Tokyo (AFP)
The course of the Tokyo Olympics was strewn with pitfalls, between a historic postponement last year due to the pandemic, repeated hiccups and the ban on spectators from abroad.
Here are the main highlights of the saga of the Olympic Games, rescheduled from July 23 to August 8, and from August 24 to September 5 for the Paralympics.
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2013: tears of joy
At the announcement on September 8, 2013 of the award of the Olympics-2020 in Tokyo, Japanese television presenters burst into tears, the country exulted.
Many feared that the nuclear accident in Fukushima, following the earthquake and tsunami of 2011, would ruin Japanese hopes.
The Olympics will be nicknamed "Reconstruction Games".
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2015: false starts
In July 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered a review of the new Olympic stadium project, in response to criticism of its cost (nearly 2 billion euros).
The project of the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid is canceled and the site resumed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
Another quack in September: the organizing committee renounced the first logo of the Games, because it resembled that of the theater in Liège (Belgium), whose creator had taken legal action.
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2019: resignations and heatwave
On March 19, 2019, the then 71-year-old Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda announced his resignation after being indicted by French judges who suspected him of bribing IOC members. in 2013 to support Tokyo's bid.
The following month, another embarrassing resignation, that of the Minister responsible for the Olympic Games, Yoshitaka Sakurada, author of repeated blunders in six months of exercise.
In the summer of 2019, strong heat combined with extreme humidity in Tokyo put athletes to the test during the Olympic Games.
Concerned, the IOC forces in the fall the transfer of the marathon and the walking events to Sapporo, 800 kilometers north of the capital.
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2020: unprecedented postponement and additional cost
On March 24, 2020, faced with the pandemic, the IOC announced the postponement of the Olympics until the summer of 2021, a first in peacetime.
The Games, which keep the name "Tokyo-2020", will be "the testimony of the defeat of the virus" in the face of humanity, launches the Japanese Prime Minister.
The postponement and the antivirus measures entail an additional cost of 2.3 billion euros, bringing the official budget of the Olympic Games to 13 billion euros, a record.
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January 2021: new doubts
Faced with the resurgence of the virus in Japan, the government declared a state of emergency in much of the country in early January.
The device will not be lifted until after March 21 for Greater Tokyo.
The government and the organizers are staying the course for the Olympics, although the population is now mostly for a further postponement or cancellation of the Games.
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February 2021: sexist scandal
Tokyo-2020 President Yoshiro Mori sparked an uproar by saying women talk too much at meetings, which is "annoying" according to the 83-year-old ex-prime minister.
He resigned on February 12 after a clumsy apology.
Games Minister Seiko Hashimoto is stepping down from government to replace Mori at short notice.
The rate of women on the Tokyo-2020 executive council rose from 20% to 42% soon after.
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March 2021: ban for the public from abroad
On March 18, a Japanese tabloid revealed that the artistic director of Tokyo-2020, Hiroshi Sasaki, had suggested a year earlier to dress up as a pig, during the opening ceremony, the Japanese actress Naomi Watanabe, with assumed curves.
He apologizes and resigns.
On March 20, the ban on spectators coming from abroad for the Olympics was officially enacted due to health risks.
On March 25, the Olympic torch relay starts in Fukushima (north-eastern Japan), initially without an audience and in a gloomy atmosphere.
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April 2021: Pyongyang withdraws from the Games
On April 6, North Korea announced that it would not participate in the Olympics due to the risk of infection with the coronavirus, which showered South Korean hopes of using the Games to restart talks with Pyongyang.
On the 7th, the governor of Osaka (western Japan) declares that the Olympic torch relay will not be authorized on public roads in the department due to an upsurge in infections.
On the 9th, the Japanese government approved a further strengthening of sanitary measures in several departments including that of Tokyo.
© 2021 AFP