Basketball star Sue Bird and baseball player Eddy Alvarez have been chosen as flag bearers for the United States Olympic Team at Friday’s Opening Ceremony — an event that may serve as an anticlimactic start for the long-delayed Tokyo Games.
Firstly, the Games already began days ago, but it’s not entirely unusual for the Olympics to start before the Opening Ceremony.
What is unique is about Friday’s event at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium is that unlike past Games, there will be fewer than 1,000 spectators in attendance due to coronavirus restrictions. As CNN reported, about 950 VIPs will be at the event, including 800 foreign guests and 150 from Japan, including Japanese Emperor Naruhito, who will be part of the proceedings.
A sunset view of the Japan National Stadium in the City of Shinjuku a day before the opening ceremony of the Olympic games
Basketball star Sue Bird and baseball player Eddy Alvarez have been chosen as flag bearers for the United States Olympic Team at Friday’s Opening Ceremony. Bird is the second US women’s basketball player to carry the flag, joining current coach Dawn Staley, who did it at the 2004 games. Those were the first that Bird participated in. ‘It’s an incredible honor to be selected the flag bearer for Team USA,’ Bird said. ‘I know what that means, because I got to witness Dawn Staley go through it when she was selected in 2004. It’s an honor that is bigger than the moment in that you’ve been selected by your fellow Team USA athletes to represent the entire delegation, and it will last forever.’ Bird will be trying to win an unprecedented fifth gold medal with teammate Diana Taurasi, which would give them the most in golds in women’s basketball history. Alvarez becomes the first baseball player to carry the flag for the US. The sport returned to the Games at the request of Japan after being absent from the previous two Olympics. He made his major league debut last year with the Miami Marlins, but has been in the minors this year. If the US baseball team were to medal, he’d be the only the third American to medal in both the Winter and Summer Games, joining Eddie Egan (boxing and bobsled) and Lauryn Williams (track and field and bobsled)
US gymnasts Jordan Chiles (left) and Simone Biles pose after a training session at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo
First lady Jill Biden arrives at the US military’s Yokota Air Base in Fussa, western Tokyo on Thursday morning
April Ross, from the United States, returns a volley during women’s beach volleyball practice at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Viewers hoping to forget about the last 16 months of the pandemic may want to turn their attention elsewhere.
Marco Balich, a former Olympic ceremony producer who is advising the Tokyo Games, described Friday’s ceremony to Reuters as ‘sobering.’
‘Very Japanese but also in sync with the sentiment of today, the reality,’ Balich said.
Alterations to the Opening Ceremony were understandably unavoidable after four years of planning followed by the chaos of the pandemic, which resulted in the year-long postponement of the Tokyo Games.
‘The most difficult part of the process was that the postponement meant a simplification of the ceremonies and the message had to be drastically revised,’ said Takayuki Hioki, an executive producer for the ceremonies.
Simone Biles practices on the uneven bars on Thursday
‘After nearly five years of planning, we found ourselves suddenly having to rethink everything. This was the biggest challenge,’ said Hioki.
But the challenges haven’t stop there.
The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee fired the opening ceremony director Kentaro Kobayashi on Thursday because of a Holocaust joke he made during a comedy show in 1998.
And then there’s the potential for more controversial protests.
Players from five women’s soccer teams kneeled in support of racial justice Wednesday, the first day it was allowed at the Olympic Games after a ban lasting decades. The concession under Olympic Charter Rule 50, which has long prohibited any athlete protest inside event venues, was finally allowed this month by the International Olympic Committee.
The IOC has tried to reconcile enforcing the rule while recognizing, and sometimes celebrating, the iconic image of American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos each raising a black-gloved fist on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
But the biggest story at Friday’s opening ceremony will remain COVID-19, which is currently flourishing in Tokyo.
The city hit another six-month high in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as worries grow of a worsening of infections during the Games.
Thursday’s 1,979 new cases are the highest since 2,044 were recorded on January 15.
Team USA’s Kevin Durant warms up during a training session at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama on Thursday
Evy Leibfarth of Team USA trains at the Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Thursday
Eduardo Alvarez Aznar of Spain takes part in the familiarization for the equestrian dressage event at the equestrian Park
The Olympic Rings are pictured as workers prepare the home plate area at Yokohamal Stadium in preparation for softball
Members of Japan self-defense force check belongings at a security gate of the International Stadium Yokohama
A general view shows the 3×3 basketball competition court at the Aomi Urban Sports Park, ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games
Pedestrians walk past a huge display showing news report about the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee sacking of Tokyo Olympic Opening Ceremony director Kentaro Kobayashi, in Tokyo, Japan, 22 July 2021. Just a day before the opening ceremony is due to be held, the organizing committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games decided to sack Kentaro Kobayashi, director of the opening and closing ceremonies, after footage from the late 1990s recently emerged of a skit in which he appears making jokes about the Holocaust
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is determined to hold the Olympics, placed Tokyo under a state of emergency on July 12, but daily cases have sharply increased since then
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is determined to hold the Olympics, placed Tokyo under a state of emergency on July 12, but daily cases have sharply increased since then.
The emergency measures, which largely involve a ban on alcohol sales and shorter hours for restaurants and bars, are to last until Aug. 22, after the Olympics end on August 8.
Japan has reported about 853,000 cases and 15,100 deaths since the pandemic began, most of them this year. Still, the number of cases and deaths as a share of the population are much lower than in many other countries.
Beyond the seating restrictions at the Opening Ceremony, spectators are banned from all venues in the Tokyo area, with limited audiences allowed at a few outlying sites.
The situation has deteriorated so fast that Guinea pulled pulled its five athletes from the Tokyo Games on Thursday.
Minister of Sports Sanoussy Bantama Sow made the announcement in a letter Wednesday addressed to the president of the Guinean Olympic committee, blaming the virus and its variants.
‘Due to the resurgence of COVID variants, the government, concerned with preserving the health of Guinean athletes, has decided with regret to cancel Guinea’s participation in the 32nd Olympics scheduled for Tokyo,’ the statement said.
Simone Biles has unveiled a series of boundary-pushing elements over the last four years, and her latest — the Yurchenko double-pike vault, which has only previously been done in international competition by men — will become the latest to bear her name in the sport’s Code of Points if she’s able to land it in Japan
Training continues for other Olympic athletes, such as gymnastics star Simone Biles (pictured), who reportedly landed another Yurchenko Double Pike vault — a move so difficult it hasn’t been attempted in Olympic competition
US gymnasts (from left) Sunisa Lee, Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum pose after a training session
Meanwhile, training continues for other Olympic athletes, such as gymnastics star Simone Biles, who reportedly landed another Yurchenko Double Pike vault — a move so difficult it hasn’t been attempted in Olympic competition.
The 24-year-old Biles, hasn’t lost since 2013, and is among the 2021 favorites, in part, because of her ability to pull off the move, which derives its name from former Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko.
On Thursday, Biles attempted the maneuver twice, rolling her landing once and sticking it flawlessly on her second attempt.
‘I didn’t think she was going to do the double pike today,’ coach Annie DiLuzio told reporters. ‘Then she came out and did it and I was just as shocked as everybody else.
‘If she does it like that, we could see it in competition, I’m not sure when.’
Biles has unveiled a series of boundary-pushing elements over the last four years, and her latest — the Yurchenko double-pike vault, which has only previously been done in international competition by men — will become the latest to bear her name in the sport’s Code of Points if she’s able to land it in Japan.
Yes, Biles is well aware of her influence. She didn’t get into this trying to become a point of inspiration. Yet she’s hardly running from the responsibility.
‘When somebody is striving for perfection and doing her skills, it pushes other athletes to know that it’s possible and that they can do it, too,’ Biles said earlier this month. ‘So, I feel like I would say we have reached a point where gymnastics is getting more difficult and more difficult and a little bit more dangerous. So we’re kind of walking on eggshells here, but it’s exciting to watch.’
Unfortunately for the US, alternate Kara Eaker has tested positive for COVID-19 in an Olympic training camp in Japan.
Al Fong, the personal coach for both Eaker and fellow Olympic alternate Leanne Wong, confirmed the positive test in an email to The Associated Press on Monday. The coach said Eaker, 18, was vaccinated against the novel coronavirus two months ago.
Eaker and Wong have been placed in isolation.
USA Gymnastics did not identify Eaker or Wong but said in a statement the athlete who tested positive and another alternate would be subject to additional quarantine restrictions.
‘The Olympic athletes moved to separate lodging accommodations and a separate training facility, as originally planned, and will continue their preparation for the Games,’ the organization said in a statement. ‘The entire delegation continues to be vigilant and will maintain strict protocols while they are in Tokyo.’
The positive test was the latest in a growing line of daily reports of athletes and others testing positive at the pandemic-delayed Olympics. Eaker is the first American to test positive.
‘In alignment with local rules and protocols, the athlete has been transferred to a hotel to quarantine,’ the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement, citing privacy in not identifying the individual.
The four alternates – Eaker, Wong, Kayla DiCello and Emma Malabuyo – traveled to Japan with the six-woman US delegation of world and Olympic champion Biles, Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum, Sunisa Lee, MyKayla Skinner and Jade Carey.
The positive test came after Eaker received what was described as a ‘false positive’ over the weekend. Eaker took a subsequent test that was negative before testing positive again multiple times.
‘Kara is s doing very well with no symptoms,’ Karla Grimes, who works at GAGE Center, the gym in the Kansas City, Missouri, suburbs where Eaker trains, said in an email to the AP. ‘She is incredibly strong and very brave. Although this is a very disappointing outcome for her, she wants everyone to know she is OK.’
Biles, who is also the world champion, and the rest of the regular team have been vaccinated. Skinner, who made the team in the ‘plus-one spot’ – meaning she can compete as an individual in Tokyo – following Olympic Trials did battle both COVID-19 and pneumonia last winter.
Alternates have been rooming with other alternates since arriving in Japan, with the competitive team rooming with fellow competitors. All Olympic athletes and coaches have been moved to their own rooms since the positive test, with the Olympic athletes also moving to a new hotel, as was originally planned.
Megan Rapinoe of United States vies with Hanna Glas of Sweden in the Women’s First Round Group G match between Sweden and US during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Stadium. The US lost the game — their first defeat in 44 matches
The US will be represented by flag bearers Bird, a four-time Olympic women’s basketball gold medalist and the partner of US soccer star Megan Rapinoe, as well as Alvarez, a speedskating silver medalist at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Bird is the second US women’s basketball player to carry the flag, joining current coach Dawn Staley, who did it at the 2004 games. Those were the first that Bird participated in.
‘It’s an incredible honor to be selected the flag bearer for Team USA,’ Bird said. ‘I know what that means, because I got to witness Dawn Staley go through it when she was selected in 2004. It’s an honor that is bigger than the moment in that you’ve been selected by your fellow Team USA athletes to represent the entire delegation, and it will last forever.’
Bird will be trying to win an unprecedented fifth gold medal with teammate Diana Taurasi, which would give them the most in golds in women’s basketball history.
Her partner Rapinoe, meanwhile, is hoping for her second gold medal following her 2019 World Cup triumph in France, but the US already dropped its opener to Sweden, 3-0, ending its 44-match winning streak. The Americans will continue in the group stage on Sunday against New Zealand.
Alvarez becomes the first baseball player to carry the flag for the US. The sport returned to the Games at the request of Japan after being absent from the previous two Olympics.
He made his major league debut last year with the Miami Marlins, but has been in the minors this year. If the US baseball team were to medal, he’d be the only the third American to medal in both the Winter and Summer Games, joining Eddie Egan (boxing and bobsled) and Lauryn Williams (track and field and bobsled).
Stefanie Dolson of Team USA practices in 3×3 basketball at Aomi Urban Sports Park ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games