Games of the XVIII Olympiad

Olympic Games Tokyo  1964 - The emblem

 

 

Credit: IOC / Olympic Museum Collections

It is composed of the Olympic rings superimposed on the emblem of the Japanese national flag, representing the rising sun. Having examined a large number of proposals, the Games Organising Committee chose the design submitted by Yusaku Kamekura which was subsequently accepted as the official emblem of the Games.

 

 

The Games of the XVIII Olympiad held in Tokyo, 1964 were the first Olympic Games to be held on the continent of Asia.  This came after Japan's invasion of China, on July 7, 1937, started the Second Sino-Japanese War and forced the Japanese Olympic Commitee to resign as the hosts of the 1940 Summer Games.  These Games were eventually cancelled due to World War II.  In 1964, 5,151 athletes, of whom 4,473 were men and 678 were women, from 93 nations competed in 163 events.  Apart from being the first games held in Asia this event also marked the first television program to cross the Pacific Ocean.

The ceremonies opened on October 10 and closed on October 24, 1964.  The opening ceremonies were marked by the final torch carrier who lit the Olympic flame.  Yoshinori Sakai, who lit the flame, was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day the atomic bomb destroyed the city.  Thus expressing Japan's successful reconstruction after World War II.

These games also marked many other firsts: 

• Judo and volleyball were introduced to the Olympics
• The women 's pentathlon was introduced

• The first appearance of a women's team sport (volleyball - Japan wins gold)

• The first time a fiberglass pole was used in the pole-vaulting event

• First Olympics South Africa was barred from due to its refusal to racially desegregate its sports

• Osamu Watanabe surrendered no points in winning gold for Japan in freestyle wrestling and retired as the only undefeated Olympic champion to date at 189-0

• Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia became first runner to win the Olympic Marathon twice, less than six weeks after having his appendix removed

• American Don Schollander became the first swimmer to win gold in four events in one Games

• American Billy Mills won gold in the men's 10,000m which no American had done before or has done since

• Bob Shul became first American runner to win gold in the 5,000m (and did so on a rainy track)

• American Al Oerter won the discus throw for the third time in a row despite having a cervical disc injury that forced him to wear a neck brace and torn rib cartilage incurred a week before the competition

• Dawn Fraser of Australia won her third consecutive gold medal in the 100m freestyle becoming the first woman swimmer to win a total of eight medals (4 gold, 4 silver) in three editions of the Games

• Deszo Gyarmati won gold with the Hungarian water polo team achieving the unique feat of winning medals at five successive editions of the Games

• Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina won two gold medal in team competiton and floor exercise and ended her Olympic career holding the record for most medals won at 18 (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze)

These Olympics also marked the first Games for 15 nations:

• Algeria
• Cameroon
• Chad
• Congo
• Dominican Republic
• Ivory Coast
• Madagascar
• Malaysia
• Mali
• Mongolia
• Nepal
• Niger
• Northern Rhodesia now Zambia
• Senegal
• Tanganyika now United Republic of Tanzania

Despite all of these firsts, one last did take place.  These Olympics marked the final time a cinder running track was used for athletic events.

Some great honors were also bestowed during these Games.  Swedish yachtsmen Lars Gunnar Käll and Stig Lennart Käll became the first recipients of the Tokyo Trophy for setting an outstanding example of sportsmanship when they gave up their race to save the life of a fellow competitor.  Also, Japan's talent for organization earned it three awards from the International Olympic Commitee, the Olympic Cup, the Bonacossa Trophy, and the "Diploma of Merit".

Two international events also took place this year, averting some of the focus on the Games.  These were the removal of Nikita Khrushchev from power in the USSR on October 15 and the People's Republic of China's first nuclear weapons test which detonated on October 16, 1964. 

 

Olympic Games Tokyo  1964 - The medal

Credit: IOC / Olympic Museum Collections

On the obverse, the traditional goddess of victory, holding a palm in her left hand and a winner’s crown in her right. A design used since the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, created by Florentine artist Giuseppe Cassioli (ITA -1865-1942) and chosen after a competition organised by the International Olympic Committee in 1921.

For these Games, the picture of victory is accompanied by the specific inscription: "XVIII OLYMPIAD TOKYO 1964".

On the reverse, an Olympic champion carried in triumph by the crowd, with the Olympic stadium in the background.

N.B: From 1928 to 1968, the medals for the Summer Games were identical.

The Organising Committee for the Games in Munich in 1972 broke new ground by having a different reverse which was designed by a Bauhaus representative, Gerhard Marcks.

References

http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/innovations_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1964

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Summer_Olympics

http://www.infoplease.com/ipsa/A0114650.html