Opening Ceremony Kicks Off, Tokyo 2020 Olympics.<br />The opening ceremony took place on July 23 before a mostly empty Olympic stadium in Tokyo.<br />despite a number of uncertainties that have clouded the prospects of whether the Games would occur at all.<br />The number of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo have spike to their highest levels in six months.<br />prompting protests against the games .<br />Olympic events coordinator Kentaro Kobayashi was also fired the day before the opening ceremonies ... .<br />... after video emerged of him making a joke about the Holocaust.<br />Despite the controversy, the opening ceremony occurs a year to the day from when swimmer Rikako Ikee led a flame ceremony at the National Stadium, .<br />to mark the postponement rather than cancelation of the Games due to the pandemic.<br />The athletes entered the stadium bearing the flags of their representative nations.<br />They held moments of silence in honor of all those who have died due to COVID-19, .<br />as well as the Israeli athletes murdered by terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.<br />This is the most dangerous phase of the pandemic coming up for people who are unvaccinated, Dr. Gregory Poland, Mayo Clinic's Vaccine <br />Research Group, via NBC News.<br />The Delta variant was first detected in India
