Japan and the world have been waiting for this moment since September 8, 2013 and the designation of Tokyo as the host city of the 2020 Olympic Games: the opening ceremony will kick off on Friday (11 a.m. GMT / 1 p.m. in France). official of the Olympics.

It was originally scheduled to take place on July 24, 2020 and celebrate Japan and the Olympic spirit.

One year late, the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games will mark above all, more than the start of two weeks of sporting exploits, the end of a long and trying marathon for the Japanese organizers.

In the particular context of a world living under the threat of Covid-19, the ceremony, the details of which are, as tradition dictates, will be "simpler and more sober", they simply warned.

Two flag bearers but no crowd

There will be a parade of 206 delegations lined up behind, for the first time, two flag bearers, a woman and a man (judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou and gymnast Samir Aït Saït for France), but no crowd to applaud them in an Olympic Stadium in Tokyo which can normally accommodate 68,000 spectators.

There will be many prominent leaders like the Emperor of Japan Naruhito, French President Emmanuel Macron or even American First Lady Jill Biden, but not the usual gallery of personalities and other celebrities from around the world.

There will be the arrival of the flame lit by the rays of the sun on March 12, 2020 near the temple of Hera in Olympia, the Olympic oath or the conflagration of the cauldron which traditionally marks the start of the Games, but not party, or even momentum in an often silent Japanese capital, with a sometimes ghostly atmosphere.

"Pandemic Games"

Because these Games, which almost did not take place, are definitely not a normal event in Olympic history.

These are the "Pandemic Games".

To reassure Japanese public opinion, which overwhelmingly would have preferred a new postponement or the outright cancellation of this Olympic fortnight, the Japanese authorities have taken drastic measures: daily tests for athletes, wearing a mask compulsory for all , gatherings limited to the strict minimum in the Olympic Village, ban on relatives and families of foreign athletes from coming to Japan and, finally, unprecedented in the history of the Olympics, almost total absence of the public.

After spending 13 billion euros, including an additional cost of 2.3 billion because of the postponement and health measures, Tokyo is ready, but the megalopolis with 14 million inhabitants is subject to a state of health emergency, throughout the Olympic Games, which forces bars and restaurants to close at 8 p.m.

Scandals

We are far from the overwhelming enthusiasm aroused by the designation of the Japanese capital as the host city of the XXXII Games in modern history on September 8, 2013. On television that day, a whole country was exulting.

Japan was then barely recovering from the triple disaster of March 11, 2011 (earthquake, tsunami, nuclear accident in Fukushima), which left some 18,500 dead, and was delighted to organize the "Reconstruction Games".

But the Covid-19, which killed 15,000 people in Japan, has profoundly changed the planet and given it.

The organizers had to face their share of scandals, with the resignation of the president of the organizing committee Yoshiro Mori last February for sexist remarks, or that again this Thursday of the artistic director of the opening ceremony for a bad joke, dating over twenty years ago, on the Holocaust.

Gender balance

In sporting terms, these Olympics are already historic, since, for the first time, there will be as many women as men to participate in the 339 events on the program, in the name of the gender balance dear to the IOC President. , Thomas Bach, who also pushed for the inclusion of so-called "young and urban" sports, such as skateaboarding, surfing, 3x3 basketball and even climbing.

Among the 11,090 athletes registered in Tokyo, no sports icon of planetary dimension, apart from Novak Djokovic, but the American swimmers Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky, their compatriot Simone Biles (gymnastics), engaged on all fronts in their sport, can afford an impressive collection of titles and / or medals.

French sport is perhaps the hero of these Olympics: in the land of judo, in the "temple" of Nippon Budokan, Teddy Riner can become on July 30, at the age of 32, the first triple Olympic champion in history in the premier heavyweight category.

The 380 French athletes engaged in Tokyo aim to do as well as in Rio, where the French delegation won 42 medals, including ten gold.

They also already have the Olympics-2024 in their sights.

They will take place at home in Paris.

In a party atmosphere?

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR