NIKKEIASIA August 25, 2021 10:00 JST |SPORTS|”This is Naomi: Japan gave me pride that will stay with me for life” by Naomi Osaka.
Image from naomiosaka.com
“Tennis star vows to come back to represent her country at the Paris Olympics”
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“Steady … steady, ‘I thought to myself as the Olympic flame was passed on to my torch. So much had happened to bring this tiny flame into my shaking hands…” besides so many who had reliably handed the torch from person-to-person along the way “the entire world had to overcome seemingly impossible challenges to make these games happen.” “It had been my parents’ dream since I was a little girl to represent Japan in the Olympics, and as I played tennis more and more, it became my dream as well.” If her matches were televised in Japan then her grandparents were watching without fail. Now at the moment she was lighting the torch she “wondered how my grandfather in Nemuro...might be feeling...I think my grandparents were probably crying.”
“Being selected to be the final torchbearer...has been by far the top personal achievement of my life thus far.” “Simply put, I have no words to describe what I felt after the opening ceremony. Even now I am still filled with gratefulness and thankfulness.” Being selected was a surprise and “as a biracial athlete, to be chosen to represent Japan in this way made me feel Japan has a new wave of direction.”
“Of course, I do wish my actual performance…[would]...have been better…” Naomi notes that with the pandemic training and competition was limited and that she “had times where my heart was about to fall apart...I was really lucky that there were always people around me who supported me.”
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