1964 Summer Olympics
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Games of the XVIII Olympiad
Host city	Tokyo, Japan
Nations participating	93
Athletes participating	5,151 (4,473 men, 678 women)
Events	163 in 19 sports
Opening ceremony	October 10
Closing ceremony	October 24
Officially opened by	HIM Emperor Showa
Athlete's Oath	Takashi Ono
Olympic Torch	Yoshinori Sakai
Stadium	Olympic Stadium

The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 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.¹ 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.

Selection

Tokyo won the rights to the Games on May 26, 1959, at the 55th IOC Session in Munich, West Germany, over bids from Detroit, Brussels and Vienna.

Here are the voting results for the host selection, from the the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page.

1964 Summer Olympics Bidding Results
City	NOC Name	Round 1
Tokyo	Japan	34
Detroit	United States	10
Vienna	Austria	9
Brussels	Belgium	5

Highlights

Yoshinori Sakai lights the Olympic cauldron

• Yūji Koseki composed the theme song of the opening ceremony.
• 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.

Sports

Demonstration sports

• Baseball
• Budō

Medal count

Main article: 1964 Summer Olympics medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games:

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	36	26	28	90
2	Soviet Union	30	31	35	96
3	Japan (host nation)	16	5	8	29
4	Germany	10	22	18	50
5	Italy	10	10	7	27
6	Hungary	10	7	5	22
7	Poland	7	6	10	23
8	Australia	6	2	10	18
9	Czechoslovakia	5	6	3	14
10	Great Britain	4	12	2	18

Conventionally, countries are ranked by the number of gold medals they receive, followed then by the number of silver medals and, finally, bronze¹:

Participating nations

Participants

A total of 94 nations were represented at the 1964 Games. Sixteen nations made their first Olympic appearance in Tokyo: Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire (as Ivory Coast), Dominican Republic, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Senegal, and Tanzania (as Tanganyika). Athletes from Libya withdrew from competition after the Opening Ceremony, so a total of 93 nations actually competed. Athletes from East Germany and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany from 1956-1964.

Venues

Budokan

Yoyogi Gymnasium, designed by Kenzo Tange.

Tokyo

• Olympic Stadium, now known as "National Stadium," was the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, and for track and field events.
• Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium hosted Football Preliminaries
• Nippon Budokan, or Japan Martial Arts Hall, was built to house the judo events, and is now one of Tokyo's best-known concert venues.
• Yoyogi National Gymnasium, adjacent to (and originally part of) the Meiji Shrine, houses swimming and gymnastics venues designed by architect Kenzo Tange. The Olympic Village, a redeveloped United States Army barracks originally called "Washington Heights," is located on the north side of Yoyogi Park.
• Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium hosted Artistic Gymnastics, Water polo events.
• Komazawa Olympic Park in Setagaya hosted cycling events.
• Shibuya Public Hall hosted weightlifting events.
• Korekuen Ice Palace hosted Boxing events.
• Waseda University hosted Fencing events.
• Baji Koen hosted Equestrian events.
• Hachiōji Velodrome hosted Track Cycling events.

Outside of Tokyo

• Mitsuzawa Stadium, Yokohama: Football Preliminaries
• Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium: Volleyball
• Enoshima hosted yachting events.
• Lake Sagami hosted canoeing and rowing events.
• Toda, Saitama: Rowing
• Ōmiya Park Soccer Stadium, Omiya, Saitama: Football Preliminaries
• Asaka, Saitama: Shooting
• Tokorozawa, Saitama: Clay pigeon shooting
• Karuizawa, in Nagano Prefecture west of Tokyo, hosted equestrian events.
• Nagai Stadium, Osaka: Football

See also

• 1964 Summer Paralympics
• International Olympic Committee
• IOC country codes
• Tokyo Olympiad, a documentary film about the games

References

1. Olympic Games Tokyo 1964 - Medal Table

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1964 Summer Olympics

• IOC Site on 1964 Summer Olympics
• Official Report from the Organizing Committee (2 volumes) on the AAFLA website
• Japan's Rebirth at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics Essay on the About Japan, A Teacher's Resource website