It’s Saturday, July 24 — the official first day of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. Here’s what you need to know.
New Covid-19 cases announced: The global pandemic postponed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by a year, and even though the Games have now finally started, Covid-19 is still creating difficulties for athletes and organizers.
There have been 127 Covid-19 cases related to the Olympics as of Saturday, with another 17 new infections announced in the previous 24 hours. Although Tokyo 2020 officials haven’t revealed which nationalities have been affected, some athletes and teams are making the announcements themselves.
One example is Dutch rower Finn Florijn, whose Olympic dreams were crushed after he tested positive for Covid-19 in Japan on Friday. In a statement released by the Dutch team, Florjin said his Olympic journey was “over in an instant.”
The Olympics Opening Ceremony went without a hitch on Friday night, including a breathtaking drone show, John Lennon’s “Imagine” and of course the traditional parade of athletes through the Olympic Stadium.
Amy Bass, a professor of sports studies in the US, said the event offered “glimmers of hope” for what has been a troubled Olympics so far.
The Olympic flame was lit by Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka, a choice Games organizers said was meant to reflect a “message of diversity and inclusion.” In a tweet, Osaka said lighting the Olympic flame was “undoubtedly the greatest athlete achievement and honor I will ever have in my life.”
The opening day of Tokyo 2020 started with a bang, as the first official gold medal of the Games went to Chinese athlete Yang Qian in the women’s 10m air rifle.
Plenty of other events are scheduled for Saturday, Friday night US time, including the start of the swimming, table tennis and water polo competitions. Medals for cycling, fencing, judo, taekwondo and weightlifting are also expected to be handed out on Saturday.
China’s Yang Qian has won gold in the women’s 10m air rifle, the first medal event of the 2020 Olympic Games. Yang’s 251.8 points is a final Olympic record.
Russian Anastasiia Galashina clinched the silver medal. Russian athletes aren’t competing under their national name at the Olympics due to continuing sanctions over doping. They are officially recognized as members of ROC, an abbreviation of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Switzerland’s Nina Christen earned bronze.
An Algerian judo athlete, Fethi Nourine, says he chose to withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics rather than face an Israeli competitor.
Nourine told Echourouk TV: “I decided to withdraw out of conviction, because this is the very least we can offer the Palestinian cause. This is my duty. My goal in withdrawing is to send a message to the whole world that Israel is an occupation, a lawless country, a country without a flag.”
Nourine was scheduled to face Mohamed Abdalrasool from Sudan in the men’s 73 kg class.
According to Reuters, if Nourine defeated Abdalrasool, the Algerian would have met Israel’s Tohar Butbul in the following round. Butbul had a bye in the Round of 64.
With his arms outstretched, barely able to contain his joy, Richard Carapaz was well aware of what he had just achieved.
The Ecuadorian cyclist clinched only his country’s second gold medal in Summer Games history on Saturday, crossing the line well ahead of the chasing pack to win a grueling men’s road race.
Ecuador’s only previous gold medal was won by Jefferson Perez at the 1996 Atlanta Games in the men’s 20-kilometer race walk. (CNN)
•PHOTO: TOKYO OLYMPICS
