo videogame character Super Mario travel via warp pipe from Japan to
Rio, where he revealed himself as then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, inviting the
world to Japan in 2020. Come that year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been
postponed a year. Even in 2021, the situation remained precarious enough that
foreign spectators were banned for the Olympics in July. This past Thursday,
the delayed torch relay for the Games, severely limited as it is, finally
kicked off.
ESPN 5 reports that the Tokyo Olympics Torch Relay commenced as
planned, if about a year late, at the starting point in Japan that would make
the most impact for the country, before the pandemic at least. The first batch
of torchbearers was at Naraha, Fukushima prefecture. This was among the areas
of the country that was devastated by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami,
with parts of Fukushima irradiated by a damaged nuclear power plant. Football
player Azusa Iwashimizu, member of the Japan team that won the 2011 FIFA Women’s
World Cup, was first to bear the Olympic flame.
In what has become the defining
characteristic of this edition of the Summer Olympics, the torch relay starting
ceremony barred spectators, leaving only the officials and participants.
Audiences could only catch the opening of the relay by watching it on live-stream,
though residents in the areas where the runners will pass can stand on the
roadside at the estimated time, maintaining social distance and refraining from
loud cheering. Some 10,000 runners – Japanese athletes and ordinary citizens –
will bear the torches with the Olympic flame across the 47 prefectures of Japan
over the next 121 days.
Despite a still significantly
high percentage of the Japanese population preferring to again postpone or
simply cancel the Games at Tokyo, the government and organizers have kept to
the schedule of opening the event this July. A bubble environment is being set
up for athletes, limiting their freedom of movement between the Tokyo Bay
Athletes’ Village, training facilities and competition areas. Any local
spectators at the venues during the Games are encouraged to cheer for all
Olympians to make up for the lack of foreigners.
Among the Olympic torchbearers is
a 118-year-old woman who is the current oldest living person in the world. The 2020/21
Tokyo Summer Olympics will open this coming July 23.
Image from Olympic Channel
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