The Japanese boxer who opened the Tokyo Olympics was denied a chance to actually compete in the games because her qualifier was cancelled

• The Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony began with boxer Arisa Tsubata running alone on a treadmill.
• Tsubata won't actually compete at the games because her qualifier was cancelled.
• The IOC decided to award places for boxers in Tokyo based on ranking points instead.

The Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony began opened with a lone athlete - Japanese boxer Arisa Tsubata - running solemnly alone on a treadmill.

However Tsubata, who is also a nurse, was denied an opportunity to actually compete at the games because her qualifying tournament was cancelled.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to cancel the global boxing qualifying tournament, which was scheduled to take place in June, due to "current challenges to international travel and related restrictions in many countries" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead, the 53 places up for grabs were allocated based on ranking points since 2017. Tsubata's ranking was not good enough for automatic qualification.

Her appearance in the opening ceremony was meant to reflect the hardships faced by both health workers and athletes during the pandemic and the one-year delay to the Olympics.

According to The Japan Times, the 27-year-old had quit her job at a major hospital in January to take a lower-paid position at a smaller psychiatric clinic and focus on boxing.

Since then she had trained over three hours a day during the week and even more on Saturdays in order to prepare for her qualifier.

"It's very disappointing," she told The Japan Times in May.

"I had been working so hard for a year after the postponement of the Olympics, and it's so frustrating that I don't even have the right to compete."

"'Why did I aim for the Olympics when the coronavirus happened?' I asked myself," she said, also wondering "who knew the coronavirus pandemic would come at this time?"

She added: "I can't say I am aiming for the next Olympics in Paris, but what I can do is try to keep working hard, step by step, at any competitions ahead, small or big."