2020年3月30日、新型コロナウイルスの感染が世界に拡大する中、東京オリンピック・パラリンピックが2021年夏に延期されることが決まりました。
3日前、7月23日に公開された映像を紹介します。
(↓YouTube)
一年後へ。一歩進む。〜＋１(プラスワン)メッセージ〜 TOKYO2020

24 July 2020 Olympic Stadium.
Athletes from all over the world should be here alongside sixty thousand spectators, gazing up at the Olympic flame. Suddenly, everything changed.
The future that we took for granted transformed, overnight, into something completely different.
I understand what that’s like, because I experienced the same thing when I had a life-threatening illness. Meeting people. Walking outside. Using my entire body to swim in the pool. These simple pleasures are all so precious, yet before my illness I took them for granted.

The other athletes who lost Tokyo 2020 must feel the same. The goal they’d been working toward suddenly disappeared. For an Olympic or Paralympic level athlete, the training is extremely demanding and the mental pressure is intense. There are days when you want to run away from it all. But when all of that suddenly disappears, you truly appreciate how much it meant to you and how much you loved the sport. That’s what happened to me.

Imagine the world in a year: a world where the curtain is set to rise on the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Right now, athletes around the world are looking to that future, pushing themselves to the limit. No effort, no matter how small, is ever wasted. The confidence that sports inspires, the human connections it helps us make are truly irreplaceable.

One last thing. Sports is not just about the athletes. Sports show us the importance of solidarity. I never want to forget that. I want to remember my gratitude and respect for all those who contribute to their society as I take my next step. As an athlete, as a person.

TOKYO 2020 +1
Hope fuels the flame.
For the athletes, Tokyo’s preparations will be the utmost.
IKEE Rikako, swimmer.