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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: The Tokyo 2020 Games Are Officially Open for Business

Late Night Open Thread: The Tokyo 2020 Games Are Officially Open for Business

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Belated and beleaguered, the virus-delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics finally opened Friday night with cascading fireworks and made-for-TV choreography that unfolded in a near-empty stadium, a colorful but strangely subdued ceremony that set a striking tone to match a unique pandemic Games.

As their opening played out, devoid of the usual crowd energy, the Olympics convened amid simmering anger and disbelief in much of the host country, but with hopes from organizers that the excitement of the sports to follow would offset the widespread opposition…

“This feeling of togetherness — this is the light at the end of the dark tunnel of the pandemic,” [IOC President] Bach declared. Later, Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka received the Olympic flame from a torch relay through the stadium and lit the Olympic cauldron.

Trepidations throughout Japan have threatened for months to drown out the usual packaged glitz of the opening. Inside the stadium after dusk Friday, however, a precisely calibrated ceremony sought to portray that the Games — and their spirit — are going on.

Early in the ceremony, an ethereal blue light bathed the empty seats as loud music muted the shouts of scattered protesters outside calling for the Games to be canceled. A single stage held an octagon shape meant to resemble the country’s fabled Mount Fuji. Later, an orchestral medley of songs from iconic Japanese video games served as the soundtrack for athletes’ entrances.

Mostly masked athletes waved enthusiastically to thousands of empty seats and to a world hungry to watch them compete but surely wondering what to make of it all. Some athletes marched socially distanced, while others clustered in ways utterly contrary to organizers’ hopes. The Czech Republic entered with other countries even though its delegation has had several positive COVID tests since arriving…

Organizers held a moment of silence for those who had died in the pandemic; as it ticked off and the music paused, the sounds of the protests echoed in the distance…


Even I sorta knew the US team had a solid lead in basketball, and Japan in judo … but not that Korea was even more dominant in archery. Nor how important badminton is to Malaysian Olympians, or that “62 percent of Australia’s Summer Games medals involve water”…


Not Just about all Olympic venues…

Reader Interactions

25Comments

  1. 1.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I like the opening ceremonies. Winter and summer. Haters going to hate. I looked forward to watching earlier tonight and was not disappointed. I hate most other things. fwiw.

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    I can totally get the conflicting emotions… one it feels like the IOC is simply ignoring the reality of the day and the will of the host country and enforcing their desire to recoup the gains that will take place if they get the games ongoing and broadcast revenue in…

    and yet I temper that with the looks on the faces for so many of these athletes where years of effort have allowed them to bask in this moment…

    and I also have to admit, I’m a sucker for watching the fashion show of the parade of nations

  4. 4.

    Soprano2

    I like the Olympics but probably won’t watch much because I don’t have the time.

    I read that editorial in WaPo about how we should all be nice to Trumpies and quit saying they believe in the Big Lie because it’s insulting, and how dare the press say TFG tells lies. That whole column is too stupid to be believed (I swear he has not talked to one follower of TFG), but the comments are BRUTAL. I bet I read over 100 of the 11K comments, and I think there was one that was supportive. All the rest were versions of “What the hell are you talking about, people have been listening to them for 5 years, fuck them”.

  5. 5.

    HumboldtBlue

    Meh. The magic ain’t there.

    Empty stadiums. The overall pall of stink, avaricious grasping stink of money men once again profiting from the sweat and toil of the talented.

    Amid death.

  6. 6.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    NBC lets you watch every event, online, in HD, either live (link) or at your leisure. (link)

  7. 7.

    Mary G

    I don’t usually watch a lot, but I did enjoy retweeting a video of Naomi Osaka lighting the torch to Megyn Kelly and asking how many million fewer viewers she gets on wherever her little show is now.

  9. 9.

    Ian R

    Only Olympics-related event I’d be interested in watching is a perp walk of the organizers for the deaths they’ll have caused by forcing the show to go on this year. (Ok, maybe a cage fight between IOC board members and FIFA board members would be interesting, too.)

  10. 10.

    Martin

    I’ll be honest, I’ve found the paralympics more enjoyable to watch. Less of the interest stories, less jingoistic, more sport explanations, everyone seems to be celebrating their success.

    That said, I will be tuning in to a few events. Katie Ledecky is a must watch. Basically super-human. Sky Brown in skateboarding. Putting aside that she’s absolutely adorbs, she’s really exciting to watch.

    But overall, I don’t have my heart in it either.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    Badminton is almost the only sport in which any Malaysians are world-class competitors, and the only one we have any chance of winning Olympic medals in. And it’s fairly new in the Olympics, so we don’t have a long tradition of medal winners.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    Any number of things personally preferable to spending time looking at people sweat. Expect the lifelong record of zero minutes of Olympics event viewing continuing to stand unblemished.

  14. 14.

    Viva BrisVegas

    “62 percent of Australia’s Summer Games medals involve water”

    The others involve beer.

  16. 16.

    TS (the original)

    When I heard John Coates (IOC member from Australia) order the Premier (for US – Governor) of Queensland to attend the opening ceremony when she thought it would be better (healthwise) not to be there, I turned off & will not watch any events. This is definitely the games that should not have been & the IOC forcing them on a country & making demands on independent political leaders is beyond what anyone should be doing for  a sporting event.

    If you didn’t see/hear it, the most ignorant, rude & misogynist  piece I have heard in a long time. I doubt  TFG could do better

    “You are going to the opening ceremony. I’m still the deputy chair of the candidature leadership group and so far as I understand, there will be an opening and closing ceremony in 2032 and all of you are going to get along there and understand the traditional parts of that, what’s involved in an opening ceremony, so none of you are staying behind and hiding in your rooms, alright?” Mr Coates said.

  17. 17.

    sab

    @TS (the original): A major condition of my marriage was spouse would control the tv remote. I regret that now, because he will be hooked on Olympics. He is only interested in track, but he is obsessed.

  21. 21.

    burnspbesq

    Happy Saturday y’all. The little maniacs have decreed that I shall sleep no more tonight.

  22. 22.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @HumboldtBlue: Meh. The magic ain’t there.

    Empty stadiums. The overall pall of stink, avaricious grasping stink of money men once again profiting from the sweat and toil of the talented.

    Amid death.

    Sick-JOKYO 2020 2021

    Your ASS2RISK OlymPANDEMICs

    Throw a gangplank onto the crater edge of the Fagradalsfjall volcano and shove every goddamned bottom-line-obsessed ghoul in IOC senior management off it.

  23. 23.

    apocalipstick

    Korea’s obsession with archery is a plot point in Bong Joon-ho’s The Host.

  24. 24.

    J R in WV

    Here’s my take on the Olympics. No one should be on any of the committees in charge but actual competitors, people who have won medals. The old greedy aristocrats, nope! Wanna be rich people? Nope!

    People who have what it takes to be on the teams, were successful, selected by other Olympians to run the Olympics. That’s who should run the games!!

  25. 25.

    J R in WV

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: ​

    NBC lets you watch every event, online, in HD, either live (link) or at your leisure. (link)

    It does look like that when you first get there. I tried to watch some olympic lever badminton and learned how different my experience could be…

    Actually, you have to have a cable provider, AND you have to shut off ad blockers and anti-tracker tools to see anything.

    No thanks! Good luck Olympic Badminton players, I know that Olympic shuttlecock will fly so fast and true, even without me at home cheering !! Let us know how your team does, Amir. We’re all rooting for your home town badminton folks!

    ETA: Fuck NBC and all their misogynistic management monsters!!

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