The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games finally kick off this Friday after being postponed for a year by the COVID-19 pandemic and amid strong opposition from the Japanese.
The Olympic flame will ignite at 8:00 pm local time (
7:00 am US East Coast time
) at the new Olympic Stadium.
This Friday
will be a ceremony like no other.
Following the announcement of the state of emergency due to the increase in coronavirus cases, there will be no spectators.
Instead of a packed Olympic stadium, with capacity for some 68,000 spectators, to host athletes from more than
200 countries and 33 sports
, there will only be about
1,000 special guests
(officials, guests and the media).
The Emperor of Japan, Naruhito, is among these, as is the
American First Lady, Jill Biden.
The stadium where the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games is held this Friday, July 23, 2021.Swen Pförtner / picture alliance via Getty Images
Of course, the long-awaited event will have many
virtual spectators.
"More than
4 billion people
around the world will watch these Olympics," Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told our sister network NBC News before the ceremony.
"In this context, overcoming the difficulties of the coronavirus and being able to celebrate the Games, I think it has real value," he said.
[The Olympics return to Australia for the third time: Brisbane will host in 2032]
There won't be much party either.
The bars and restaurants of the Japanese capital have prohibited the sale of alcohol and have reduced their hours until the end of the games, on August 8.
It is also
the most expensive Games in history
- $ 15.4 billion -, which will feature the largest security deployment in Japan, 8,500 troops from the Self-Defense Forces deployed and 60,000 police officers patrolling the streets and the 42 sports venues.
Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics do not rule out canceling them if COVID-19 cases skyrocket
July 21, 202101: 38
The olympic flame
The traditional lighting of the Olympic cauldron, symbolizing the start of the Games, will literally be an event made for television as a result of the unusual circumstances of these Games.
After pigeons are released as a sign of peace, spectacular fireworks will light up the sky over the Japanese capital.
And for the first time in the history of the Games,
each country will be able to have two flag bearers
- a man and a woman - for the traditional Parade of Nations.
In the case of the United States, they will be
a Latino baseball player, Eddy Álvarez, and a star of women's basketball, Sue Bird.
Although there will be no applause for them, nor for the last torchbearer, Japanese kabuki actor Nakamura Kankuro VI, when he performs what is called "the kiss of the torch" and lights the cauldron.
The Olympic torch began its 121-day journey to the stadium in March from Fukushima prefecture, a region that was devastated by the earthquake, tsunami and the meltdown of three nuclear reactors in 2011 that left some 22,000 dead or missing.
As the first torchbearer, Japanese soccer star Azusa Iwashimizu ran from a training center with 14 other members of the team that won the Women's World Cup in 2011.
Scandals
The dismissal of the creative director of the opening ceremony, Kentaro Jobayashi, Kobayashi, this Thursday for an
anti-Semitic joke
made in 1998 and the resignation of composer Keigo Oyamada, accused of harassing his colleagues in the past, and whose music was to be used in the ceremony, they have been the last events that have affected the Games.
Diego Torres is happy that 'Hoy' is Telemundo's official theme for the Olympic Games
July 22, 202 105: 57
Months earlier, Yoshiro Mori resigned as chairman of the organizing committee for his
sexist comments.
Hiroshi Sasaki also resigned as creative director of the opening and closing ceremonies after suggesting that a Japanese actress dress up as a pig.
But they are not the only scandals.
Tokyo has been plagued with these since the Games were awarded in 2013. French investigators are investigating
alleged bribes paid to members of the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) to influence the vote in favor of the Japanese capital.
The consequences forced the resignation two years ago of Tsunekazu Takeda, who headed the Japanese Olympic Committee and was a member of the IOC.
Uncertainty about safety
Despite repeated assurances by Japanese authorities and Olympic organizers that the Games would be "safe,"
dozens of people associated with the competition
- including a dozen athletes -
have
already
tested positive for COVID-19.
Hours before the start of the opening of the Games, the chief medical officer of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee revealed that around 100 of the 613 American athletes who will arrive in Tokyo are not vaccinated.
[American tennis player Coco Gauff announces that she was infected with COVID-19: she will not compete in the Olympic Games]
Medical director Jonathan Finnoff said 567 of the US athletes had filled out their medical records while preparing for the trip, and estimated that 83% said they were vaccinated.
The IOC has estimated that around 85% of the residents of the Olympic Village are vaccinated.
And so the Games begin, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease that has infected almost 200 million people in the world and that has caused the deaths of more than 4 million.
With information from AP, NBC News and Efe.
