VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Olympic Games are a four-year international sporting event that competes in sports in both summer and winter. Thousands of athletes from various countries compete in various sporting events here. The Olympics is the largest and most prominent sporting competition in the world, with more than 200 countries participating.

In its history, the Summer Olympics has been canceled twice, namely, because of the first world war in 1916 and the second world war in 1940-1944. In 2020, the Tokyo Olympics had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and can only be held in 2021.

From time to time, the Olympics has always been colored by the bustle of participants from all over the world, various record-breaking, star-studded and thousands of enthusiastic spectators who come to witness the prestigious event.

But it's different this year. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the Opening Ceremony is planned to be held at the Olympic Stadium on Friday July 23, 2021 at 8 p.m.  Tokyo time, and without spectators. Even though it is being  held in 2021, this Olympics is still referred to as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and runs from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

The theme this time  is, "United by Emotion". This has to do with the fact that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is being  held amid the coronavirus pandemic. It is hoped that this sports event can become a unifying medium for the world to come together and feel joy amid the difficult situation facing the coronavirus pandemic.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics President, Hashimoto Seiko was quoted by Antara News Agency as saying that the opening ceremony would take place solemnly, despite concerns over the emergence of the Covid-19 delta variant. So far, the organizers along with the World Health Organization –WHO have designed and introduced a number of measures to reduce the risk of Covid-19 and ensured that the Olympics remains safe.

There are parallels in the Olympic spirit in the Japanese government in particular and people around the world are working together to defeat the virus.

May the Olympics be a moment that unites the world, and ignites the solidarity and determination needed to end the pandemic together. In line with the Olympic torch as a symbol of hope that traverses the planet, hopefully, the ray of hope from Japan, which is often called the land of the rising sun, is able to illuminate a new dawn for a healthier, safer, and fairer world.