The Canadian athletes strolled through looking sharp in white trousers and red jackets, with white maple leaf logos on their backs. From Estonia, there was a contingent in the stadium of 13 Estonians out of 33 athletes sent to Tokyo. Women were wearing blue dresses and men wore blue suit jackets with a t-shirt and shorts. Each outfit included a printed design of a foggy Estonian landscape.
Leading up to the lighting of the Olympic torch by tennis superstar Naomi Osaka, the ceremony itself had a melange of national symbols featured. There were fly-over shots of tightly choreographed dancers at Shibuya Crossing. Kabuki theatre was fused together with a shower of rapid fire grand piano played by Hiromi Uehara. A funny skit of a lighting engineer playing around with the city lights of Tokyo was nestled between motifs of international cooperation, like a globe (formed by drones) hovering above the National Stadium or the Olympic Hymn sung by a young choir.
Looking up to the flames fluttering in the metallic nest of the torch, the athletes of 206 countries, including Estonia and Canada, were left to prepare themselves for one of the most public tests of their physical strength; certainly a major return for international sports in the minds of spectators.
(Read more: Estonian Life No. 29 2021 paber- and PDF/digi)
Written by Vincent Teetsov, Toronto
