Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron as the Tokoyo Games delayed by COVID-19 pandemic opened on Friday.
The tennis star was handed the Olympic torch by a group of six children who hail from the area around Fukushima that was ravaged by a 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The 23-year-old tennis player follows in the footsteps of a long line of iconic athletes who have been chosen to light the Olympic cauldron at a Games.
In Atlanta back in 1996, Muhammad Ali created one of the most powerful moments in the Games’ history before Cathy Freeman did the same, four years later in Sydney. At the most recent Games in Rio de Janeiro, the honour was handed to Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima.
Osaka, who has been open about her mental health struggles recently, received the torch at the end of a relay that included great icons of Japanese sport, key workers and children from regions affected by the earthquake and tsunami 10 years ago.