“I declare open the Tokyo Games,” solemnly declared the Emperor of Japan Naruhito, according to the consecrated formula and eagerly awaited by the sports movement since Tokyo was designated host city of the Olympics-2020 in September 2013.
One year after their postponement because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 Olympic Games are officially launched in Tokyo, Japan, with the traditional opening ceremony that took place this Friday, July 23. For the first time in the history of the Games, it was held in a closed-door venue. It is finally the tennis player Naomi Osaka who had the honor to light the flame.
In a world remaining under the threat of the Covid-19, the opening ceremony did not have the festive character that it has normally, and that it had had in particular in Rio in 2016 on airs of samba. It is well the Covid which dominated this ceremony, between homage to the medical staff in first line against the pandemic, with its nurses and caretakers chosen to carry the Olympic flag to the mast where it will float during two weeks and among the last carriers of the flame, a video of sportsmen training alone, in reference to the competitions stopped net by the pandemic, and a parade, unpublished, of sportsmen masked.
Some memorable pictures and a video of the Mauritian team during this ceremony:
