THE JAPAN NEWS


 

The Tokyo Olympics began Wednesday morning with its first competitive event, a softball match between Japan and Australia. Ace Yukiko Ueno started for Japan, and the home team won 8-1 when the game was called in the fifth inning.

Symbolizing recovery from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the game was held at Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium in Fukushima City, but without spectators due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Softball has returned to the list of Olympic competitive sports for the first time since the 2008 Beijing Games, when Japan won the gold medal.

The first round of the women’s soccer tournament also began on Wednesday. The Japan national team, Nadeshiko Japan, was set to play its first match against Canada at Sapporo Dome in the evening.

The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics will be held on Friday, and events in 33 sports will have been held at 42 venues by the time of the closing ceremony on Aug. 8.

Ueno’s first pitch was into the catcher’s mitt for a ball, marking the start of competition at the Tokyo Olympics. She allowed Australia its only run when the bases were loaded in the first inning and she hit her second batter in a row. She quickly recovered to set the foundation for a big win. She threw 4⅓ innings, exiting after 85 pitches.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ueno led Japan to its first gold medal in softball, pitching three games over two days. The 413 pitches she threw sent the nation into a frenzy, but ironically deprived Japan’s ace of much of her enthusiasm for the Olympics.

In August 2016, when retirement was on her mind, it was decided that softball would return to the list of events in the Tokyo Olympics.

However, the news did not fuel her ambition to win another Olympic medal. Knowing the difficulty and pain of winning at the Olympics, she said, “I couldn’t make up my mind easily.”

When it was decided in March 2017 that some of the Olympic softball matches would be held at Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium, Ueno thought she could draw power from Fukushima, where people have overcome many hardships since the Great East Japan Earthquake and finally became able to hold Olympic events.

“I thought I could surely get power from Fukushima,” she said, adding, “I wanted to turn the power I receive into my play and leave my thoughts in Fukushima.”

After the opening game, she smiled and said, “I can accept what I am carrying on my back and I am enjoying it.”

She will turn 39 on Thursday. Ueno, enthusiastic and strong, is back to serve as a guide for other competitors who will be stepping forward one after another in the Olympics.Speech