Low-key opening ceremony marks virus-hit Tokyo Games
‘It is an unforgettable moment of my life. I am feeling really honoured after raising the UAE flag at the opening ceremony...’ says Matrooshi; Emirates ban on India, Pakistan flights to continue till July 28.
The Tokyo Olympics began on Friday with the opening ceremony being held before a nearly empty National Stadium following a year’s delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
With strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols in place, only about 900 dignitaries and other officials were in the stands of the 68,000-seat venue, including International Olympic Commitee President Thomas Bach, French President Emmanuel Macron, US First Lady Jill Biden, and Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, who declared the Games open.
Participating in the Olympics is a passionate dream of any athlete. And Friday, July 23, 2021 will always be etched in the memory of promising UAE swimmer Yousuf Al Matrooshi as ater geting a wildcard entry into the Tokyo games lady luck smiled again and he also enjoyed the honour of leading the country’s delegation at the opening ceremony.
Matrooshi, who will be competing in the 100-metre freestyle event on his Olympic debut, was the UAE flag-bearer at the opening ceremony in Tokyo.
Matrooshi expressed delight ater becoming the flag-bearer. “It is an unforgetable moment of my life. I am feeling really honoured ater raising the UAE flag at the opening ceremony of the tournament.
“It is a prestigious event that is followed by millions all over the world. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity that every athlete passionately waits for,” he added.
Matrooshi also appreciated National Olympic Commitee President Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Rashid Al Maktoum for granting him this great honour.
“The UAE flag is a symbol of glory and to hold it in front of the world delegates atending the ceremony is a real pride.”
The UAE’ swimmer has also been named as one of the two Emirati wildcard entrants who will represent the nation at this year’s FINA World Swimming Championships (25m). Matrooshi, 18, and Layla Al Khatib, 14, are the two Emirati athletes selected for raising the challenge to face elite international swimmers at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) which is scheduled to take place at Yas Island’s hugely impressive Etihad Arena from Dec.16-21.
“Competing at the Olympics and the Worlds are the dreams of any athlete and I feel I am blessed to participate at both these events,” said Matrooshi.
The six-member UAE squad which is in Japan consists of Matrooshi, track athletes Hassan Al Noobi and Fatima Al Hosani, Judokas Victor Scvortov and Ivan Remarenco and shooter Saif Bin Futais.
This is the smallest contingent the UAE has sent since their first Games participation at Los Angeles in 1984.
Since the nation’s first Games participation at Los Angeles 1984, the UAE has won two Olympic medals. Sheikh Ahmed Bin Hasher Al Maktoum grabbed a historic gold in double trap for the UAE at Athens 2004 and Sergio Toma became the second medallist for the country when he won bronze in the men’s 81 kg category of the competition at the Rio 2016.
Futais will be in action on Sunday when he competes in the skeet shooting competition.
The opening ceremony was also atended by Shehab Ahamed Al Faheem, the Ambassador of UAE to Japan and Engineer Aza Bint Suleyman, the Assistant Secretary General for the Administrative and Financial Affairs of the UAE National Olympic Commitee.
Faheem said: “The UAE has spent all affordable efforts to continually support its sons in all fields. Our wise leadership always enhances all the efforts and mobilizes all resources for the bright future of our country.
Meanwhile, Emirates Airline has confirmed that flights’ ban from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will remain in place till July 28.
The airline said, “In line with UAE government directives, Emirates will be suspending the carriage of passengers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Dubai until 28 July 2021. Furthermore, passengers who have connected through India, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka in the last 14 days will not be accepted to travel from any other point to the UAE.”
UAE Nationals, holders of UAE Golden Visas and members of diplomatic missions who comply with updated COVID-19 protocols, are exempt and may be accepted for travel.
Japan’s global superstar Naomi Osaka on Friday lit the Olympic cauldron to mark the start of Tokyo 2020, in an opening ceremony shorn of glitz and overshadowed by a pandemic but defined by hope, tradition and gestures of diversity.
Postponed by a year due to the coronavirus, the Games are being held without spectators in a city under a Covid-induced state of emergency, as many other parts of the globe also still struggle with a resurgence of cases.
Athletes, the vast majority wearing masks, paraded through an eerily silent National Stadium where flagbearers for the first time were both men and women and the Canadian delegation marched with rainbow badges on their uniforms in support of the LGBTQ+ community.
In its journey through the stadium, the torch was passed from Olympic champions to baseball legends - one born in Taiwan - a doctor and a nurse, a Paralympian, and children from parts of Japan hit badly by the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.
It was finally handed to Osaka, the 23-yearold four-time tennis grand slam champion whose background as the daughter of a Haitian man and Japanese woman reflects the changes and slowly growing diversity coming to a once ethnically homogeneous country.
“Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life,” Osaka wrote in a tweet. “I have no words to describe the feelings I have right now but I do know I am currently filled with gratefulness and thankfulness.”
Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Commitee, said in his opening speech addressing the athletes: “The lesson we learned is we need more solidarity - more solidarity among societies, and solidarity within societies.”
But the shit towards greater inclusiveness has not come without stumbles. Tokyo 2020 has been hit by a string of scandals, including the exit of senior officials over derogatory comments about women, Holocaust jokes and bullying.
Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the ceremony was low-key, with fewer than 1,000 people in atendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on spectators to “be quiet around the venue.”
Opening with videos showing empty streets around the world and an athlete training alone in darkness, it also included drones hovering over Tokyo’s National Stadium in the shape of the Olympic logo morphing into planet earth and a global performance via videolink of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Imagine”.
“With the world in a tough situation because of the coronavirus pandemic, I would like to pay my respect and express my gratitude to medical workers and all those who are working hard every day to overcome the difficulties,” said local organising commitee President Seiko Hashimoto.
The ceremony climaxed with a fusion of traditional kabuki theatre - with its elaborate makeup and costumes - and a jazz piano improvisation, on a stage topped with the cauldron for the Olympic flame. At the parade, most countries were represented by both male and female flagbearers in an Olympic first, but not everybody stuck to pandemic protocols. In an awkward contrast to most other athletes, teams from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and Pakistan’s flagbearers paraded.
The opening also featured fireworks in indigo and white, the colours of the Tokyo 2020 emblem, and gave a nod to Japanese tradition represented by giant wooden Olympic rings linked to the 1964 Games, which the city also hosted.
Somedelegationsenlivenedthemood.uganda, wearing bright traditional costumes, did a few measures of a dance, while Argentine athletes jumped up and down on entering.
A moment of silence was held “for all those family and friends we have lost,” especially to COVID-19. The Israeli athletes slain at the 1972 Munich Games were also remembered.
Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Bach, both masked, cheered on the athletes ater bowing to each other before siting down.
“Today is a moment of hope. Yes, it is very different from what all of us imagined. But finally we are all here together,” said Bach.
Unlike his grandfather who opened the 1964 Games with a Japanese word that means “congratulations,” Naruhito opted for a more neutral word in Japanese that is closer to “commemorate”.
The ceremony was marked by major absences, including former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wooed the Games to Tokyo. Top sponsors also stayed away, highlighting strong opposition to the event within Covid-fatigued Japan.
Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the ceremony was low-key, with fewer than 1,000 people in atendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on spectators to
‘be quiet around the venue’