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LIVE - Watch the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
JO "
United by emotion
". The banners that Tokyo did not want to see float in the arteries leading to the Olympic stadium. After the postponement of a year due to the health crisis, the long tenacious threat of a cancellation following the rebounds of a feverish situation, Tokyo has, without fever, in an Olympic stadium of 68,000 places reserved for rare guests and observers set alight the cauldron, above the representation of Mount Fuji. It will light up its Olympic Games (the second summer Olympics organized by Japan, after Tokyo, already, in 1964). A flame that had been lit on March 12, 2020 in Olympia, wavered, hid itself, before ending its race discreetly. Long fragile. Always precious. At the end of an uncertain journey, more than 10,000 torchbearers passed on the torch, a sheet ofrecycled aluminum from temporary buildings used after the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2011, topped with the lucky charm, cherry blossoms. The oppressed environment, while the Japanese capital observes a fourth state of emergency, has not left the thoughts of the actors of the opening ceremony. He will accompany these Olympics behind closed doors.
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Noami Osaka before lighting the cauldron PAWEL KOPCZYNSKI / REUTERS
These Olympic Games were to be held.
Living with the virus is also that.
We must resist, we must hold these Olympics.
Emmanuel Macron
Faithful to the wishes of the organizers, the ceremony, imbued with a health situation that frightens Japan, pushes it to curl up, was “
simpler and more sober.
»With lengths, memory, creativity and humor. The 206 delegations with reduced compositions marched. Masked. Some, like Argentina, Malawi or Portugal, are responsible for making the moment festive, carefree. Under the eyes of the Emperor of Japan Naruhito, the First Lady of the United States Jill Biden and Emmanuel Macron who assured
France Televisions
: "
These Olympic Games were to be held.
Living with the virus is also that.
We must resist, we must hold these Olympics.
This is important because the spirit of Olympism is a spirit of cooperation and we need it, in this time of Covid and I hope for an end to the epidemic, and it is essential for our athletes.
"
Read also: Tokyo Olympics: the events not to be missed
The opening ceremony always captures highlights that will cross the years. Like the Spanish archer and Paralympic athlete Antonio Rebollo in Barcelona in 1992, Mohamed Ali, suffering from Parkinson's disease, a moving giant, the last torchbearer in 1996 in Atlanta, Cathy Freeman in Sydney in 2000. Or Bradley Wiggins with his Yellow jersey. The first (and fresh) English winner of the Tour de France had the Olympic bell ringing in 2012. Tokyo offered the slow and respectful walk of Naomi Osaka, the last torchbearer, a magical ballet of 1,800 drones making up a globe. But above all restraint, looks in which pride invited itself, the emotion crept in. That of reunion. Loyalty. Has a long history.
The one that the French delegation (led by Clarisse Agbegnenou and Samir Aït Saïd who offered a spectacular back somersault), placed just before Japan at the end of the parade, waved with heart while waiting to take up the torch on August 8. And if it took imagination to project oneself into a loudspeaker with empty seats in which the music took care of filling the space, contagious envy set the tone for JO who want to be a source of inspiration. “
It's a moment of hope. Admittedly, it is different from what we expected. But we are finally all reunited
”, could launch Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee. After months of doubt, it's time for the Games ...
