The organizing committee of this year’s Olympic Games is promoting Tokyo 2020 as the greenest Olympics ever.
Although many are those who speak of “environmental laundering”, the uniforms of the Japanese torchbearers were made from material derived from the recycling of plastic bottles collected by Coca-Cola, official sponsor of the Games and one of the world’s leading plastic polluters for many years.
The Tokyo Olympic Association designed the unisex torchbearers’ uniforms with the theme “Hope Lights Our Way”.
The Union’s design department, headed by Olympic design director Daisuke Obana, worked with the soft drinks giant to create the uniforms: plastic bottles collected by Coca-Cola were recycled and used for part of the uniform, in line with the objective of “organising sustainable Games”.
“I have interpreted the Olympic torch relay as something that connects the torchbearers with their thoughts. In other words, each person who participates in the torch relay will have different thoughts – also about the Games – and the Flame that connects these thoughts.” commented Daisuke Obana according to the AP.
As with the Olympic Torch, which was constructed from construction debris from the great earthquake in eastern Japan and the tsunami of 11from March 2011, and on the torchbearers’ uniforms, the Union’s aim was for the torch relay to contribute to the healing of the victims’ wounds and to celebrate the progress that has been made since then.
The torch relay on Japanese soil began in March in Fukushima, honouring the lives lost in the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster there.
“In Japan, they refer to these Games as “the Games of Recovery”, so the Olympic Flame will begin its journey from a region affected by recent natural disasters.
I hope that the Olympic Flame being carried to Japan will bring with it the encouragement and thoughts of people from all over the world,” says Daisuke Obana.
