Olympic flame lit amid global lockdown over coronavirus pandemic

Following the World Health Organisation’s declaration of the novel coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic, there have been few signs of life continuing as normal. Borders have been closed, flights stopped, visas revoked and several large sporting events either postponed or cancelled from the Archery World Cup to the F1 Grand Prix to the 2020 NBA season.

But, even as #CancelEverything had started to trend on Twitter, one event’s organisers kept at it on Thursday, that of the Olympics. Under a sunny Olympian sky at the Temple of Hera, the rays of the sun were used to light the Olympic flame. The Games, for now, will go on as planned.

The official handle for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics tweeted, “Through the power of the sun, the Olympic flame is born. #UnitedByEmotion #OlympicTorchRelay #Tokyo2020.”

The special ceremony took place without spectators from the public in a reflection of the pandemic-affected times, with just 100 accredited guests from the Olympic Committee allowed to attend. Greece has 99 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and one death.

An actress dressed as a pagan Greek priest lit the flame using the sun’s rays reflected off a concave mirror. According to the official Olympic website, “The flame was lit using the rays of the sun, to ensure its purity, and a skaphia, the ancestor of the parabolic mirror used today for lighting the Olympic flame. A flame burned permanently on the altar of the goddess Hestia, and such fires were also lit on the altars of Zeus and Hera, in front of whose temple the Olympic flame is lit today.”

A week-long relay will now begin with the torch as it passes through Greece before being flown in to Japan. The torch relay in Greece is scheduled to pass through 37 cities and 15 archaeological sites covering 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) and 842 nautical miles (1,559 km) and will be carried by 600 runners.

Once in Japan, the relay will start from Fukushima and travel along routes eventually leading to the capital.

"Today marks the beginning of the journey of the Olympic flame to Japan," said International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach.

"When the flame returns to Tokyo after 56 years, hope will light the way across the entire country," he said.

He noted the preparations being made to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic. “Nineteen weeks before the opening ceremony, we are strengthened in this commitment by the many authorities and sports organisations around the world which are taking so many significant measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.”

Japan has 639 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The country has shut down schools nationwide until the end of March and has also cancelled major baseball, golf and tennis tournaments. With over 11,000 athletes expected to participate in the games, which under normal circumstances were expected to bring in millions of tourists: Japan had even set a record goal in anticipation, to have 40 million tourists enter the country in 2020.

Yoshiro Mori, president of the Olympic organizing committee in Japan, has rejected suggestions that the games be delayed by one or two years on account of the coronavirus. A board member who suggested the delay has had to apologise for the suggestion as Mori seeks to stress that the Games are still on track.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Mori said that this was not the time for negative, pessimistic or second thoughts. “Everyone is looking forward to it, so we have to deliver. Of course, I know there are people who are sick, and some are quarantining themselves, but we can’t just stop the whole thing,” he was reported as saying by the Wall Street Journal.

Nonetheless, a senior Japanese politician has urged that the country prepare for the event of a cancellation. Shigeru Ishiba, the Minister for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy, has said that the government must start thinking now about what to do if the games are cancelled. Ishiba is seen as a leading contender to run for president once Abe’s term ends.

While the Olympics are scheduled to begin on July 24, the decision to cancel the games will be with the International Olympic Committee. Under the Host City contract, the IOC can cancel the games in the event of “a state of war, civil disorder, boycott...or if the IOC has reasonable grounds to believe, in its sole discretion, that the safety of participants in the games would be seriously threatened or jeopardized for any reason whatsoever.”

For now, the Olympics look to go on as per schedule. Japan has announced that the first sporting event will be a softball match in Fukushima on July 22, two days before the opening ceremony between Japan and Australia.

The decision to highlight Fukushima is part of Shinzo Abe’s government’s attempt to portray these as the "Recovery Olympics, to show the region’s resilience in the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear disaster.

Japanese authorities have said that holding the event would cost $12.6 billion. The cost of a cancellation would affect more than this sunk amount: Businesses and brands have also spent billions of yen on sponsorship and partnership rights for the Olympics. However, a report by Capital Economics felt that cancelling or postponing the games would not be a huge economic shock—estimating that up to 0.2 per cent of Japan’s GDP had been spent on the games so far.

Economists from Nomura however felt it would result in a 1.5 per cent contraction for the economy, double the 0.7 per cent contraction that is already prediction. Japan is already on track for a recession after having shrunk seven per cent in the October-December quarter.