People On Twitter Are SO Split About The Olympics Opening Ceremony

The 2021 Olympics have officially kicked off in Tokyo, Japan. The Games were supposed to take place last year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, they were delayed. Very little was known about the logistics of the event this year, which is why these tweets about the 2021 Olympics Opening Ceremony are so split.

Fans were curious to see how the event would incorporate health and safety measures due to the ongoing pandemic, especially because on July 12, Tokyo entered its fourth coronavirus state of emergency. This news came weeks after the World Health Organization announced on June 28 that Japan has fully vaccinated only 8% of its people. Due to Tokyo being in a state of emergency, event organizers were asked to limit their venue capacities to half (or have a 5,000-person cap) and end their events by 9 p.m. Unfortunately, days before the Olympics kicked off on July 23, Tokyo reported 1,832 new COVID-19 cases on July 21, which was the most Tokyo tallied since Jan. 16 and the sixth-highest daily tally ever in the capital.

As a result, the International Olympic Committee announced no fans would be in attendance at the Olympics, which meant athletes would compete in a mostly-empty stadium. Only diplomats, Olympic sponsors, foreign dignitaries, and those on the committee would be allowed to attend. The committee also said the number of athletes marching in the "Parade of Nations" would be greatly reduced, although they didn’t reveal by how many. Whether there would be any musical performers or not was also a mystery. Since so many things would be different, fans wondered how the 2021 Olympics Opening Ceremony would compare to previous years.

As you can probably tell by the trends and hashtags on Twitter, the event didn’t begin exactly as fans expected. It’s true there were close to no spectators in the stands and the only people seen were VIPs. The ceremony also highlighted at-home workouts as people remained isolated during the coronavirus pandemic. After the flag was raised and Japan’s national anthem was performed, there was a moment of silence for those who lost their lives during the pandemic. There was also an interpretive dance that highlighted togetherness.

Viewers had mixed feelings about the Olympics opening ceremony. Mostly, people tweeted about the constant commentary, which some felt was unnecessary at some points.

Others just couldn’t get over the lack of spectators in the stadium.

Surely, the 2021 Olympics opening ceremony will go down in history.