- ‘Nadeshiko Japan’ selected for their historic World Cup victory in 2011 that lifted a nation recovering from a devastating earthquake and tsunami
- Torch will travel across all 47 of Japan’s prefectures and stop by at areas still recovering from past natural disasters
Members of the 2011 World Cup-winning Japan women's national football team have been selected as torch-bearers for the "Grand Start" of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Torch Relay, the Games' organisers announced on Tuesday.
The relay is set to take place at the J-Village National Training Centre in the Fukushima Prefecture on March 26, 2020, around four months before the Games begin.
The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympics Games confirmed the move was based on the team's historic performance in Germany eight years ago when they became the first Japanese football team " and Asian nation " to be crowned Fifa world champions. "Nadeshiko Japan" also finished runners-up at the 2015 edition in Canada and won a silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The win in Germany lifted the nation which had suffered a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Tohuko earlier in the year, the highest recorded earthquake in Japan's history. The earthquake and deadly tsunami killed 15,894 people.
"The fighting spirit the team displayed during the World Cup inspired many people struggling in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which had struck the country earlier that year. Their achievement was recognised by the conferring of a National Honour Award on the whole team in August 2011," an official press release stated.
"Only 30 years after the formation of the first Japan women's soccer team in 1981, the national team had become world champions."
While it has not been confirmed who will represent the team during the torch-bearing ceremony, current captain Saki Kumagai is likely to feature having scored the winning penalty in the 2011 World Cup final penalty shoot-out against the United States.
The Olympic torch relay traditionally transports the flame from Athens, Greece, to the site of the Games. The trademark Olympic flame and its torch-bearers will travel through all 47 of Japan's prefectures and visit more than 850 local municipalities over 121 days. Its route will bypass historic sites such as Mount Fuji and the Itsukushima Shrine, as well as areas that are recovering from past natural disasters.
In September, organisers said they received more than 530,000 applications from the general public looking to be torch-bearers. The relay is set to feature approximately 10,000 torch-bearers.
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We have just 100 Days To Go until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay begins The Olympic Games #Tokyo2020 inches ever closer and it wouldn't be an Olympic Games without the iconic torch traversing the land to its host city. The Olympic Flame will once again burn bright in Japan 100 Days!
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Organisers have yet to announce the results from the public applications and any subsequent torch-bearers for the relay's main section. Their decision is expected on December 25.
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