A day after the Greek leg of the Tokyo Olympic torch relay was called off when spectators crowded the roadway in the midst of the new coronavirus outbreak, the flame arrived in the nation's capital on Saturday.
The flame, lit in Ancient Olympia on Thursday, arrived at Panathenaic Stadium in central Athens. Next Thursday, the stadium, a venue at both the 1896 and 2004 Olympics, will host the ceremony when Japan receives the flame from Greece.
Two three-time Olympic champions —women's wrestler Saori Yoshida and men's judoka Tadahiro Nomura — will receive the flame for Japan.
The flame is set to arrive in Japan on March 20 at the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force's Matsushima base in Miyagi Prefecture aboard a chartered plane.
A 121-day torch relay is scheduled to begin at the J-Village soccer training center in Fukushima Prefecture.