Day 3 - July 23, 2021
As stated in my previous post, we have a guest poster that will be joining us throughout the Olympics. She is a long-time friend of mine, and quite possibly the only person that I have ever met that loves the Olympics as much as I do. She usually posts through her own social media sites - and still does - but will grace us with her presence several times during the next three weekends. So, for her take on the Opening Ceremonies, I introduce you to Miss Miss.
Miss Miss -
And We’re Off!
Opening Ceremonies Report
The Olympics Opening Ceremonies commenced at 7am EST with about 40 minutes of artistic acts beginning with the presentation of the Japanese flag and the singing of the national anthem by Misia, pictured in her pastel rainbow-hued puffy gown below. There was a moment of silence, and then it picked up about ten minutes before the parade of athletes with a cool carpenters and tap-dancing-atop-wooden-rolling-tables-performance with a raising of the wooden Olympic rings. There was a moment of silence, the stands were filled with cardboard place holders, and there was no applause. Yes, there were fireworks, but the simplicity was reverent, respectful and so perfectly reflected Japanese history and culture, a hallmark component of every Opening Ceremony as conducted by the producers of each host city’s performance. Here we go!
As per tradition, Greece walked out first, followed by the Olympic refugee team (9 athletes representing 11 “countries”), Iceland, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and then a few more before Argentina started the fun with a great jumping song celebration. The nations were presented in Japanese alphabetical order, and the athlete processional lasted about two hours. Russia is going under ROC due to the state-sponsored doping program in 2014.
Israel is participating in a team sport - baseball - for the first time since 1976. Baseball and softball will not appear in the Paris 2024 Olympics but perhaps in LA in 2028. Which by the way, the IOC made the announcement simultaneously that these two countries would host in 2017 - that was a fun way to bring it back to these two cities. For both of these cities, it will be their third summer games. Paris hosted in 1900 and 1924, while Los Angeles hosted in 1932 and 1984. (London has also hosted three summer games - 1908, 1948 and 2012). For France, it will be the sixth time hosting any Olympics, as Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924, Grenoble hosted them in 1968, and Albertville hosted in 1992. For Los Angeles, it is the first Olympics since the USSR led boycott in 1984, and the first time the Olympics are back in the US since 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. Speaking of threepeats…
The Tongan Taekwondo athlete went for the 3peat with his greased bare body - Rio, PyeongChang, and Tokyo! Pita Taufatofua first bared his smile in 2016, then braved the freezing 30 degree weather in 2018 and looked especially oily this morning (evening) in the Tokyo 81 degree weather. Wait 2016, 2018 and 2021?!! Summer, winter, summer Games?!?! Yes, this man is one of the few athletes who has competed in BOTH Winter and Summer sports (see Pepster’s post yesterday). Pita is the first Tongan to compete in a Winter Olympics, and he did so in cross country skiing.
Photograph: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images
Now for the cool outfits - Angolans were gorgeous in sweet shiny black dresses with ruffled collars and sleeves, Kenyans were festive in red and electric blue gingham, and the women wore long, red capes, Serbian women had nice asymmetrical royal blue dresses, and Beninese athletes brocaded down the stadium with royal blue get ups with blue and dark pink flowers. The Cook Islands have had a long history of bomb.com opening and closing ceremonies amazing outfits and their Tokyo garb did not disappoint. As per their tradition, the flag bearers and the other participating athletes have different outfits.
Sorry - I did
not get
the full length outfit.
Thailand, Morocco, and South Korea - very nattily dressed with country-colored ties and scarves under gray jackets. Same to Czech Republic with vests for the men and everyone carried coordinated navy with white dotted fans. And, of course Bermuda in their pink Bermudas (they did this in the freezing South Korean weather too!). Austrians rocked lederhosen shorts. Tuvalu sent two athletes from their nation of 11,000 and they sported awesome native outfits holding their flag. The most avant garde outfits were donned by Belgium athletes - red casual pajama-like pant suits with Belgique and Tokyo in scribble writing.
Italy came out quite celebratory on the heels of their Euro Cup win - the first since 1968; Iraq sent 4 athletes; and the world’s second most populous country - India - sent 126 athletes and their most successful team is field hockey.
Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan has her own Barbie doll! She won bronze in both the 2012 and 2016 Games and is a four time World Champion and five time European Champion. For team competition, she won gold in 2008 and twice World team champion (2009 and 2013) and twice European team champion. Photo by Olga Kharlan/ Instagram, barbie.mattel.com
Uzbekistan presented a gymnast who is participating in her 8th Olympics (tune into my Olympic Ages post next week). Always a good trivia fact: Great Britain has been represented in every modern Olympics. [Ed. Note: So has Australia - sort of - France, Greece and Switzerland].
El Salvador sent four athletes and the female swimmer went to Nova Southeastern. Ohio State sprinter Maggie Barrie held the flag for Sierra Leone. Guatemala had a brother and sister sailor combo holding the flag and Juani went to the College of Charleston. Mongolia had a first-time female flag bearer, Khulan Onolbaatar, who will participate in 3x3 basketball.Tuvalu sent two athletes from their nation of 11,000 and they sported awesome native outfits holding their flag. The United States flag bearers: phenom ex-UConn and Seattle Storm Basketball player Sue Bird THIS IS HER FIFTH OLYMPICS! SHE HAS FOUR GOLD MEDALS and if you did not know, her partner is soccer standout Megan Rapinoe; and Eddy Alvarez who needs to have a Disney movie made about him - son of Cuban immigrants, his Olympic dream was speed skating and now he is representing the U.S. in baseball. Yes. He silver medaled at Sochi in the 5,000 meter relay, after falling in two of his individual events, and dq’ed in his third. He switched to baseball after the Games and plays for the Miami Marlins. The Today show put his parents, his wife and 11-month-old ultra cute chunky baby boy on TV live after the ceremonies with him. Beautiful teary-eyed Olympics story.
Fashion Trend Alert: Fans and fanny packs! Botswana, Poland, Czech Republic and Hong Kong, who competes under their OWN FLAG, all donned amazing coordinated flags. My fave was Ukraine’s awesome yellow fanny packs. Shout out to Kyrgyzstan with exceptional hats!
Most excited entrance - Portugal! Also shout out to the last summer Olympics host - Brasil.
After the athlete processional, there was some dancing and then akin to the PyeongChang technological spectacle: 1,800 drones appeared creating the Tokyo Olympic symbol and then morphed into a globe high above the Tokyo stadium. A performance of “Imagine” by a Japanese youth chorus, and then pre-recorded singing by international singers, including John Legend and Keith Urban. In her speech, Japan’s Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto remarked, "After more than half a century, the Olympic Games have returned to Tokyo. Now we will do everything in our power to make this Games a source of pride for generations to come."
There were songs sung - the Japanese national anthem as their flag was raised and the Mt. Fuji, which atop the Olympic flame will shine, changed to red, and then, an Olympic song with the traditional ceremonial releasing of the (paper) doves. “Together” was added to end of the Olympic motto: “Faster, Higher, Stronger” to reflect the times. Faster, Higher, Stronger. Together.
The highlight of the Opening Ceremonies was the mini show of demonstrating the pictograms. Pictograms are the symbols for each sport and this is a part of the visual representation of the Olympics. Watch the attached video and watch again tonight. Totally awesome.
There was a Japanese performance and piano playing song then the Olympic flame entered the stadium.
Naomi Osaka lit the torch. I’ll leave commentary on that to Pepster. GO USA!
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