Photo/Illutration Naomi Osaka prepares to climb the steps before lighting the Olympic cauldron on July 23. (Takuya Isayama)

Tennis ace Naomi Osaka described being chosen as the final torchbearer to light the Olympic cauldron at the National Stadium as “Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life.”

The four-time Grand Slam singles champion has not enjoyed her time in the media spotlight lately, having taken a stand against racism and bowed out of doing interviews, citing the state of her mental health.

How she got to be picked for a task that unquestionably would put her back in the spotlight seems due to a remark by Seiko Hashimoto, who heads the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee and is an Olympian herself.

At a news conference after the Opening Ceremony on July 23, Takayuki Hioki, who had ultimate responsibility for the proceedings, said Osaka, 23, was the most appropriate individual to be the final torchbearer because “she has been issuing various types of messages and we were very conscious about diversity and inclusion for the torch relay.”

Not only is Osaka a globally recognized athlete, she also garnered massive media attention with her forthright views against racism expressed last year at the U.S. Open after incidents involving police brutality against African-Americans.

Being selected as final torchbearer was not a done deal until much later.

“When we tried to choose an athlete, the sporting organization told us that would be a problem because the individual had a shot at a gold medal,” noted a high-ranking official in the organizing committee. “That led us to almost give up on choosing an athlete because we did not want it to become a burden.”

Hashimoto, who herself has represented Japan in seven Olympics, both winter and summer, was alarmed when she heard that.

“If I was that athlete, I would not have liked having my name taken out of consideration as final torchbearer without my knowledge,” she said. “If the athlete does not want to do it, that is one thing, but I think we have to sit down with the athlete and have a serious discussion.”

Besides, “Athletes are not such weaklings,” she said.

A key concern was that Osaka would be in tennis singles competition on July 24, but that hurdle was cleared when her first match was moved to July 25.

Osaka herself was clearly proud as Punch to have been chosen, tweeting: “Undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honor I will ever have in my life. I have no words to describe the feelings I have right now, but I do know I am currently filled with gratefulness and thankfulness.”

Before the Olympic flame was passed to Osaka, a number of individuals from all walks of life were involved in the torch relay within the National Stadium.

The first to carry the torch in the stadium were Tadahiro Nomura and Saori Yoshida, both three-time Olympic gold medalists.

Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima, star baseball players with the Yomiuri Giants when Tokyo last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964, also carried the torch, along with Hideki Matsui, who played for both the Giants and New York Yankees. Wakako Tsuchida, who won gold medals at both summer and winter Paralympic Games, also took part in the relay.

The torch was also carried by doctors and nurses on the front lines of the novel coronavirus pandemic as well as children from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, the hardest hit during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Having been postponed by a year due to the global health crisis, many aspects of the Opening Ceremony were scaled down.

Perhaps those who bore the greatest burden were the three individuals who danced and performed for five minutes or so to show all 50 pictograms being used for the various Olympic events. Pictograms for the sports were first introduced at an Olympics in 1964 at the Tokyo Games.

Initially, the segment was to have been performed with more dancers, but in the simplified version the three dancers had to move swiftly to make up the different poses for the pictograms.

(This article was written by Takeshi Teruya and Shuhei Nomura.)

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