Olympic Boss Wanted Flame Lit by ‘Pure Japanese’ Ex-Yankee Player, Not Osaka
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TOKYO—The 2020 Olympics delighted the world when, at the opening ceremony on July 23, biracial tennis superstar Naomi Osaka—with a rose-gold torch in her hand—lit the Olympic cauldron.
But that wasn’t the original plan. According to Olympic insiders who spoke to The Daily Beast, disgraced former Tokyo Organizing Committee chair Yoshiro Mori was pushing to have someone else do the honors.
“Mori wanted ‘Godzilla’ to light the Olympic flame at the end, not Naomi Osaka, ” an employee for the committee, who spoke on conditions of anonymity due to a punitive non-disclosure agreement, told The Daily Beast.