On Wednesday, April 1, Star Trek George Takei revealed that he has been “sitting on some big news for quite some time.”
The veteran actor said that with the Tokyo Summer Olympics rescheduled for 2021, he will be the final torchbearer who will light the Olympic Flame.
“This will be such a unique moment, before the eyes of a billion people, lighting the torch as a symbol of hope for the future in 2021 in Tokyo,” he wrote on Facebook. “As a life-long runner, I’m especially grateful to have been chosen, and hope to do everyone in the US of A proud!”
Many personalities participate in the torch’s journey to the cauldron. In December, it was confirmed that members of the Women’s National Football Team of Japan would participate in the Tokyo Games.
It is an Olympic tradition that the final torchbearer will be the one to actually light the Olympic cauldron as a symbolic gesture of igniting the Games. Usually, the person to do this is a native of the country hosting the Olympics. Takei is Japanese-American. It’s also customary that the identity of the final torchbearer, a highly guarded secret, be revealed when the torch arrives in the Olympic Stadium on live television.
However, Takei wrote in a follow-up post, “Yes, friends, I’m afraid this was an April Fools prank, a bit of levity in an otherwise dark time.”
“And while I’ll not be lighting that fire myself, my eyes will look upon it as a symbol of our triumph over this invisible foe and a reuniting of the global community,” he added.
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