‘Grateful & honored’ — Seacoast Olympians at the Opening Ceremony

Nearly 700 of the best athletes in the United States, including three with strong ties to the Seacoast, were part of the opening ceremonies at the Tokyo Summer Games on Friday morning.

Friday's opening ceremonies which took place at 7 a.m. Eastern time gave fans the first indication of the virus's impact when 5,700 masked-up athletes marched into a nearly empty stadium during what is usually a vibrant, exciting ceremony.

Dover's Jessica Parratto posted a picture of herself at the ceremonies on her Instagram page.

"Grateful & honored to rep the red, white and blue. T-3 days til game day," she captioned her photo.

Rachel Schneider, a native of Sanford, re-tweeted a picture of fireworks over the Olympic stadium.

Five-time women's basketball Olympian Sue Bird and baseball player Eddy Alvarez were the flag bearers that led the U.S. team into the stadium. John Legend and Keith Urban were among several who performed the John Lennon classic “Imagine” during the ceremony.

The music also included an orchestral medley of songs from iconic Japanese video games including Roto's Theme from the Dragon Quest series.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron after it was brought into the stadium by Japanese baseball greats Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima and former Yankee Hideki Matsui.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH