Tokyo (1964)
Tokyo had been awarded with the organisation of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan’s invasion of China, before ultimately being canceled because of World War II. The 1964 Summer Games marked the first time that the Olympics were held by a non-Western nation. This was the first Olympics in which South Africa was barred from taking part due to its refusal to racially desegregate its sports. The games were telecast to the United States using Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite. It was the first television program to cross the Pacific Ocean.
Interesting Facts
- Yoshinori Sakai, who lit the Olympic Flame, was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on that city.
- Judo and volleyball, both popular sports in Japan, were introduced to the Olympics. Japan won gold medals in three judo events, but Dutchman Anton Geesink won the Open category. The Japanese women’s volleyball team won the gold medal, with the final being broadcast live.
- Reigning world champion Osamu Watanabe capped off his career with a gold medal for Japan in freestyle wrestling, surrendering no points and retiring from competition as the only undefeated Olympic champion to date at 189-0.
- Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina won two gold medals (both for the third time in a row in Team Competition and Floor Exercise events), a silver medal and two bronze medals. She ended her Olympic career and holds the record for most Olympic medals at 18 (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze) since then.
- Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser won the 100 m freestyle event for the third time in a row, a feat matched by Vyacheslav Ivanov in rowing’s single scull event.
- Don Schollander (USA) won four gold medals in swimming.
- Abebe Bikila became the first person to win the Olympic marathon twice.
- New Zealand’s Peter Snell won a gold medal in both the 800 m and 1500 m.
- The women’s pentathlon was introduced.
- American Billy Mills, a little-known distance runner, shocked everyone when he won the gold in the men’s 10,000 m. No American had won it before and no American has won it since.
- Bob Hayes won the 100 m title in a time of 10.0 seconds, equaling the world record. He had run the distance in 9.9 seconds in the semifinal but this was not recognized as a world record as it was wind assisted.
- Joe Frazier, future heavyweight champion of the world, won a gold medal for the USA in heavyweight boxing.
- Unfortunately for Japan, several big international events also took attention during the Olympics, including the sudden removal of Nikita Khrushchev and the first nuclear test in China.
- The nation of Malaysia, which had formed the previous year by a union of Malaya, British North Borneo and Singapore, competed for the first time in the Games.