Olympics-Athletes parade through empty stadium at Tokyo’s no-frills opening ceremony
The Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony held on Friday as athletes marched into the Olympic stadium by national groups, waving but with smiles hidden behind masks, and most having both male and female flagbearers for the first time.
The Tokyo Games like no other opened with fireworks illuminating an almost empty National Stadium and a moment of silence to honour those lost to COVID-19, with a nod to Japanese tradition represented by wooden Olympic rings linked to the 1964 Games.
Postponed for a year, organisers were forced to take the unprecedented step of holding the Olympics without fans as the novel coronavirus is on the rise again, taking lives around the world.
Even the opening ceremony, normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities was eerily silent, with fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on the spectators to “be quiet around the venue.
Regardless, it marks a coming together of the world, with an audience of hundreds of millions around the globe and at various stages of the pandemic tuning in to watch the start of the greatest show in sport.
