The Olympic Torch relay will officially kick start the countdown to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on Thursday in Fukushima-120 days to the start of the rescheduled tournament that was rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The symbolic ceremonial kickoff was postponed after the coronavirus shut down the whole world in early 2020 though the flame itself arrived in Japan on March 20, 2020.

It will now begin its historic journey “towards the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games on 23 July 2021” on Thursday.

According to the official Olympic Games website, the torch was “lit at the Temple of Hera at the sacred site of Ancient Olympia in Greece on 12 March and then handed over to Japan after the Greek leg of the relay.”

“Following the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games, the Olympic Flame was first transferred to the facilities of the Tokyo Fire Department for safekeeping, then later on kept alight at the Olympic Museum in Tokyo.

“On 11 March, the 10th Anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, the flame was displayed at the Otsuchi community centre in Iwate prefecture – a region devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.”

The Grand Start of the Torch Relay will take place in the symbol of Fukushima’s reconstruction: the J-Village National Training Centre and it will run through 46 territories before landing in Tokyo on July 9.