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After a year-long delay, the Tokyo Olympics is finally happening

Tokyo: After a delay of almost a year, Japan’s capital is all set to host Olympics with opening ceremony scheduled today.

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After a year-long delay, the Tokyo Olympics is finally happeningAfter a year-long delay, the Tokyo Olympics is finally happening
After a year-long delay, the Tokyo Olympics is finally happeningAfter a year-long delay, the Tokyo Olympics is finally happening

According to details, the opening ceremony will begin at 4:00 pm (PST) at the National Stadium in Tokyo.

There will be a record 339 medal events held across 33 sports, with five new sports - and 34 new events in total. The five new sports are karate, sport climbing, skateboarding, baseball/softball and surfing. Baseball and softball are not new sports but they were discontinued in 2008.

New events have been introduced to the boxing, canoe slalom, canoe sprint, cycling, rowing and swimming programmers, while there are new mixed-gender events including a 4x100m mixed medley relay in swimming and a mixed relay in triathlon.

Around 48% of athletes participating at the Tokyo Olympics are women, which is a record figure.

The Olympics have been widely criticized by Japanese public due to Tokyo being in the state of emergency following spike in coronavirus cases. Majority of people wanted government to cancel or postpone the games again.

Moreover, at least 91 people associated with Olympics have been diagnosed with coronavirus, while daily cases in Tokyo are currently at their highest in six months. Around 1,979 people contracted virus in last 24 hours.

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