The Milan Cathedral with the square empty for the lockdown. The world illuminated on the notes of Imagine. And then Pita shirtless who is trendy and is imitated by Riilio. Flashes and images from the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony, which lasted almost four hours and closed by Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic tripod, the first to be powered by hydrogen. A journey lasting more than a year, starting from the pandemic that broke out at the beginning of 2020 and arriving in the summer of 2021 up to the Olympic stadium in Tokyo where, finally, in the Japanese evening, the brazier of the first Five-circle Games was lit up. they are disputed in an odd year. The flashes of the images taken by the photographers immortalized an inauguration ceremony unique in the history of the Olympics.
In the first moments of the event, a video was broadcast with some frames of Piazza del Duomo, in Milan, empty in lockdown, a symbol of the pandemic that has hit harder in Italy than elsewhere, but also a bridge to the future that will be in 2026 that of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Then the photo that shows the Man who gets up, to which are added other men and other women who, alone, run on a treadmill and pedal on an exercise bike. And then they all come back to life together. Emperor Nahurito and the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, photographed close, but not too close and with a mask to respect the anti-covid rules - in the minute of silence for the victims of the covid and for the Israeli dead in the attack of Munich 1972.
Closed the first part, off to the parade, open, as per tradition from Greece. A few minutes and then the objectives were focused on the white of the Italia Team tracksuits and on the tricolor of the flags waved by the blues led for the first time by two standard-bearers, Jessica Rossi and Elia Viviani. Five years after Rio 2016, one of the most viewed photos in the world is certainly that of Pita Taufatofua, the flag-bearer of Togo, who, like five years ago, walked bare-chested covered in oil, which set a trend so much that it was a few minutes later imitated and perhaps even a little challenged by the colossal rower Riilio Rii, standard-bearer of Vanuatu.
Flash of obligation also for the first lady Bill Jiden who applauded the US team, as usual, despite the anti covid rules, the most numerous. And then for the nice idea of the 'pictograms', the stylizations of the various Olympic sports, personified by a costumed actor. Final "shots" for Naomi Osaka, the last torchbearer, and for the tripod, whose flame will burn until Sunday 8 August.
