- Giant wooden rings evoke Japanese tradition, link to 1964.
- Some athletes attend ceremony without masks, spark anger.
- Ceremony held with only 950 spectators amid COVID-19.
Fireworks ended the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday (July 23) in which athletes from across the world paraded into an almost empty national stadium to represent their nations.
Tokyo 2020 organisers on Friday paid tribute to medical workers as athletes from across the world paraded into an almost empty stadium, their smiles hidden behind masks for the first time.
Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the ceremony was shorn of its glitz, with fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on spectators to “be quiet around the venue.”
The ceremony approached its climax with a fusion of traditional kabuki theatre — with its elaborate makeup and costumes — and a jazz piano improvisation, on a stage in the shape of Mount Fuji topped with the cauldron for the Olympic flame.
Most countries were represented by both male and female flagbearers in an Olympic first, but not everybody took pandemic measures.
Teams from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the Pakistan flagbearers paraded maskless in an awkward contrast to protocol and the vast majority of other athletes at the ceremony.
Japanese Emperor Naruhito and International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, both masked, cheered on the athletes after bowing to each other before sitting down socially distanced.
Hundreds of people protested around the venue yelling “Stop the Olympics”.
The Games run until August 8.
Pakistan Squad
