An anti-Olympics protest briefly took the spotlight off the Tokyo Olympic Games’ opening ceremonies Friday night, as chants from the crowd outside the nearly …
An anti-Olympics protest briefly took the spotlight off the Tokyo Olympic Games’ opening ceremonies Friday night, as chants from the crowd outside the nearly empty billion-dollar Olympic stadium could be heard by the 950 dignitaries allowed inside. “Hundreds” of Olympic protesters joined a march through Tokyo Friday, calling for the Games to be canceled in light of a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in Tokyo, Japan. The march ran along one side of the massive Olympic stadium, meant to hold 70,000 but now sitting mostly empty, even during the typically packed Olympic opening ceremonies. USA Today reported that the “crowd spanned nearly the entirety of a street that runs along the western part of the Olympic Stadium on Friday night, with metal barricades and rows of police officers separating onlookers from the stadium.” “Most of those gathered seemed to be milling about, perhaps to be present for history or take in the fireworks,” the outlet noted. “But there was also an anti-Olympic protest in front of a clothing store across the street from the southwestern corner of the stadium, where protesters with microphones chanted throughout the first hour of the opening ceremony.” There may not be any fans in the stadium for the opening ceremony, but there’s a huge crowd gathered outside — including an anti-Olympic protest. pic.twitter.com/IRTQgqkuqL Tom Schad (@Tom_Schad) July 23, 2021 The crowd gathered not just in defiance of Olympic COVID-19 protocols, which largely forbid spectators in the typically spectator-heavy events, but in defiance of Japan’s own anti-COVID protocols, which have been in greater force in recent weeks as the country struggles with its largest spike in cases since 2020.
