TOKYO, Oct 24, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Tokyo opened a 15,000-seat swimming venue
for the Olympic Games next year on Saturday, with a swimming star diagnosed
with leukaemia last year demonstrating freestyle at the ceremony.
The $542 million Aquatics Centre for swimming, diving and artistic
swimming was completed in February, but its grand opening ceremony scheduled
for March was postponed due to the coronavirus.
“I hope top athletes in the world will compete at this venue… I’m
already excited,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike told reporters.
Koike said the city hopes to welcome more athletes, promising to host a
“successful” Olympics through implementing anti-virus safety measures.
At the ceremony, Japanese swimming star Rikako Ikee joined three other
athletes in a relay.
The 20-year-old had been a strong favourite for the 100-metre butterfly
gold at the now-postponed Olympic Games before revealing she had leukaemia
last year.
After being discharged from hospital in December following ten months of
treatment, she resumed training in March, and competitions in August.
The main pool at the Aquatics Centre features a movable wall allowing the
50-metre (164 ft) facility to be converted into two 25-metre (82 ft) pools,
with the depth also adjustable.
The building cost 56.7 billion yen ($542 million) but Tokyo hopes to make
the most of the facility after the 2020 Games, aiming to attract one million
users a year — 850,000 through swimming competitions and roughly 150,000
casual punters.
The 2020 Games were delayed as Covid-19 spread globally, and are now set
to open on July 23, 2021.
With many countries experiencing second or even third waves of infection,
there have been doubts about whether the event can be staged at all, but
organisers and Olympic officials insist it can be done safely.