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Olympics-Opening ceremony director fired on Tokyo Games eve over Holocaust joke
FILE PHOTO: Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), applauds after presenting Japan s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with the Olympic Order award at the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo, Japan November 16, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/Pool/File Photo
July 22, 2021
By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Mari Saito
TOKYO (Reuters) -Tokyo Olympics organisers have fired the opening ceremony director on the eve of the event after reports emerged of a past joke he had made about the Holocaust, while media said former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a strong advocate of the Games, would also not attend.
Photo courtesy of Japan National Tourism Organization
This year s Olympics will be strange, for sure. Postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the much-anticipated Summer Games will finally take place in Tokyo, Hokkaido, Fukushima and other locations in Japan from July 23 to August 8, followed by the Paralympics from August 24 to September 5.
Even though they re being staged in 2021, officially it’s still called the 2020 Summer Olympics. In addition, no overseas visitors will be allowed to attend, and even the number of domestic spectators will be severely limited.
Nevertheless, the world’s focus will soon be on the more than 11,000 athletes competing in 33 sports and 339 events, who will face plenty of restrictions of their own. To prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Japan, where fewer than 10 percent of the population had been vaccinated in the weeks prior to the Games, athletes will be tested for the coronavirus daily, are not allowed to socialize or visit tourist ar
Published July 18, 2021, 11:01 AM
People take pictures with the Olympic rings outside the Japan Olympic Museum in Tokyo on May 17, 2021. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP)
Two athletes have become the first to test positive for the coronavirus in the Tokyo Olympic Village, officials said on Sunday, just days before the pandemic-delayed Games open.
The cases will heighten concerns over the Olympics, which are facing opposition in Japan over fears they will bring new cases to a country already battling a surge in infections.
A daily tally of new cases revealed two athletes tested positive in the Village and one elsewhere. They come a day after an unidentified person, who was not a competitor, became the first case in the Village.
Europeans face travel woes as Covid reaches Olympic Village newagebd.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newagebd.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.