Let the games begin: With over 100 Covid cases, Olympics get underway

Olympic organisers on Friday thanked medical workers at a Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony overshadowed by the coronavirus, as athletes from across the world paraded into an almost empty stadium, for the first time their smiles hidden behind masks.

Covid-19 cases associated with the Olympic Games breached the 100-mark on Friday with the announcement of 19 new infections and the Czech contingent seemed among the worst hit after a fourth athlete — road cyclist Michal Schlegel — tested positive for the virus. The total number of cases directly linked to the Games stood at 106 on Friday with 11 of them athletes. 

The opening ceremony — normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities — was shorn of its glitz, with fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on spectators to “be quiet around the venue.”

The organisers sent the traditional message of peace as global pop stars sang the John Lennon and Yoko Ono hit Imagine, while drones formed the shape of the Olympic emblem in the sky above the stadium and transformed into the shape of the globe. “With the world in a tough situation because of the coronavirus pandemic, I would like to pay my respect and express my gratitude to medical workers and all those who are working hard every day to overcome the difficulties,” said the President of the organising panel, Seiko Hashimoto.

Most countries were represented by both male and female flagbearers in an Olympic first, but not everybody took pandemic measures. Teams from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the Pakistan flagbearers paraded maskless in an awkward contrast to protocol and the vast majority of other athletes at the ceremony.

Regardless, it marked a coming together of the world, with an audience of hundreds of millions and at various stages of the pandemic tuning in to watch the start of the greatest show in sport.