World Cup heroes lead torch relay

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s 2011 Women’s World Cup-winning team will kick off the 2020 Tokyo Olympic torch relay in Fukushima, the area devastated by a tsunami, earthquake and nuclear meltdown eight years ago.

Organizers said the Olympic flame would begin the Japan leg of its journey on 26 March, starting at the J-Village sports training center in Fukushima that housed workers battling to remove radioactive waste after the nuclear crisis.

It will cross through all of Japan’s 47 prefectures on its 121-day journey, taking in landmarks such as Mount Fuji and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, dedicated to the victims of the world’s first atomic bombing in 1945.

The 2011 World Cup win lifted the nation only a few months after the Fukushima disaster that left 18,000 dead or missing and rendered large portions of the country’s northeast uninhabitable.

“We were very much encouraged by your victory, and we are grateful that you are the first runners,” said Mikio Date, a member of Japanese comedy duo Sandwich Man who announced the runners.

Azusa Iwashimizu, a member of the 2011 squad, said she hoped to bring the country together again — as the Japanese rugby team did during this year’s World Cup on home soil.

“This year, the words ‘One Team’ made waves with rugby, but we were ‘One Team’ in 2011,” she told reporters.

“I look forward to showing our efforts again as the original ‘One Team,’” she added.

Organizers hope to use the Tokyo 2020 Games to showcase the Fukushima area’s recovery after the “triple disaster” that struck on 11 March 2011.

The flame lighting ceremony is scheduled to take place in Ancient Olympia, home of the ancient Games in Greece, on 12 March when a high priestess will ignite the Olympic flame using the sun’s rays and a parabolic mirror.