Tokyo Olympics 2020 Opening Ceremony: Photo Highlights

Only about 950 people, including officials and reporters, were allowed into the 68,000-capacity venue to watch the opening ceremony. But perhaps for the first time in Olympic history, billions of the audience members enjoyed the show more than the very limited number of Olympic family members present in the stadium, Xinhua reported. It has been almost eight years since Japanese people celebrated the return of the Olympic Games after the 1964 Olympics, but the journey to this point was full of challenges.