1,000 Spectators witnessed the Opening Ceremony of Tokyo 2020 Olympics instead of 68,000-capacity crowd
Many of the country's residents adamantly opposed to hosting the Olympics at all, viewers were still treated to the night's festivities that marked the beginning of the world sporting event
Sebastian Nkrumah Listowell 
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics officially kicked off in a virtually empty stadium Friday night after a year-long delay due to the pandemic.
The games now face the ongoing threat of COVID-19 with the Japanese capital under a state of emergency.
Many of the country's residents adamantly opposed to hosting the Olympics at all, viewers were still treated to the night's festivities that marked the beginning of the world sporting event.
But instead of the 68,000-capacity crowd cheering as athletes from more than 200 countries paraded with flags through Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, fewer than 1,000 spectators were present for the night's pageantry and speeches.
Soireenews now takes you to the schedule of the events that will be happening today being Saturday – July 24th at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. All times are BST.
3x3 Basketball
- From 12.15am - Men's and Women's pool rounds
Archery
- 1.30 am - Mixed Team Elimination
- 6.15 am - Mixed Team Quarterfinal
- 7.31 am - Mixed Team Semifinal
- 8.25 am - Bronze Medal Match
- 8.45 am - Gold Medal Match
Artistic Gymnastics
- 2 am - Men's Qualification
Badminton
- 1 am Session One - Group Play Stage: Mixed Doubles; Women's Doubles; Women's Singles; Men's Singles
- 10 am Session One - Group Play Stage: Mixed Doubles; Women's Doubles; Women's Singles; Men's Singles
Baseball/Softball
- 2am - Australia v Canada
- 6.30am - USA v Mexico
- 12pm - Japan v Italy
Beach Volleyball
- 1am Session One - Men's and Women's Preliminary
- 7am Session Two - Men's and Women's Preliminary
- 12pm Session Three - Men's and Women's Preliminary
Boxing
- 3 am Session One - Women's Feather, Women's Welter, Men's Feather, Men's Welter, Men's Heavy Preliminaries
- 9 am Session Two - Women's Feather, Men's Feather, Men's Welter, Men's Super Heavy Preliminaries
Cycling
- 3 am - Men's Road Race
Equestrian
- 9 am - Dressage Grand Prix Team and Individual Qualifier Day 1
Fencing
- From 1 am - Women's Epee Individual, Men's Sabre Individual
- 11.50 am - Women's Epee Individual Bronze Medal Bout
- 12.20 pm - Men's Sabre Individual Bronze Medal Bout
- 12.45 pm - Women's Epee Individual Gold Medal Bout
- 1.15 pm - Men's Sabre Individual Gold Medal Bout
Women's Football
- 8.30am - Chile v Canada
- 9am - China v zambia
- 9.30am - Sweden v Australia
- 11.30am - Japan v Team GB
- 12pm - Netherlands v Brazil
- 12.30pm - New Zealand v USA
Handball
- 1 am - Men's Preliminary Round
Hockey
- 1.30 am - Men's Japan v Australia
- 2 am - Men's New Zealand v India
- 3.45 am - Men's Netherlands v Belgium
- 4.15 am - Men's Argentina v Spain
- 10.30 am - Men's Team GB v South Africa
- 11 am - Men's Canada v Germany
- 12.45 pm - Women's Netherlands v India
- 1.15 pm - Women's Ireland v South Africa
Judo
- From 3am - Men's Elimination 60kg; Women's Elimination 48kg
- From 9 am - Women's 48kg Gold Medal Contest; Men's 60kg Gold Medal Contest
Rowing
- From 12.30 am - Women's Single Sculls Repechage
- From 1 am - Women's Single Sculls Repechage
- 1.30 am - Women's Double Sculls Repechage
- 1.40 am - Men's Double Sculls Repechage
- From 1.50 am - Women's Pair Heats
- From 2.20 am - Men's Pair Heats
- From 2.50 am - Lightweight Women's Double Sculls
- From 3.20 am - Lightweight Men's Double Sculls
- From 3.50 am - Women's Four Heats
- From 4.10 am - Men's Four Heats
Shooting
- 2.45 am - 10m Air Rifle Women's Final
- 7.30 am - 10m Air Pistol Men's Final
Swimming
- From 11.02 am - Men's 400m Individual Medley Heats
- From 11.28 am - Women's 100m Butterfly Heats
- From 11.48 am - Men's 400m Freestyle Heats
- From 12.30 pm - Women's 400m Individual Medley Heats
- From 12.55 pm - Men's 100m Breaststroke Heats
- From 1.15pm - Women's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay -Heats
Table Tennis
- From 1 am - Women's Singles; Men's Singles; Mixed Doubles
Taekwondo
- From 2 am - Women's 49kg; Men's 58kg
- From 12.30 pm - Women's 49kg Bronze Medal Contest
- From 12.45 pm - Men's 58kg Bronze Medal Contest
- 1.30 pm - Women's 49kg Gold Medal Contest
- 1.45 pm - Men's 58kg Gold Medal Contest
Tennis
- From 3 am - First round of Women's Singles, Men's Singles, Women's Doubles, Men's Doubles
Volleyball
- From 1 am - Men's preliminaries
Water Polo
- From 6 am - Women's preliminaries
Weightlifting
- 1.50am - Women's 49kg
- 5.50 am - Women's 49kg gold medal contest
Visit www.soireenews.com for all the updates on Tokyo 2020 Olympics
