(Updates with quotes and info from Tokyo 2020 news conference held on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, the sports complex will house the starting ceremony for the Olympic torch relay, kicking off a countdown to the Games in Tokyo - the first ever organised during a deadly pandemic. Members of the Japanese national women's soccer team will use the Olympic flame, flown in from Greece, to light the torch. Homare Sawa, who led Japan's women's football team to victory at the FIFA World Cup four months after the 2011 earthquake, withdrew from the torch relay, citing health reasons. But Tokyo 2020 said that organisers were well prepared to host the relay.

Source: The Star March 24, 2021 02:15 UTC