Tokyo Olympics 2020: Muted ceremony, empty stadium usher in the Games

Trepidations throughout Japan have threatened for months to drown out the usual carefully packaged glitz of the opening. Inside the stadium after dusk Friday, however, a carefully calibrated ceremony sought to portray that the Games - and their spirit - are going on.

An ethereal blue light bathed the empty seats as loud music muted the shouts of scattered protesters outside screaming for the Games to be cancelled - a widespread sentiment here. A single stage held an octagon shape meant to resemble the country’s fabled Mount Fuji.

Organizers held a moment of silence for those who had died of COVID” as it ticked off and the music paused, the sounds of protests echoed in the distance.

Athletes marched into the stadium in their usual parade of nations, some socially distanced, others clustering together in ways utterly contrary to organizers’ hopes. They waved enthusiastically to thousands of empty seats, and to a world hungry to watch them compete but surely wondering what to make of it all.

Their shouts raise a fundamental question about these Games as Japan, and large parts of the world, reel from the continuing gut punch of a pandemic that is stretching well into its second year, with cases in Tokyo approaching record highs this week: Will the deep, intrinsic human attachment to the spectacle of sporting competition at the highest possible level be enough to salvage these Games?

Time and again, previous opening ceremonies have pulled off something that approaches magic. Scandals - bribery in Salt Lake City, censorship and pollution in Beijing, doping in Sochi - fade into the background when the sports begin.

The sports have already begun - softball and soccer, for example - and some of the focus is turning toward the competition to come.

Can the US women’s soccer team, for instance, even after an early, shocking loss to Sweden, become the first to win an Olympics following a World Cup victory? Can Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama win gold in golf after becoming the first Japanese player to win the Masters? Will Italy’s Simona Quadarella challenge American standout Katie Ledecky in the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle swimming races?

For now, however, it’s hard to miss how unusual these Games promise to be. The lovely national stadium can seem like an isolated militarized zone, surrounded by huge barricades. Roads around it have been sealed and businesses closed.

‘‘Sometimes people ask why the Olympics exist, and there are at least two answers. One is they are a peerless global showcase of the human spirit as it pertains to sport, and the other is they are a peerless global showcase of the human spirit as it pertains to aristocrats getting luxurious hotel rooms and generous per diems,’’ Bruce Arthur, a sports columnist for the Toronto Star, wrote recently.

Twists and turns

How did we get here? A quick review of the past year and a half seems operatic in its twists and turns.

A once-in-a-century pandemic forces the postponement of the 2020 version of the Games. A fusillade of scandals (sexism and other discrimination and bribery claims, overspending, ineptitude, bullying) unfolds. People in Japan, meanwhile, watch bewildered as an Olympics considered a bad idea by many scientists actually takes shape.

‘‘We will continue to try to have this dialogue with the Japanese people knowing we will not succeed 100%. That would be putting the bar too high,’’ said IOC President Thomas Bach. ‘‘But we’re also confident that once the Japanese people see the Japanese athletes performing in these Olympic Games - hopefully successfully - that then the attitude will become less emotional.’’