1964 Summer Olympics

Highlights

Yūji Koseki composed the theme song of the opening ceremony.
Yoshinori Sakai, who lit the Olympic Flame, was born in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the day an atomic bomb was dropped on that city.
Judo and women's volleyball, both popular sports in Japan, were introduced to the Olympics. Japan won gold medals in three judo events, but Dutchman Anton Geesink won the Open category. The Japanese women's volleyball team won the gold medal, with the final being broadcast live.
The women's pentathlon (shot put, high jump, hurdling, sprint and long jump) was introduced to the athletics events.
Reigning world champion Osamu Watanabe capped off his career with a gold medal for Japan in freestyle wrestling, surrendering no points and retiring from competition as the only undefeated Olympic champion to date at 189–0.
Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won two gold medals (both for the third time in a row in Team Competition and Floor Exercise events), a silver medal and two bronze medals. She ended her Olympic career and held the record for most Olympic medals at 18 (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze) which stood until broken by American swimmer Michael Phelps at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser won the 100 m freestyle event for the third time in a row, a feat matched by Vyacheslav Ivanov in rowing's single scull event.
Don Schollander (USA) won four gold medals in swimming.
Abebe Bikila (Ethiopia) became the first person to win the Olympic marathon twice.
New Zealand's Peter Snell won a gold medal in both the 800 m and 1500 m.
American Billy Mills, a little-known distance runner, shocked everyone when he won the gold in the men's 10,000 m. No American had won it before and no American has won it since.
British runner Ann Packer set a world record in becoming the surprise winner of the 800 m, having never run the distance at international level before the Games.
Bob Hayes won the 100 m title in a time of 10.0 seconds, equaling the world record. He had run the distance in 9.9 seconds in the semifinal but this was not recognized as a world record as it was wind assisted. He went on to win a Super Bowl ring as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys and was the second gold medalist elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Jim Thorpe was the first).
Joe Frazier, future heavyweight champion of the world, won a gold medal for the USA in heavyweight boxing.
This was the last Summer Olympics to use a cinder running track for athletic events, and the first to use fiberglass poles for pole vaulting.
Unfortunately for Japan, several big international events also took attention during the Olympics, including the sudden removal of Nikita Khrushchev and the first nuclear test in China.
The nation of Malaysia, which had formed the previous year by a union of Malaya, British North Borneo and Singapore, competed for the first time in the Games.
The US men's swimming team won all but three gold medals (7 out of 10).