The Pacific islands in Tokyo tonight

The thirty flag bearers from the Pacific islands can be found here.

This parade includes the first gender-balanced flag bearing athletes from every country - one female and one male.

Given current COVID-19 restrictions, the parade of athletes tonight will comprise, from every country, two flag bearers followed by only five athletes walking in a row.

Several Pacific island countries have less than five athletes at the Games. These include Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati (KIR), Marshall Islands (MHL), Nauru (NRU), Palau (PLW), Solomon Islands (SOL), Tuvalu (TUV) and Vanuatu.

The Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Tuvalu have only two athletes each.

While the Pacific islands teams may comprise fewer athletes, they carry strength and fortitude all island countries will be watching tonight.

The flag bearers of the Pacific islands represent the finest women and men of their countries. Many have had to be away from their families as trained in other countries in extended hands of friendship.

Tokyo Olympics arguably the most iconic in history

The Opening of the XXXII Olympiad, the 32nd Olympic Games, though watched by a global audience of millions, will be conducted in a sparsely filled stadium.

It will arguably be one of the most iconic moments that visually and audibly captures the condition of the world in a pandemic, and more critically, demonstrate the defiance of the human spirit to rise for one more run, one more jump, one more throw - a message the world desperately needs at this juncture in history.

Olympians have stamped their mark as key figures for inspiration and driven causes, people, countries and generations to do good, do better, and do well.

TOKYO 2020 is probably going to be one of the quietest yet finest editions of the Olympic Games for its motivational score for a world rising during the second year of a global pandemic.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the TOKYO 2020 Organising Committee have worked closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), using the one year postponement of the Games to research, strategise, and redesign the offering of the event to safeguard athletes and officials.

The end result is a Games with the host country barring tourists, local spectators; and zero drafting the concept of pandemic protocols synchronised with 206 countries that have NOCs. Add to this the development of the Tokyo Playbooks which every NOC, athlete, chef de mission, manager, coach, journalist and support staff has had to familiarise themselves with.

Its success is not measured through zero COVID-19 positive cases but through the successful identification, isolation and management of these. It sets the standard for the emerging world humanity will live in.

Achievement of gender balance in athlete flag bearing representation

TOKYO 2020 is also making history as the first Games to have two flag bearers from every country, a female and a male.

This is an enormous step toward gender equality as the visual power of gender representation at an Olympic Games Opening Ceremony will be watched by 4.9 billion viewers sans the tens of thousands who traditionally flocked to participate in person.

With only VIPs present tonight, the Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony will probably capture a larger global viewership given regular local host country spectators and sports tourist fans will also be relegated to television sets and smartphones globally.

The ceremony and our athletes

Several key events are part of the Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony - the host country's artistic programme, the parade of athletes, the lighting of the Olympic flame and the symbolic release of the doves of peace.

Tonight will be a parade of champions because every athlete in Tokyo has fought battles the world knows little to nothing of to reach the starting block.

Our Warriors of Oceania are part of this gallery of champions.

Tonight is only the beginning.

Citius, Altius, Fortius!
Faster, Higher, Stronger!