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Sports1964SummerOlympics Tokyo Biography

Japanese-hosted international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honour was subsequently passed to Helsinki due to Japans invasion of China, before ultimately being cancelled due to World War II. The 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia, and marked the first time South Africa was excluded due to its apartheid system in sports. The country was, however, allowed to compete at the 1964 Summer Paralympics, also held in Tokyo, its Paralympic Games debut. The 1964 Games were also the first to be telecast internationally without the need for tapes to be flown overseas, as they had been for the 1960 Olympics four years earlier. The games were telecast to the United States using Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, and from there to Europe using Relay 1. These were also the first Olympic Games to have colour telecasts, albeit partially. The entire 1964 Olympic Games was chronicled in the ground-breaking 1965 sports documentary film Tokyo Olympiad, directed by Kon Ichikawa. The United States won the most gold medals, while the Soviet Union won the most overall medals. Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympics (postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), making it the first city and country in Asia to host the Summer Olympic Games twice; however, Japan also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972 and 1998 in Sapporo and Nagano, respectively. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less