David J. Phillip/Associated Press
If you were willing to wake up early on Friday morning, you were able to tune in to the Olympics opening ceremony live on NBC, 13 hours behind the event in Japan.
It’s the first time in the network’s history that it broadcast the opening ceremony live in the morning, according to NBC.
And while most of the U.S. will likely tune in to the primetime broadcast at 7:30 p.m. ET, some of us were awake and online when it aired live at 6:55 a.m. ET.
Some of us, of course, weren’t happy about it.
The experience of watching the Games this year, of course, will be a strange one.
While there is a lot of admiration and love for the more than 11,000 athletes who are set to compete in Tokyo, there is also a lot of rightful concern and criticism that these Games are going forward even as COVID-19 rates continue to rise around the world, including in Tokyo, which has declared a state of emergency.
As The Ringer’s Rodger Sherman put it, one can enjoy watching the athletes compete at the Games while acknowledging the issues within and surrounding the International Olympic Committee.
In fact, there was a protest outside Japan’s new National Stadium during the opening ceremony; according to the New York Times’ Jonathan Ellis, it was “easily audible” inside the stadium during the quiet moments.
Now that the athletes are ensconced in the Olympic Village and undergoing daily COVID-testing protocols, we must hope that their arrival has not endangered the citizens of Tokyo.
The ceremony opened by showcasing the history and traditions of Japanese culture, including the realization of a plan 57 years in the making. When Japan hosted the 1964 Games, athletes planted trees, which were then used to build the wooden rings used in this year’s opening ceremony using a traditional Japanese style of craftsmanship called yosegi-zaiku.
The ceremony also featured video game music and a kabuki performance. The nations were written in manga on placards, the stage was representative of Mount Fuji and the podium represented a Japanese fan.
Despite the considerable obstacles in getting to this moment, the athletes who marched in the Parade of Nations radiated joy even though they were masked. There was dancing, jumping and, of course, lots of live streaming.
The flag bearers for Team USA are voted on by their fellow Olympians. For these Games, WNBA player Sue Bird and MLB player Eddy Alvarez were chosen, as, for the first time ever, nations may have both a male and female flag bearer.
The Team USA Twitter account shared the emotional moment Alvarez found out he was nominated for the honor.
As he did in the Rio 2016 Games and the PyeongChang 2020 Games, Tongan Pita Taufatofua walked shirtless and glistening as the flag bearer for his nation, and social media couldn’t have been more appreciative for his services.
During the opening ceremony, the host nation will showcase its culture and history, but also its technology. Japan sent more than 1,800 drones into the Toyko night sky to create an illuminated globe.
In what, in the opinion of the internet, was the clear gold medal moment of the event, near the end of the opening ceremony, organizers put on a performance bringing to life the pictograms of the 33 sports and 50 disciplines at the Tokyo 2021 Games.
It was delightful.
The ceremony concluded with tennis star Naomi Osaka being revealed as the final Tokyo 201 torchbearer and lighting the Olympic cauldron.
Osaka elected to represent Japan, her country of birth, not the U.S., in these Games.
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