Olympics 2021 – Naomi Osaka shines by closing the opening ceremony



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The Tokyo Olympics are launched. The opening ceremony kicked off the festivities on Friday and ended with tennis superstar Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron.

The traditional Parade of Nations saw 206 nations enter the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and more than 11,000 athletes will compete in the Games. The opening ceremony culminates with the end of the Olympic torch relay and the lighting of the cauldron. It is the poignant and dramatic climax of the ceremony, and some notable athletes have done the honor to light the cauldron, including Muhammad Ali, Steve Nash, Wayne Gretzky, Rafer Johnson and the United States men’s hockey team. from 1980.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka is one of the favorites to win gold and one of the superstars of these Games. It was an incredible moment as she finished the Olympic relay.

“Without a doubt the greatest sporting achievement and the greatest honor I will ever have in my life”, Osaka wrote on Twitter. “I have no words to describe the feelings …”

Osaka is having an iconic summer. She became a social justice leader and the last athlete activist to take care of her mental health after failing to attend press conferences at Roland Garros.

“I have often felt that people have no regard for the mental health of athletes and that rings very true whenever I see or attend a press conference,” she said. written on social media at the time. “We often sit there and ask questions that have been asked many times before or questions that make us doubt and I just will not submit to people who doubt me.”

She was quoted in Time magazine as saying, “It’s good not to be good.”

As ESPN’s D’Arcy Maine wrote, Osaka forged its own path to stardom. She will begin her quest for a gold medal on Sunday.



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