Olympics-
The Tokyo Games finally got underway with a four-hour extravaganza that was both celebratory and subdued, in a stadium filled with empty seats.
The following written content by Corky Siemaszko
TOKYO — An Olympics like no other kicked off Friday with an opening ceremony like no other that was capped by Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka lighting the cauldron to officially launch the competition.
The Tokyo Games finally got underway after a four-hour extravaganza that was both celebratory and subdued, playing out before an audience of mostly empty seats.
The ceremony in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium began and ended with quintessentially Japanese performances that were aimed at an audience of billions around the world.
The Games opened while still in the shadow of Covid-19, with the Japanese capital under a state of emergency, and many of the country’s residents adamantly opposed to holding the world sporting event at all.
But persevering in the face of the pandemic quickly emerged as a theme in the first moments of the ceremony, which began at 8 p.m. local time and included a moment of silence for those who died.
There was also joy on the masked faces of the athletes from more than 200 countries parading proudly through the stadium with their flags unfurled.
“The creators have tried to place this ceremony in its time,” said “TODAY” anchor Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosted the broadcast with NBC sportscaster Mike Tirico.
With the time difference — Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of the Eastern United States, 16 hours ahead of the West — Americans had to get out of bed early to watch it all live.
NBC’s live coverage in the U.S. got underway at 6:55 a.m. ET. And the ceremony will be rebroadcast in prime time at 7:30 p.m. ET and once more overnight.
Those who did tune in saw dozens of dancers building an Olympic village and raising Olympic rings, all made from the wood of trees that grew from seeds brought to the Japanese capital by athletes when it last hosted the Summer Games in 1964.
Instead of a 68,000-capacity crowd cheering the athletes, fewer than a thousand foreign dignitaries and diplomats, Olympic sponsors and members of the International Olympic Committee were present as the Games officially began. Read more from NBC.
