Olympic Symbol arrives in Tokyo, 6 months to Games
Five Rings dock at Tokyo's Odaiba Marine Park ahead of official lighting ceremony next week
The Olympic Symbol arrived in Tokyo on Friday (17 January) where it will remain through the 2020 Olympic Games.
The famed Five Rings will be officially inaugurated during a ceremony on 24 January – exactly six months to the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games – off the shores of Odaiba Marine Park in the Japanese capital.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita will attend the fireworks-fueled lighting ceremony in Tokyo Bay.
Kenichi Kimura, of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Bureau at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, said Odaiba was a natural choice to stage the Symbol because of its proximity to numerous Tokyo 2020 facilities including the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, Ariake and Aomi Urban Sports Parks and the Olympic Village.
“Around this area, Odaiba Marine Park, there are many venues that will be used for the Olympics and Paralympics,” Kimura said.
“In the backdrop you have Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower and the skyscrapers. This is a Tokyo landmark and we felt it was fitting to place the Olympic and Paralympic Symbols here”. - Kenichi Kimura, of Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Olympic and Paralympic Games Bureau.
The Symbol was built in neighboring Yokohama and was shipped along the coastline to Tokyo Bay.
Standing 15.3 metres tall and 32.6 m wide and weighing 69 tons, the Symbol will remain in the bay to the end of the Games on 9 August.
It will then be replaced by the Paralympic Symbol for the 25 August-6 September Paralympic Games.