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2020 Summer Olympics kicks off strong with the Opening Ceremony in Tokyo

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By Regina Elaine Vendivil

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has finally commenced after a year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a thrilling and excitement-filled opening ceremony that unfolded before a nearly empty Tokyo Olympic Stadium, last Friday night, 23rd of July 2021. 

After various performances were showcased to officially begin the ceremony, along with the singing of Japan’s National Anthem, countries and their representative athletes proudly waved their flags high during the Parade of Nations around the stadium. 

Our national pride was also seen carrying the colors of the Philippines, with their march lead by flagbearers Boxer Eumir Marcial and Judoka Kiyomi Watanabe as they represented the 19 athletes of the country. 

The 19 athletes of the Philippines raise our flag with Boxer Eumir Marcial and Judoka Kiyomi Watanabe as their flag-bearer representatives in Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony. | One Sports Livestream on Youtube

The Philippines came in after 145 countries during the parade, out of the 205 participating countries.

After the Parade of Nations, it was an  Olympic tradition to perform “Imagine”, a song originally written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. 

This year, a new rendition of “Imagine” by John Legend, Keith Urban, Angélique Kidjo was performed to culminate the event. 

President of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Hashimoto Seiko and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who are both Olympics medalists then took the stage to address their speeches in front of the different representatives of all countries. 

One of the highlights of the Summer Olympic Game Opening Ceremony was the “kinetic pictograms” which featured various figures, having shown a total of 50 sports pictograms. 

Some of the human sports pictograms pictured in the Summer Olympic Opening Ceremony | @olympics on Instagram

Japanese 23-year old tennis star and four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka was given the honor to light the cauldron to formally open the Tokyo Games.

Naomi Osaka lights the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Cauldron | @Tokyo2020 on Twitter

A Drone Show was also exhibited towards the end of the event and officially closed the ceremony with a total of 1,824 drones forming the 2020 Tokyo Olympics symbol and the shape of the Earth. 

Drown display in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony l @Tokyo2020 on Twitter

The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games will occur from July 23, 2021, to August 8, 2021. 

The Team Philippines consists of 19 representatives who will be competing for this year’s summer games, as they hope to bring home the country’s first-ever gold medal. The list of Filipino Athletes is as follows: 

  • EJ Obiena for Men’s Pole Vault
  • Carlos Yulo for Artistic Gymnastics
  • Hidilyn Diaz for Women’s 55kg Weightlifting 
  • Margielyn Didal for Skateboarding
  • Eumir Marcial for Men’s Middleweight Boxing
  • Nesthy Petecio for Women’s Featherweight Boxing
  • Irish Magno for Women’s Flyweight Boxing
  • Carlo Paalam for Men’s Flyweight Boxing
  • Yuka Saso for Women’s Golf 
  • Bianca Pagdanganan for Women’s Golf 
  • Juvic Pagunsan for Men’s Golf
  • Kiyomi Watanabe for Women’s 63kg Judo
  • Elreen Ando for Women’s 64kg Weightlifting 
  • Cris Nievarez for Men’s Single Sculls Rowing
  • Kurt Barbosa for Men’s 58kg Taekwondo
  • Jayson Valdez for Men’s Air Rifle 10m Shooting
  • Kristina Knott for Women’s 200m Run 
  • Remedy Rule for Women’s 100m Butterfly and 200 Butterfly Swimming
  • Luke Gebbie for Men’s 100m Freestyle and 50m Freestyle Swimming

To be updated with the latest Tokyo 2020 Olympics events, visit their official website:  https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/

References: 

Chappell, B., Wamsley, L., Jones, W., Treisman, R., & Kennedy, M. (2021, July 23). Can’t-Miss Moments From The Olympics Opening Ceremony. National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/07/23/1019757533/olympics-opening-ceremony-tokyo-highlights

Go, B. (2021, July 16). Tokyo Olympics: Meet Team Philippines. Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/sports/things-to-know-members-team-philippines-tokyo-olympics 

One Sports. (2021, July 23). LIVE: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Opening Ceremony [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHTMVw0s9wQ 

Yumol, D. T. & CNN Philippines. (2021, July 23). Team Philippines shines in Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony. CNN Philippines. Retrieved from https://www.cnnphilippines.com/sports/2021/7/23/Team-Philippines-shines-Tokyo-Olympics-opening-ceremony.html 

Thumbnail Photos Source: Tokyo 2020 Official Twitter Page (@Tokyo2020)

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