Commentary: Toned-down Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony can set new standard for future games
SINGAPORE: One of the loftier points of involvement in every Olympic Games has been its opening ceremony.
Speculation over what the host nation might showcase in its atomic number 82-up is part of a familiar tradition.
Maybe this is where the 2022 Olympics may differ from all that take gone before - not to the lowest degree considering it is taking place a yr tardily.
The mood is likewise poor, with the global pandemic still raging, a reported 80 per cent of the Japanese opposed to the games taking place at all and with few people to exist nowadays in the National Stadium.
Many observers are therefore expecting the event on Friday (Jul 23) to exist a toned-down version of the planned original. This may simply be a step in the right direction.
Opening ceremonies were conceived to be exactly that co-ordinate to Rule 55 of the Olympic Lease.
These regulations simply stipulate that the head of state of the host nation should declare the games open up, the Olympic oath should be taken with the final leg of the Olympic torch relay and at that place should exist a lighting of the flame to signal the official opening of the games with athletes from all competing nations having a take chances to moving ridge hi to the fans.
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LOS ANGELES 1984 THE Goad
A massive functioning however have grown over the years to go the main focus every bit nations turn the opening ceremony into a vehicle for soft ability and seek to show off.
Once a apprehensive parade marked mostly by ceremonial, procedural elements, the showtime of the modern ceremony, now a blockbuster, crowd-pulling presentation drawing attention to the host nation's vision of the Games, is idea to have been birthed in Los Angeles in 1984.
Perhaps fittingly for the home of Hollywood, there was glitz, glamour and jetpacks, with the show elements preceding the ceremony for the beginning time. In a way, the opening reflected the spirit of the Common cold War times, hosted by a U.s.a. that did not want to be outdone by its ideological and strategic rival, the Soviet Union, which had hosted the last edition but four years earlier.
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Regardless, it started a series of one-upmanship every bit host cities looked to enhance the bar on each subsequent opening ceremony.
That dynamic reached a crescendo in 2008 when Beijing reportedly spent over Us$100 million on an incredible ceremony that featured over 15,000 performers, special effects and an amazing display of fireworks. The brainchild of world-famous motion picture managing director Zhang Yimou, the upshot was seen by the rest of the earth as Mainland china's coming-out party, a declaration of its status as a powerful force in the world.
London iv years afterwards was less extravagant - and came in at less than half the cost - but the madcap performance encapsulating a commentary on the world'due south collective social and cultural history created by famed director Danny Boyle was still pretty insane.
Rio'southward endeavour in 2022 was a return to a more than traditional theme, though it was modestly done compared to Beijing, partly due to the poor economic situation in the country at the time. It also earned praise for cartoon attention to the ecology threat to the Amazon rainforest and the general consequence of climate change.
WHO'S THE OPENING CEREMONY FOR?
Many sports journalists who go to the Olympics to encompass the diverse competitions regard the opening as having picayune or zip to do with sport. Increasingly, these ceremonies are more nigh sending a message to an audition - whether domestic, international or both.
They accept go more about national branding. This is understandable in business terms. Co-ordinate to reports, around 900 meg people around the globe watched London's try in 2012.
If indeed, every bit Esquire columnist Stephen Marches said earlier that year, one second of advertizement at one-half-time in the Superbowl, American football'southward showpiece game, that attracts a much smaller international audience, cost around United states $116,000, then the US$forty 1000000 that London paid for its prove is money well-spent.
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The metropolis and Keen Britain could annunciate themselves to much of the earth for three or 4 hours for a deal price. Even China's relatively expensive ceremony however offered huge value for coin in public relations terms.
It could be argued that these are the perks that cities deserve when they shoulder the costs of organising a massive sporting extravaganza.
Staging the games later on all costs money. When Tokyo bid in 2013, its appear upkeep was about US$7.5 billion. That figure had grown to US$15.4 billion in Dec, with reports the true total cost is over US$26 billion.
The Olympics is even so a global sporting event upholding the values of sportsmanship and excellence, and the ceremony should promote that.
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Moreover, a plush opener tin can come up at a great opportunity cost to the host nation. After the excitement had worn off, United kingdom newspaper The Guardian questioned the legacy of the games when sports teaching funding in public schools iv years after had declined and PE classes cutting.
Well-funded private schools with their top-quality sporting facilities and highly qualified coaches will keep to dominate competitive sport, concluded education correspondent Emerge Weale.
A CHANCE TO Modify MINDSETS
With no force per unit area to impress, Tokyo has a chance to alter mindsets. The original opening ceremony would have been spectacular, with Super Mario, Hello Kitty and manga classic Akira ready to make appearances in a dazzling display of engineering science, lights and animation, as Japanese news outlets predict.
The 2022 Rio Olympics endmost ceremony, in which Japan's teaser hints at many of these popular culture elements suggest the same themes volition likely be employed, but nobody really knows what the scaled-downwards version volition await like.
If annihilation, Japan could afford to accept a leafage from Rio'south opening anniversary – a financially modest but critically well-received display. Instead of the pomp and grandiose performances that have characterised London 2012, Beijing 2008 and even Athens 2004, Rio's humble but moving brandish of uniting in saving the World won praise.
And so it is hoped that Friday's anniversary in Tokyo will signal that continuation of a return to basics, a render to when the opening ceremony was merely that, an official beginning to the sports rather than an end in itself.
With the global economic system withal in the midst of a global pandemic, a less-is-more approach would surely be welcomed and be in tune with a simpler approach going frontwards.
"Legacy" is an overused word in sports but getting the opening ceremony correct is a small but powerful chance for Tokyo 2022 to leave something tangible.
John Duerden has lived in Asia for xx years and covers the region's sporting scene. He is the author of three books including Lions & Tigers - The History of Football game in Singapore and Malaysia (2017).
Take hold of the Olympics Games Tokyo 2022 LIVE with 14 dedicated channels on meWATCH. Sign in at present at mewatch.sg/tokyo2020 and get into the action with Mediacorp, Singapore's Olympics Network.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/commentary-toned-down-tokyo-olympics-opening-ceremony-can-set-new-standard-future-games-276971
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