It took $37 billion, a bulldozing Olympic committee and a Japanese government resisting the will of its people, but on Friday the Tokyo Olympic stadium lit up in fireworks at last.
These defiant Summer Games weathered a year-long delay and a coronavirus pandemic that has killed 4.1 million around the world to bring 11,090 athletes to the Japanese capital.
The Olympic Stadium, capacity 68,000, was occupied by only 900 officials and dignitaries, the remaining seats rendered soulless by an indefatigable invisible enemy.
The opening ceremony started with a video showing the pure elation of Tokyo’s winning bid in 2013 and the momentum of the Games through until 2019 and the crushing blow of the pandemic hit, with the countdown finally culminating in the present day and fireworks – 694 of them – lighting up the sky.
This was a graphic-rich visual designed to illustrate Japan’s 20th century technical glory, with focus switching whimsically across to a lone female athlete on a treadmill. According to the organisers, the goal was to demonstrate that “all over the world, there are many other solitary athletes like her. They are all individual, separate ‘points’, but they are connected by an invisible bond.”