Olympics get underway in Tokyo

The International Olympic Committee has warned that it could still pull the plug on the Summer Olympics at the last minute. But that appears unlikely. The opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday, but some athletes are already competing in Tokyo. The Swedish women’s soccer team stunned the United States with a 3-0 victory on Wednesday. The U.S. women’s team lost to Sweden in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but went on to win the World Cup in 2019. On Thursday, Olympic officials in Tokyo fired opening ceremony director Kentaro Kobayashi because of a joke about the Holocaust he made on a comedy show in 1998.

What is the public health situation in Tokyo? Officials had reported 79 cases of COVID-19 linked to the Olympics as of Wednesday, with more athletes testing positive at home and unable to travel. The world’s top female skeet shooter, Amber Hill, had a positive coronavirus test in Britain and will miss the games.

Dig deeper: Read Kyle Ziemick’s report in Muse about the controversies surrounding the U.S. Women’s National Team in soccer.