Tokyo (AFP)
Tokyo authorities inaugurated an aquatic center on Saturday where several Olympic Games events will be held, initially scheduled for summer 2020 but postponed for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I hope that the best athletes in the world will compete here,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, present at the ceremony.
"I'm already impatient," she told reporters.
The site has a main basin of 50 meters, the length and depth of which are adaptable.
With a capacity of 15,000 spectators, the Tokyo Aquatic Center will host swimming, diving and artistic swimming events, and was completed as of February.
A lavish ceremony to inaugurate the work was scheduled for March, but it had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
On Saturday, the $ 542 million (EUR 457 million) book was finally opened by swimming star Rikako Ikee.
She completed a freestyle relay with three other swimmers.
The 20-year-old Ikee was among the serious contenders for Olympic gold in the 100-meter butterfly, before she revealed that she had suffered from leukemia in 2019. Released from hospital in December, after ten months of treatment, she resumed training in March and competition in August.
The postponed Olympics are due to open on July 23, 2021, but the lingering pandemic casts doubt on their very feasibility.
The event is supposed to bring together 11,000 athletes from around the world, to which it will be necessary to add at least the delegations, the volunteers and the media.
The Japanese organizers and the IOC have been showing more confidence in recent weeks, encouraged in particular by the return of leading sports competitions such as the Tour de France or Roland-Garros.
Whatever the fate of the Olympics, their organizers hope to make the construction of the aquatic center profitable by attracting a million people per year, including 850,000 thanks to competitions.
© 2020 AFP