BTC News Sports Desk: Olympic organisers thanked the medical staff on Friday at Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony as all the athletes paraded with their masks on, in an almost empty stadium.
Normally a star-studded display teeming with celebrities, the ceremony had fewer than 1,000 people in attendance, strict social distancing rules and signs calling on spectators to “be quiet around the venue”.
The organisers also sent traditional messages of peace as global pop stars sang the John Lennon and Yoko Ono hit, “Imagine”, while drones formed the shape of the Olympic emblem in the sky and transformed it into the shape of a globe.
Most countries were represented by both male and female flag bearers in an Olympic first, but not everybody took pandemic measures. Teams from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan paraded maskless in an awkward contrast to the vast majority of other athletes at the ceremony.
Regardless, it marked a coming together of the world, with an audience of hundred of million around the globe and at various stages of the pandemic tuning in to watch the start of greatest show in sport where history is made.
News is being sent by BTC News (Bangladesh) North 24 Parganas (India) correspondent, Tathyik Bhattacharya. #
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