The Tokyo Olympic Games start today but this year is expected to be very different to any other year.
There is going to be 11,300 athletes competing from 207 nations over the next couple of weeks.
Covid-19 Precautions
A key difference is the impact of Covid-19 with people having to wear masks, having to quarantine and to take saliva tests.
Tokyo is in a state of emergency for the Olympics following a spike in Covid-19 infections.
There were concerns when the the Olympics would need to be delayed or even cancelled following criticism from the Japanese public.
Safety is the priority for the organisers with the Games taking place behind closed doors. There are no fans allowed from neither overseas or Japan.
The athletes must wear face masks at all times with the only exceptions being when they are eating, drinking, training, competing or sleeping.
They are are also been told to minimise physical interaction with others, and they will be tested for Covid-19 every day.
Already, six Team GB athletes have had to isolate after they were identified as close contacts of someone on who had tested positive for Covid-19.
There have been some withdrawals due to Covid-19 already including US tennis player Coco Gauff as well as Team GB’s Dan Evans, Johanna Konta and Amber Hill.
New events ….
In total there are a record 339 medal events being held held across 33 sports.
This year we welcome five new sports an interesting 34 new events in total with a record of 48.8% of athletes being women.
The five new sports are karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, baseball/softball and surfing.
While baseball and softball are not technically ‘new’ sports as they were contested at Beijing 2008.
There have been new events added boxing, canoe slalom, canoe sprint, cycling, rowing and swimming programmes,
Rather interestingly there are new mixed-gender events including a 4x100m mixed medley relay in swimming and a mixed relay in triathlon.
Team GB’s expectations
It is the first time in 125 years that Team GB have chosen more female athletes than male in an Olympics.
An impressive 201 of the 376 athletes originally selected being women with British representation in 26 of the 33 sports in Tokyo.
At the iconic London 2012 Olympics Team GB won an incredible 65 medals then that was beaten in Rio 2016 when they brought home 67 medals.
The aim for Tokyo according to UK Sport is between 45 and 70 medals.
Originally the hope was for between 54 and 92 medals – which was the target set in 2018 before the pandemic.
The Participants
Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith is being used as the face of the Games for Team GB and looking for medals in the 100m and 200m.
Big favourites to win gold medals are swimmer Adam Peaty (100m breaststroke), gymnast Max Whitlock (pommel horse) and taekwondo star Jade Jones who all won gold in Rio.
Jones is also aiming to become the first British female athlete to win gold at three successive Olympic Games.
Married couple and track cyclists Jason and Laura Kenny want to become GB’s most successful Olympians. Jason is currently joint with Sir Chris Hoy with six golds. It should be noted Laura is already Britain’s most successful female Olympian having won four golds.
Skateboarder Sky Brown is GB’s youngest Olympian at just 13! She is hoping for a medal contender in the women’s park event.
Sailor Hannah Mills and rower Mohamed Sbihi will lead Team GB into today’s opening ceremony. Tokyo 2020 is the first Olympics where nations can select two flag bearers – with the aim to increase gender equality.
Stars to watch out for …
High profile US gymnast Simone Biles has already won five Olympic medals, including four golds and was outstanding at Rio 2016.
If she is able to defend her all-around title she will become the first Olympic gymnast to do so since 1968.
Another two American swimmers to look out for are Caeleb Dressel who already has two Olympic golds and Katie Ledecky, who won four golds in Rio.
Serbia’s tennis world number one Novak Djokovic is fresh from his Wimbledon success and is looking to win the Golden Grand Slam.
He has already won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon titles this year – he just needs the Olympic and US Open titles to complete the feat.
Married couple Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi as well as Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams have all won career Golden Slams but Djokovic could become the first player to complete the challenge in a calendar year.
There will be lots of eyes on 43-year-old transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard who is taking part in the the women’s 87kg category.
New Zealand’s Hubbard will be the first trans athlete to ever compete at the Olympics in an individual event.
