THE OPENING CEREMONY of the Tokyo Olympics began today in a nearly empty stadium after a year-long pandemic postponement and a build-up marred by scandal and controversy.
A video showing athletes training at home during the coronavirus pandemic started the show, with pink fireworks bursting into the air after a countdown.
Boxers Kellie Harrington and Brendan Irvine were tasked with carrying the tricolour for Team Ireland, while all nations were represented at the ceremony by smaller groups of athletes than usual.
It took place before just a few hundred officials and dignitaries, including Japanโs Emperor Naruhito, French President Emmanuel Macron and US First Lady Jill Biden in the 68,000-capacity stadium.
The emperor will officially declare the Games open.
Irelandโs national team stopping to bow as they enter the stadium #Olympics pic.twitter.com/s7aXNYo4x0
โ Scott Bryan (@scottygb) July 23, 2021
The Olympics have faced opposition in Japan over fears the global gathering of 11,000 athletes could trigger a super-spreader event.
Organisers have put strict virus measures in place, banning overseas fans for the first time ever, and keeping domestic spectators out of all but a handful of venues.
Athletes, support staff and media are subject to strict Covid-19 protocols, including regular testing and daily health checks.
Polls have consistently found a majority of Japanese are against the Games, with opinion ranging from weary indifference to outright hostility.
But there was plenty of enthusiasm outside the Olympic Stadium in the hours before the ceremony, as hundreds of people gathered hoping to soak up the atmosphere and watch the fireworks expected during the extravaganza.
Mako Fukuhara arrived six hours before the ceremony to grab a spot.
โUntil now it didnโt feel like the Olympics, but now we are by the stadium, it feels like the Olympics,โ she told AFP as people snapped selfies nearby.
Traditionally a highlight of any Summer Games, featuring the parade of nations and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, Tokyoโs opening ceremony has been drastically pared back.
Fewer than 1,000 dignitaries and officials are present at the stadium, and in a sign of how divisive the Games remain, several top sponsors including Toyota and Panasonic are not attending.
A few hundred protestors demonstrated against the Games outside the stadium as the ceremony began.
Tokyo is battling a surge in virus cases, and is under emergency measures that means bars and restaurants must shut by 8:00 pm and cannot sell alcohol.
But Olympic officials have put a brave face on the unusual circumstances, with IOC chief Thomas Bach insisting cancellation was never on the table.
โOver the past 15 months we had to take many decisions on very uncertain grounds,โ he said this week. โWe had doubts every day. There were sleepless nights.
โWe can finally see at the end of the dark tunnel. Cancellation was never an option for us. The IOC never abandons the athletesโฆ we did it for the athletes.โ
There are also hefty financial incentives in play. Insiders estimate the IOC would have been on the hook for around $1.5 billion (โฌ1.27bn) in lost broadcasting revenues if the Games had been cancelled.
The pandemic has not been the only hiccup in preparations though, with scandals ranging from corruption during the bidding process to plagiarism allegations over the design of the Tokyo 2020 logo.
The controversies kept coming right up to the eve of the Games, with the opening ceremonyโs director sacked on Thursday for making a joke referencing the Holocaust in a video from 1998.
ยฉ โ AFP, 2021, with additional reporting from Ben Blake
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Not deliberate. So the money was just resting in the playerโs accounts before being moved on.
@Keelan Oโneill: right there Ted. Down with this sort of thing!
@Hirrison Mirk: even a Dyson isnโt going to vacuum up all the dirt on this oneโฆ
Nobody who wears tinted glasses is trustworthy
@Ave it: What about Ray Charles?
@Hirrison Mirk: Stevie Wonder maybe but Ray Charles?! Have you not seen the movie???
@Graham Ross: good point well made, at least his motivation was always obvious.
The way people are going on about it youโd swear they were systematic drug cheats like the Russians, all they did was under handed pay their players off the official books which is against the rules of the league, every club in Ireland pays a few players under handed against the rules of the All Ireland League, should they all be kicked out vilified?
@Wheresmyjumper: ballina got deducted points because they got caught
@Wheresmyjumper: Donโt be bringing the GAA into this
@s mc: Shannon were fined as well, my point is that people who just donโt like Saracens and are using this as stick to beat them with. At least it was excellent players who have a short career getting paid and thatโs not a bad thing. It was rules not laws that were broken
@Wheresmyjumper: Her Majestyโs Revenue & Customs might have a different view as to whether laws were broken. The Glasgow Rangers case springs to mind.
@David Egan: iโm sure theyโll claim back the money so, as far as i know the HMRC are not involved
@Wheresmyjumper: if what you say is true, why would Sarries choose relegation over handing over their books!?
@Cormac ร Braonรกin: no business in the world wants a revenue audit, they did their sums ans found this way was cheaper, other staff paid under the counter might also have got in trouble, I just donโt see this as much of a big deal
@Wheresmyjumper: what about the excellent players at other clubs being run correctly that have had medals taken off them and defining moments that they worked all their life for? Or the fans who spend thousands to follow them over the country being cheated? The correct action was taken to relegate them, and now further action should be taken by stripping them of their titles that they won through cheating. Its a disgrace if they dont check the accounts from every year and how that was an option for Saracens is baffling.
@Darren World: i just think anyone involved with any club in Ireland knows this is going on so we canโt afford to pontificate from our ivory towers
@Wheresmyjumper: you are compairing it with an amateur league, completley different.
@Darren World: how so? Isnโt cheating the same regardless? Arenโt excellent amateur players being denied trophies and medals and dozens, potentially hundreds of club members and fans being denied seeing their club win a trophy? Or do they not count because they are not Saracens? Remember professional rugby came about because the cheating became unhideable.
@Wheresmyjumper: I dunno, let me see, knocked Munster out of two champions cup semi finals in 4 years. A competition where their seeding is based on cheating. Have a stronger playing panel also because of it. Before it was the champions cup it was know as the Heineken cup and Wray was at the forefront of having that changed to favour the english teams. Systematic financial dopingโฆ..nothing less
@Wheresmyjumper: that maybe so โ in doing so, you run the risks (when sport is a business, they are business risks). They got caught and the agreed and defined punishment was applied.
@Darren World: because you are in a league where it is not a level playing field. The AIL allow universities to offer players scholarships and can pay their college feeโs. Thats why its not strictly policed in the league. How can ya pull up a club for paying match feeโs in a system where players in that league are allowed get 3k college fees covered?
We did not deliberately draw up all those non standard contracts like buying a % of a players image rights for an elevated non arms length valuationโฆ.sure it was all an accident really
It would have got interesting if there was also a salary cap in the Championship (which there probably ought to be actually).
In being relegated to the Championship, where there is no salary cap, Saracens can keep all of their players! Now if you were to be cynical โฆ.. Suppose they all stay and were to get say a 50% advance on their salary for 2021/2022 paid as a โbonusโ for winning promotion to the premiership in the 2020/2021 season!!!!!
He looks a bit like father Romeo Sensini in that picture !
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