With a few hours to go for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, the Olympic torch has been lit. Although COVID-19 delayed the Olympics by an entire year, the traditional flame received light from a torch bearer earlier today.

Nakamura Kankuro VI, the final torchbearer, lit the flame at the Citizen’s Plaza of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Final torchbearer lights the Olympic flame hours ahead of Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony

While the relay started from Olympia in Greece last March, it finished a week later in Athens without spectators. Although COVID-19 halted the relay completely from March 25, 2020, the torch relay in Japan began exactly a year later, on March 25, 2021.

The relay began from Fukushima prefecture as a tribute to the lives lost in the disastrous earthquake in 2011. And finally, after 111 days saw torch bearers cover around 20,000kms, the Olympic flame received fire from the torchbearers.

While various sports already began with their preliminary rounds, the Olympic flame is a tradition that begins the Games. Although the torch has been lit by well-known athletes in the past, the flame at Tokyo has been lit by Nakamura Kankuro VI. Kankuro, the final torchbearer of this relay, is a Japanese kabuki actor.

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Opening ceremony to begin at 8:00pm local time

While the Olympic flame received light, the opening ceremony will begin at 8:00pm local time. However, opening day festivities have already begun at Tokyo, as this tweet shows airplanes emitting smoke in the Olympic colors.

Commencing at 8:00pm local time, fans can expect the opening ceremony to go on for approximately three hours.

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