The Olympics games holding in Tokyo, Japan has officially kicked off.
The 2020 Tokyo Games finally got underway on Friday after a four-hour extravaganza that was both celebratory and subdued, playing out before an audience of mostly empty seats.
An Olympics opening ceremony was capped by Japanese tennis star, Naomi Osaka lighting the cauldron to officially launch the competition.
The ceremony in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium began and ended with quintessentially Japanese performances that were aimed at an audience of billions around the world.
The Games opened while still in the shadow of Covid-19, with the Japanese capital under a state of emergency, and many of the country’s residents adamantly opposed to holding the world sporting event at all.
Outside the stadium, hundreds of protesters carried placards that read “Lives over Olympics” and chanted “Stop the Olympics” as they marched.
For the first time in Olympic history, each nation was allowed to have two flag-bearers, a man and a woman, for the traditional Parade of Nations.
The Olympics Games are the first major global gathering since Covid began its march, infecting nearly 200 million people and killing more than 4 million around the world.
Over 4 billion people across the world will be watching these Olympic Games,” Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (NBC News)
Donate to Precision
