Olympic boss Thomas Bach spoke for 13 minutes, about twice as long as his Japanese female host, Seiko Hashimoto. Bach's speech, which drew on familiar themes of peace, solidarity, and gratitude for overcoming the coronavirus hardships, immediately drew ire on Twitter and in traditional Japanese media.
For medals, US women face the biggest opponents - each other Mykayla Skinner finally made the US women’s Olympics 2020 gymnastics team after being left off the Rio 2016 squad. The 24-year-old Arizonan’s vault is good enough to land her on the podium alongside teammate Simone Biles, but she might not get the chance to try.
The focus may be on the big-name Americans and Australians but this could be the Games where Russian swimmers could make their biggest splash in the men's events in 25 years. No Russian man has won a swimming gold in the Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996 when Alexander Popov and Denis Pankratov both topped the podium twice.
Glittering gold distracts from Tokyo woes Sport stretched out over Tokyo on Saturday as the Olympic Games finally got underway, but the shadow of COVID-19 and controversy was never far away on an opening day.
China fired an ominous warning as Yang Qian grabbed the Games' first gold in the morning.
The US women's national team (USWNT) on Friday filed an opening brief in the appeal of their lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF), saying the decision to dismiss it was based on flawed legal reasoning. The brief, filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asks that the ruling be reversed and the case sent back to the district court to be heard by a jury.
Tyrone Taylor hit his first career grand slam during Milwaukee's six-run seventh inning, and the Brewers opened a three-game series against the visiting Chicago White Sox with a 7-1 victory on Friday night. Rowdy Tellez had two hits, two RBIs and reached base three times for Milwaukee, which snapped a five-game home losing streak. Surfing-Family ties to the beach will give me a surfing edge, says Igarashi Though born and raised in California, Japanese surfer Kanoa Igarashi is hoping his family connection to Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach will give him an advantage in the Olympic competition starting there on Sunday. When his father Tsutomu "Tom" Igarashi, a huge surfing fan, and his mother Misa found out she was pregnant, they quit their jobs in Tokyo and moved to Huntington Beach to give their son the best possible chance at becoming a pro surfer.
Germany's road race team faces an anxious wait after Geschke's positive COVID test Germany's entire road race team is still in a state of uncertainty at the Tokyo Games following cyclist Simon Geschke's positive COVID-19 test, team officials said on Saturday.
The 35-year-old, who has been vaccinated twice and was due to compete in Saturday's road race, has been isolated but questions remain over the other eight team members - four men and four women - who were all staying at the same hotel, away from the Olympic village. Olympics-Archery-U.S. pair ousted in surprise loss to Indonesia.
The United States suffered a surprise loss to Indonesia in the mixed-team archery competition on Saturday, dashing the 8th-ranked pair's medal hopes. Indonesian pair Diananda Choirunisa and Riau Salsabilla, ranked 36th in the world-leading into the event, now go on to the next round to face Turkey in a quarter-final, ahead of the final later in the day.
Novak Djokovic launched his pursuit of Olympic gold with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Bolivia's Hugo Dellien in the first round of the Tokyo Games on Saturday. World number one Djokovic is bidding to become the first man to win a Golden Grand Slam, after victories at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon in 2021.
The Serb, a 2008 Olympic bronze medallist in Beijing, will take on Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in the round of 32 at Ariake Tennis Park.
China's Hou Zhihui took the first weightlifting gold of Tokyo 2020 on Saturday as she dashed India's hopes of an elusive first women's Olympic title. The 24-year-old world championship silver medallist Hou dominated the 49kg competition, opening up a 7kg advantage over India's Chanu Saikhom Mirabai after the opening three lifts.
Hou's 94kg third attempt was below her own snatch world record but it gave her a healthy cushion over Mirabai, who could only manage 87kg, failing with her final attempt at 89kg. Mirabai, the 2017 world champion at 48kg, is the world record holder in the clean and jerk at 119kg but could only manage 115kg and finished 8kg behind Hou's aggregate of 210kg.
Mirabai did become the second athlete from India to claim an Olympic weightlifting medal, after Karanam Malleswari's bronze in the women's 69kg at Sydney 2000. But she could not become the second athlete - and first female - from the country to win individual Olympic gold, following Abhinav Bindra's win in the 10m air rifle at Beijing 2008.
Teenager Windy Cantika Aisah took the bronze for Indonesia after smashing her personal best twice in the clean and jerk. The 19-year-old from Bandung hoisted 110kg with her third attempt and screamed with delight as she secured a medal.
Hou's victory could herald a gold rush for China in weightlifting, especially with arch-rivals North Korea absent. China has sent a full quota of four men and four women to Tokyo, and all are capable of finishing on the top step of the podium. Earlier in Group B of the 49kg competition, Papua New Guinea's Loa Dika Toua made history as the first female to compete in five Olympic weightlifting competitions, just a few hours after carrying her nation's flag at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony.
It was a remarkable achievement by the 37-year-old, coming 21 years after she became the first female ever to lift at an Olympic Games when women's weightlifting was first introduced in Sydney in 2000.
"It's an amazing feeling," she told AFP after finishing fourth in Group B of the 49kg bodyweight division, with a total of 167kg.
"Your dream is to go to one Olympics, and maybe a second one. But I never imagined in a million years that I would make it to five." Her five-Games feat was later matched by double Olympic medallist Hiromi Miyake, who won a silver medal in London 2012 and bronze at Rio five years ago.
The Japanese lifter, 35, was competing for the final time in her home Games before retiring but went out in sad fashion after three no-lifts at 99kg in the clean and jerk. "To be honest, I did not expect to make it five times," she said. "It is a proud achievement."
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