Director fired the day before the opening of the Games after Holocaust statements | Sport

sport">What the opening ceremony will look like is therefore not yet clear one day before the spectacle, chairman Seiko Hashimoto of the Japanese organizing committee said at a press conference in Tokyo. According to Hashimoto, Kobayashi has to leave “because he was joking about a tragedy.” It would be statements that the Japanese already made in 1998, but that recently resurfaced in national media.

sport">The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, called “any association of this person with the Tokyo Olympics an affront to the memory of six million Jews.”

sport">It is yet another setback that the organizers of the Games have to endure. It also became clear on Wednesday that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not be present at the opening ceremony due to the spread of the coronavirus in the country. Due to the corona pandemic, no foreign spectators are welcome at the Olympics.

sport">The opening ceremony is traditionally a grand and spectacular affair, culminating in the parade of the participating countries, led by the flag bearers. At the previous Games in Rio 2016, 12,600 athletes and officials marched into the Olympic Stadium; in Tokyo that number will be considerably lower. Not only do many athletes only arrive in Tokyo after the opening due to corona, but the express rule to keep as much distance from each other as possible will also lead to far fewer athletes participating in the flag parade.

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