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Home > Olympics > Summer Olympics > Tokyo 1964
Tokyo 1964
The Olympic Games, or Olympics, are an international multi-sport event taking place every four years which comprises of summer and winter games. Though the first ancient games were held in 776 B.C., the modern games started from 1896. The unity of the 5 continents is shown on the Olympic flag by five colorful intertwined rings of red, blue, green, yellow, and black, created by Baron Pierre de Coubertin to represent at least one color of the participating country’s national flag.
The 1964 Olympic Games were held at a new and refreshing venue of Tokyo. This Olympic event was depicted as the summer Olympic XVIII games. The opening ceremony of the event was held on 10 October and included the official opening of the games by the Emperor Hirohito, lighting the Olympic flame. The Tokyo 1964 Olympics included 93 nations, 163 events and 5,151 athletes including 678 women and 4,473 men.
The Tokyo 1964 Olympics included 19 sports that comprised of aquatics, athletics, basketball, boxing, canoe, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon rowing, sailing, shooting, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling. Judo and volleyball were initiated into the Olympic programme for the first time. American swimmer Don Schollander won four gold medals. Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia became the first repeat winner of the marathon. Russian rower Vyacheslav Ivanov won the single sculls for the third time, and Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser won the 100 meter freestyle for the third time.
The Hungarian water polo player Dezso Gyarmati won his fifth successive medal. Another Hungarian, Greco-Roman wrestler Imre Polyak, finally won a gold medal after finishing second in the same division at the previous three Olympics. By winning two medals of each kind, Larysa Latynina of the Ukraine brought her career medal total to an incredible 18.
The United States of America once again proved that their athletic importance and the respect for the sports are dominating over the other continents and nations. They presented leading position with 36 gold medals, 26 silver medals and 28 bronze medals that specific year. Finally, the Olympic events concluded with a grand closing ceremony on 24th of October, 1964.
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