Ceremony chief fired over Holocaust remark
TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the director of the opening ceremony Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998.
Organizing committee president Seiko Hashimoto said a day ahead of the opening ceremony that director Kentaro Kobayashi has been dismissed. He was accused of using a joke about the Holocaust in his comedy act, including the phrase, “Let’s play Holocaust.”
“We found out that Mr. Kobayashi, in his own performance, has used a phrase ridiculing a historical tragedy,” Hashimoto said. “We deeply apologize for causing such a development the day before the opening ceremony and for causing troubles and concerns to many involved parties as well as the people in Tokyo and the rest of the country.”
Tokyo has been plagued with scandals since being awarded the Games in 2013. French investigators are looking into alleged bribes paid to International Olympic Committee members to influence the vote for Tokyo. The fallout forced the resignation two years ago of Tsunekazu Takeda, who headed the Japanese Olympic Committee and was an IOC member.
Mexico wins Olympic opener
Mexico stamped itself as a favorite for its second Olympic soccer title in three tries Thursday, riding secondhalf goals from Alexis Vega, Sebastián Córdova, Uriel Antuna and Eduardo Aguirre to a surprisingly comfortable 4-1 win over France in the first game of group play at the Tokyo Games.
France got its only score from André-Pierre Gignac, who plays club soccer in Mexico with Tigres, on a secondhalf penalty kick.
— Kevin Baxter
COVID-19 update
Tokyo hit another sixmonth high in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as worries grow of a worsening of infections during the Games.
Thursday’s 1,979 new cases are the highest since 2,044 were recorded on Jan. 15.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is determined to hold the Olympics, placed Tokyo under a state of emerpositive gency on July 12, but daily cases have sharply increased since then.
The emergency measures, which largely involve a ban on alcohol sales and shorter hours for restaurants and bars, are to last until Aug. 22, after the Olympics end on Aug. 8.
In addition, a third athlete from the Czech Republic, beach volleyball player Markéta Sluková, tested for the coronavirus and was placed into isolation.
Tennis draws
Ashleigh Barty is the topseeded woman, Novak Djokovic the top-seeded man, but Naomi Osaka’s return to competition will be the dominant story line when Olympic tennis competition begins Saturday at Ariake Tennis Park.
Osaka, the No. 2-ranked player in the world, will play Zheng Saisai of China in the opening round. It will be her first match since withdrawing from the French Open on May 31.
Barty will play Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain. Djokovic, representing Serbia, will open against No. 139 Hugo Dellien of Bolivia.
— Gary Klein
IOC changes
The International Olympic Committee says it will start including images of athletes taking a knee in its official highlights reels and social media channels.
Players from five women’s soccer teams knelt in support of racial justice Wednesday, the first day it was allowed at the Olympic Games after a ban lasting decades.
But those images were excluded from the official Tokyo Olympic highlights package provided by the IOC to media that could not broadcast the games live.
Retiring at 46
Gymnast Oksana Chusovitina says her record eighth Olympics will be her last.
The 46-year-old from Uzbekistan is competing on vault at the Tokyo Games, nearly 30 years after making her Olympic debut while competing for the Russian Federation in Barcelona in 1992.
Chusovitina was part of the Russian Federation team that captured gold in 1992. She later added a silver medal on vault while competing for Germany in 2008.