(ABC News) Thursday was eventful at the Tokyo Olympics, and the opening ceremony still hasn’t taken place.
Speaking of the opening ceremonies, the event’s director was fired over a joke he made about the Holocaust back in 1998. Kentaro Kobayashi had joked about a childhood game he called “Let’s Play Holocaust” as part of a comedy show. Tokyo’s previous Olympics president has already resigned due to sexist comments, a music composer has resigned after alleged incidents of bullying and the creative director for both the opening and closing ceremonies for fat-shaming commentary.
In other news from the Olympics:
*The West African country of Guinea has reversed an earlier decision to pull out of the Olympics and will send a delegation of five athletes to the Tokyo Games. Guinea had announced just Wednesday that it was canceling its participation to protect the health of its athletes.
*Eight Olympic qualifying performances in track and field were wiped out because of suspicions of cheating and the athletes were denied entry to the Tokyo Games, investigators said Thursday. Reports of suspicious activity came from 16 different countries, track’s Athletics Integrity Unit said after identifying possible pre-Games cheating. It did not identify the countries or the athletes involved.
*Disability advocates and elected officials are calling on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee to rethink its policies after a Paralympic gold medalist swimmer was denied a request to have a care assistant travel with her to Tokyo due to COVID-19 restrictions. Becca Meyers, who is blind and deaf, was set to compete at the Paralympics in Tokyo with the women’s swim team in August. She has since withdrawn.
