The 1964 Tokyo Games

The 1964 Tokyo Games

The 1964 Tokyo Games

In 1964, the Tokyo Olympic Games were held in Tokyo, Japan. And It’s the first to be held in Asia. The carrier of the flame, Yoshinori Sakai, was chosen because he was born on 6 August 1945, the day the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima, in homage to the victims and as a call for world peace.
5,151 athletes participated in the Tokyo Olympic Games, including 678 female athletes and 4,473 male athletes.
United States was the top one nation that won the gold medals. They’ve won 36 gold medals. Soviet Union won 96 medals totally, including 30 gold medals, 31 silver medals, and 35 bronze medals. The host nation Japan, won 16 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 8 bronze medals.
The People's Republic of China (Mainland China) was banned for this Olympic Games, due to its objection to Taiwanese participation under the name “China”. Hong Kong and Taiwan(know as Chinese Taipei)participated this Olympic Games. Sadly,none of them won the medal.
Many interesting things happened that year.
The Japanese men took bronze, behind the dominant Soviet Union, but the home nation was more focused on Japan’s women’s volleyball team. Ten members of the team worked at the same spinning mill near Osaka. The team’s coach, Hirofumi Daimatsu, also worked there, where he was in charge of buying office supplies. Such an ordinary exterior hid a man of extraordinary determination. In the final match, the women played the USSR. The Soviet team actually reached the final with a superior record, with four victories and no sets conceded, but the match did not turn out to be the classic that neutrals might have hoped for. Instead, the Japanese were dominant from beginning to end, winning 3-0. After the Olympic Games were over, the team’s captain, Masae Kasai, met the Prime Minister. She mentioned that she could not meet a prospective husband because of the athletes’ strict training regime. He sympathised, set her up on a date with a man named Kazuo Nakamura - and the two...

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