TOKYO: The organizing committee for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics held an event at the new National Stadium in the Japanese capital to issue messages to the world on Thursday, July 23 exactly one year before the start of the games.

At the event, held without spectators to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, prominent Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee, aiming for the 2024 Olympics in Paris after recovering from leukemia, said, “One year from today, I hope a flare of hope will shine here in this place.”

The National Stadium in Shinjuku Ward is slated to be used as the main venue for the Olympics and Paralympics, including for the opening and closing ceremonies. The games have been postponed by one year to summer next year due to the COVID-19 crisis, with the Olympics now set to open on July 23, 2021.

Standing at the center of the ground of the stadium and holding a lantern that preserves the Olympic flame lit from the original flame in Greece in March, Ikee read out her address of about four minutes.

“I believe seeing your major goal disappear all of the sudden forced you to suffer from a sense of loss that is beyond words,” she said, thinking of the athletes.

Correlating the athletes’ circumstances to her experience of giving up on the Tokyo Olympics due to her illness, Ikee said, “It was very tough to have my future that I had imagined turn into something totally different overnight.”

Referring to “+1,” the theme of the messages from Tokyo aimed at calling on people to move a step forward toward one year later, Ikee said, “I think it’s a future-oriented, positive way of thinking.” She added, “We need the power of hope when we bounce back from adversity.”

 Also on July 23, the Tokyo Skytree in Sumida Ward was lit up in the five Olympic colors and then showed a message that read “Tokyo 2020 +1” with the aim of setting the mood for the Tokyo Games.

JIJI Press