Olympics 2020/21 Opening/Closing Ceremony Discussion Thread
 

Time

20:00 JST (12:00 PM UK Time, 13:00 PM CET)


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Guests: ''will only be attended by VIP guests''

and much of the artistic and cultural sections of the ceremony will adhere to social distancing guidelines and some portions will be filmed virtually.


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Parade of Nations

Athletes will enter the stadium in an order dictated by the Olympic tradition. As the originator of the Olympics, the Greek team will enter first. Other teams will enter in katakana order based on the names of countries in the Japanese language, the first time this will happen as previous Olympics held in Japan have used the English language. Following tradition, the delegation from the host nation Japan will enter last.

The Refugee Olympic Team, composed of refugees from several countries, will be the second nation to enter, after Greece. For the first time ever in the opening ceremony, the countries that will host the next two Olympic Games, France and the United States, will march immediately before the host nation Japan enters, instead of entering one-hundred-fifty-fourth (between Brazil and Bulgaria) and seventh (between Afghanistan and American Samoa), respectively, according to the Japanese alphabet order.

The names of the nations will be announced in French, followed by English and Japanese, the official languages of the Olympic movement and the host nation, in accordance with traditional and International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines.


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Performers (what we know so far, more to be revealed later on)

*a pre-recorded virtual/hybrid pre-opening ceremony with an exhibition flight by Blue Impulse, the aerobatics squadron of the Japanese Air Self Defense Force.

Anthems

Japan – Kimigayo, National Anthem of Japan
International Olympic Committee – Olympic Anthem

producer of both opening and closing ceremonies is Takayuki Hioki, who has been advised by Marco Balich, who notably did the opening ceremony for Turin Winter Olympics in 2006

The Olympic cauldron/flame will be lit by an athlete, still unknown.

the cauldron here is designed by Oki Sato, who attended Waseda University, the same as Yoshinori Sakai, the 1964 cauldron lighter

the two flag bearers is because of gender equality, one male and one female

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-o...-idUSKBN20R2SQ

*The Ceremony will feature music by Seigen Tokuzawa, Marihiko Hara, and Masayuki Kagei. (The Ceremony should have featured music by Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius), but he withdrew, just some days before ceremony)

*Comedy-duo HIRO-PON are expected to make an appearance


*The opening declaration of the 2020 Olympic Games, limited to a prescribed statement of around 17 words, laid down in the Olympic Charter, will be made by Emperor Naruhito. Kyodo News quoted a source as confirming that the Emperor would be attending. He will be the third Japanese Emperor to open an Olympics, following his grandfather Emperor Hirohito (1964 Summer and 1972 Winter Olympics) and his father Emperor Akihito (1998 Winter Olympics). He is also the honorary patron of Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympics

just said on the radio the Olympics could now be cancelled

Toshiro Muto said that a last minute cancellation is not ruled out


but tbh, the start for some events already is tomorrow, so i hope for the best that it can go through and everyone is going to be extra careful

even if a different director, i do think most things will remain as planned


but just the final touches to the ceremony to go under some slight changes



nothing drastic what they can change anymore now anyways, but good to replace him even if old news, at least we can avoid that moment of controversy/awkwardness for the show tomorrow

12:00 UK Time opening ceremony, 13:00 CET

Guinea will still take part in the games after all, they first said they would pull out because of worries over covid-19 but yesterday evening the government came back from that decision and decides to send their athletes after all


some notable athletes they have are

- Fatoumata Lamarana Touré (Swimming)

- Mamadou Tahirou Bah (Swimming)

- Fatoumata Yarie Camara (Wrestling)

- Aissata Deen Conté (Athletics)

- Mamadou Samba Bah (Judo)

Netherlands will send 42 athletes/staff to opening ceremony, out of squad of 288



chef de mission (former swimming olympic champ) Pieter van den Hoogenband also said in a interview, we aim to break our medal record of 25 (which still stands since 2000)



there'll be no victory parties either, only after these 2 weeks those who had won anything can celebrate it only then

It's quite an eerie atmosphere.

Team GB go do us proud

The order of the athletes' parade.

It a shame some have to miss it but there can go to the closing ceremony

ok ok


overall show wise very boring



the flag parade, i like certain countries with outfits into the culture of their nation


Cameroon for example, super stunning looking

Austria nice those lederhosen shorts :D




Italy disappointing look coming from the number one nation of fashion :fan:



TeamGB looked overall nice, also the flag bearers very proudly waving that flag :clap1:



TeamNL, Haha well my reaction for our male flag bearer to quote him ''Ik ben Blij Jonguh'' Churandy's usual catchphrase, amazing moment for such a wonderful guy :love:




nice they all still wave, even if just for the VIP guests, it shows what a important and special moment that is for them in their careers



and good most wear face masks :hee:, shame i had to see some without :nono:

while we are heading for this years closing ceremony, here's a look at some past closing ceremonies

any dignitaries in attendance of the closing ceremony

Estonia's President Kersti Kaljulaid

France's Prime Minister Jean Castex and Sandra Castex

Japan's crown prince Fumihito

USA's ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield


Much of the artistic and cultural sections of the ceremony will adhere to social distancing guidelines and the majority of segments will be pre-recorded

Many sequences of the ceremony will be pre-recorded

This will be the first time in Olympic history that the presentation will be performed via limited spectator capacity from Paris as French performers could not travel to Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France. that moment

…wow, the emotion of those there watching that live…beyond incredible…:lovedup:…

…such a jolly closing ceremony…

… Tomotaka Okamoto has the most incredible and sensational soprano voice…:lovedup:…

Looking forward to Paris 2024, sport on at a reasonable hour for us and full crowds.