From Treadmill Girl to Tonga's Shirtless Flag Bearer: Memes Inspired By Tokyo 2020's Opening Ceremony
The Covid-19 delayed Tokyo Olympic Games finally kicked off on Friday.
The Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony on Friday (July 23) was one surreal and solemn affair. Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ceremony unfolded in a largely empty rebuilt National Stadium (less than 1,000 spectators in the 68,000-seat venue). But that didn’t stop the host country — which last held the Games in 1964 — from putting on one spectacular show. Highlights include a jaw-dropping light show using 1,800 drones, and a quirky human pictogram performance.
Run all night: Japanese boxer Arisa Tsubata going at it on the treadmill.
The opening ceremony kicked off with a sequence — featuring Japanese boxer and nurse Arisa Tsubata running on a treadmill, and other athletes on rowing machines and stationary bikes — meant to represent the isolation and challenges everyone endured in the last 18 months. Tsubata, 27, was training to qualify as an Olympic boxer but her dreams were dashed by the pandemic when the International Olympic Committee dropped the qualifiers and instead allocated spots to athletes based on their world rankings over recent years.
Treadmill running person going nowhere for a really long time at the Opening Ceremony is basically a perfect metaphor for 2020-21. #OpeningCeremony
— Stop It I Love It (@StopItILoveIt) July 23, 2021
Oh, wait. She found her inspiration and got back on.
— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) July 23, 2021
This is why we are not Olympians.
Every time I've attempted to get on a treadmill since the pandemic started. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/cYycCA7rxl
— Ryan Schwartz (@RyanSchwartz) July 23, 2021
Light of hope: Naomi Osaka was the final Tokyo Olympics torchbearer.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who’s ranked No.1 by the Women’s Tennis Association, was the final torchbearer to carry the flame to the cherry blossom-inspired Olympic cauldron. The torch relay started from Fukushima Prefecture's National Training Centre on Mar 25, and then across all 47 prefectures in the 121 days.
Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron in these box braids is perfection for me pic.twitter.com/PtSeA1zaY8
— AeyChella (@Kaavias_Face) July 23, 2021
Naomi Osaka lighting the torch ������ #Olympics pic.twitter.com/qv6fOUelxs
— Chanté (@Chante_Poppie) July 23, 2021
Parade of Nations: Team Japan were among the 205 contingents at the opening ceremony.
During the Parade of Nations, each country's representatives entered the stadium set to the soundtrack of orchestral arrangements of video game music — including Kingdom of Hearts, DragonQuest and Final Fantasy — a tribute to Japan's video games industry. And gamers everywhere went wild...
Me spotting every video game soundtrack they’re using to play out the athletes #OpeningCeremony #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/iEobD6XSBK
— James Thompson (@jamesthompson8) July 23, 2021
Gamers watching the Olympics when they hear all these video game music being played that they know. pic.twitter.com/BWi6iHNooC
— Maku (@TropicalMaku) July 23, 2021
Bring it on: Tonga's taekwondo athlete Pita Taufatofua was all luped up.
Tonga taekwondo athlete Pita Taufatofua really knew how to make an entrance — by turning up bare-chested and all oiled up, just as he did before at the 2016 Games in Rio and the 2019 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
***BREAKING*** TONGA HAS WON THE OLYMPICS. We can all go home now. #Olympics pic.twitter.com/6yngzDkDrl
— ��BeardedDonkey�� (@BeardeddonkeyTv) July 23, 2021
Rio 2016 ✅
— Olympics (@Olympics) July 23, 2021
PyeongChang 2018 ✅
Tokyo 2020✅
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. �� #OpeningCeremony #Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/wEN8eg08YW
The whole world when Tonga man showed up ����������❤️ He became an Olympic tradition. #Olympics #Tokyo2020 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/6JhmGm8pYI
— . (@Lettie4u) July 23, 2021
Photos: TPG News/Click Photos, SNOC/Kong Chong Yew
Related Stories
Shopping
![Boss of Rui Ji chicken rice used to own a tattoo parlour! Talk about a career change! Link in bio to read more
📍Rui Ji Chicken Rice
Blk 93 Toa Payoh Lor 4,
#01-48, S310093
📍148 Beach Road,
#B1-01 The Gateway,
S189720
📍Blk 305 Ubi Ave 1,
#01-179, S440305
[till 16 Apr 2024]
https://tinyurl.com/5dudypkh](https://onecms-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/s--9s0hbGvI--/c_fit,h_396,w_223/f_auto,q_auto/v1/8days-migration/18015522113203478.jpg?itok=EX3xKSNq)
