On Tuesday, Tokyo became the first city in the world to host the Paralympic Games for Disabled Athletes for the second time since 1964.

"Tokyo is making history," said Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto.

The games are also breaking records in other ways.

With 4403 athletes there are more participants than at the previous high level in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.

With 1,853 female athletes, there are more women than ever before.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan, based in Tokyo.

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Hashimoto recalled that the first Paralympic Games in Tokyo 57 years ago kicked off the development of para-sport in Japan.

Even in preparation for the current games, Japanese society began to develop a "barrier-free way of thinking".

"Slowly but surely, these changes are taking root," said Hashimoto.

"You are the best of humanity"

The colorful opening ceremony, in which the para-athletes had to endure light rain, was charged with emotion, pathos and symbolism and revolved around the story of a single-winged small airplane that finds the courage to take off on the runway of the Para airport. "You are the best of humanity," said the President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, with similar pathos to the para-athletes. "Only you can decide who and what you are."

The pictures of the opening ceremony will remember the unknown wheelchair user, who jumped rope with great pleasure, and the 13-year-old Yui Wago, who played the small single-wing airplane in a wheelchair. As in July for the opening of the Olympic Games, Emperor Naruhito chose a phrase in Japanese for the opening of the sports festival that emphasized commemoration rather than celebration. Naruhito wants to avoid an overly solemn tone in the middle of the pandemic. But when the Japanese athletes marched in to lively music, the emperor clapped along with them.

The games are taking place in the middle of the fifth corona wave in the capital, whose health system is facing overload. The seven-day incidence in Tokyo reaches around 230 infected people per 100,000 inhabitants per day. The New Zealand team refrained from entering the stadium, referring to the increasing number of infections in Tokyo. From the bottom of his heart, Parsons thanked Tokyo and Japan for holding the games under the pandemic conditions. "We will honor your trust," said the IPC President.

So far, the organizers have counted 161 corona cases in connection with the Paralympic Games. Including the refugee team, athletes from 162 countries and regions take part in the Paralympic Games, which last until September 5th. The IPC also had the flag of Afghanistan carried into the stadium as a political signal, although the two Afghan athletes were unable to travel to Tokyo due to the chaotic circumstances after the Taliban came to power.