About the Games
This was the first time that the Games had been held in Asia with 5151 participants from 93 countries. They competed in 163 events.
Most medals won (from a total of 41 teams) by: 1. USA – 90 (36, 26, 28), 2. USSR – 96 (30, 31, 35), 3. Japan – 29 (16, 5, 8).
Lithuania in the Games
As many as 16 Lithuanian athletes participated in Tokyo Summer Olympics. Among them – 10 rowers. Five Lithuanians competed in athletics events.
The only Lithuanian boxer Ričardas Tamulis was the only one to win a medal for Lithuanian at the Tokyo Olympiad. Our athlete was bested only by Polish Marian Kasprzyk.
The bronze winner of Rome 1960 Summer Olympics Birutė Zalagaitytė-Kalėdienė was fourth. Adolfas Aleksejūnas, who reached an Olympic record (8 min. 31.8 sec.) during the preliminary competition, placed 7th in the finals. Shot putter Adolfas Varanauskas was 8th.
6 Lithuanians, among them vice-champions of the Rome Olympiad Zigmas Jukna and Antanas Bagdonavičius, as well as Julius Vytautas Briedis, Juozapas Aleksandras Jagelavičius, Petras Karla and Ryšardas Vaitkevičius participated in the rowing eights event and placed 5th in the finals. Yuri Suslin and Volodymyr Sterlik rowed together with Lithuanians, while their coxwain was Yuri Lorentson.
Lithuanian rowers of coxless fours Celestinas Jucys, Eugenijus Levickas, Povilas Liutkaitis, and Jonas Motiejūnas won the B finals and placed 7th.
Interesting facts
The Olympic flame was lit by Yoshinori Sakai who was born in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on that city.
Sixteen nations made their first Olympic appearance in Tokyo: Algeria, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Northern Rhodesia, Senegal, and Tanzania.
Zambia declared its independence on the same day as the Closing ceremony. The athletes of this country came to Tokyo as representatives of Northern Rhodesia. It was the first time in the Olympic history when the participation in the Games was started by one country, and ended by another, although with an unchanged delegation.
Judo and volleyball were introduced to the Olympics. The women’s pentathlon (shot put, high jump, hurdling, sprint and long jump) was introduced to the athletics events.
Ethiopian Abebe Bikila became the first person to win the Olympic marathon twice. He had also triumphed in Rome 1960 Summer Olympics.
Tokyo 1964 Olympics
Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics website:
