Let the games begin! Despite a state of COVID-19 emergency in Tokyo and with only a 21% vaccination rate in Japan, the Olympic games began on July 23 with Japan's tennis phenom Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic flame.
Osaka will be competing at the games; her first competition since she withdrew from Wimbledon in June citing mental health challenges.
Last week Osaka became the first Black female athlete to be the cover model for Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue. Osaka was also on the cover of Time magazine, as an Olympic athlete and the author of an essay "It's O.K.
to Not Be O.K," about mental health, women and sports. The pandemic has hit the Olympics hard. The Tokyo games were already postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic.