Photos: Reuters
Kane Tanaka, the world's oldest living person, will carry the Olympic torch through part of the country before the start of the 2021 Olympics in her home country of Japan.
The 118-year-old will carry the torch through Fukuoka, the Japanese prefecture in which she lives.
The Olympic torch carrying is traditionally a huge event that sees multiple people carry the torch through a host nation and is watched by tens-of-thousands on the side-lines. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, this event will be significantly scaled-back.
The first stop off for the torch will be areas affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, where a tribute will be led to the victims of the disaster.
Tanaka was born in 1903 in the village of Wajiro on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. She worked as a shop-assistant most of her life until she retired, aged 103. She has four children, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
The Guinness Book of Records recorded Tanaka as the oldest living person in the world in 2019 and she hopes to be able to beat the record for the oldest person to ever live, a record which currently stands at 122. She currently resides in a nursing home.
Eiji Tanaka, Tanaka's grandson, told CNN:
"It's great she reached that age and she can still keep up an active lifestyle -- we want other people to see that and feel inspired, and not to think age is a barrier… I don't remember her talking much about the past ... She's very forward thinking -- she really enjoys living in the present."
Tanaka's great-granddaughter, Junko Tanaka, set up a twitter-feed in 2020 to celebrate her great-grandmother's life. She said:
"I started a Twitter feed on her because it's quite amazing that at 118 she drinks Coca-Cola herself and plays Othello. I might be biased because I'm related to her but I think it's kind of amazing -- I wanted to share that with the world and for people to feel inspired and to feel her joy."
It is thought that despite contrary early statements, the Japanese government will not allow any spectators from around the world to attend the Olympics due to a fear that it will lead to a rise in Covid-19 cases, or new Covid-19 strains entering the country.
[h/t: Evening Standard]
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