Two former pilots from the Air Self-Defense Force's Blue Impulse team, which drew Olympic rings in the sky with colored smoke at the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, still remember their preflight nerves even after 55 years. "When I checked the aircraft ...
Pioneering Japanese interpreting team opened nation's eyes to disabled athletes at '64 Paralympics
Foreign residents and wheelchairs — much less Paralympic athletes — were a rare sight in Japan in 1964. Preparations to host the Summer Olympics and the second-ever Paralympics were well underway. Stadiums, highways and hotels were being built at breakneck speeds, cutting-edge photographic and timing ...
Bill Bradley details Chiune Sugihara's heroism in award-winning radio documentary
Bill Bradley, captain of the U.S. gold medal-winning basketball team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was recently involved in another winning (and historically important) project with ties to Japan. And it has nothing to do with basketball. The weekly satellite radio program "American Voices with Senator ...
Olympic legend Billy Mills starts writing monthly newsletter in run-up to 2020 Games
The excitement that marked the official one-year countdown to the 2020 Tokyo Games is real. A vivid expression of human joy that exists in locales near and far. Not surprisingly, Olympic running legend Billy Mills is one of the most excited individuals. Mills marked the occasion ...
Tsunami-hit Ishinomaki to return 1964 Tokyo Olympics cauldron lent as symbol of 3/11 recovery
The city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture held a ceremony Sunday to return the 1964 Tokyo Olympics cauldron, after its four years on display to recognize the area's recovery from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Japan Sport Council offered the cauldron to the ...
Iconic coach Hiroshi Toyoda to enter International Volleyball Hall of Fame
Former Japan Volleyball Association managing director Hiroshi Toyoda will be inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, the association said Tuesday. Originally from Yamaguchi Prefecture, Toyoda, 84, had a distinguished career as a player and coach. A specialist in exercise physiology, Toyoda's introduction of weight ...
Judo icon Yoshihiro Uchida wants to return to Tokyo at age 100 for 2020 Olympics
A second-generation Japanese-American man who coaches judo in California is hoping to return to Japan for his second Tokyo Olympics in 2020 when he will be 100 years old. Yoshihiro Uchida, who took part in the 1964 Summer Games as coach of the U.S. judo ...
New honor for Olympic legend Mills
Legendary distance runner Billy Mills, whose performance at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics catapulted him to global fame, is receiving a special honor close to home. Mills, who captured the gold with an amazing finish in the men's 10,000 meters in Tokyo, is among a quartet ...
Tokyo Olympic torch relay tasked with uniting disaster-hit regions
With the 2020 Tokyo Games dubbed the Olympics to help reconstruct disaster-hit regions, torch relay organizers are tasked with providing a genuine sense of involvement for people still finding their way back to normality. Starting discussions in February, organizers decided the best way to achieve ...
Five-time Olympic medal-winning swimmer and former world-record holder Tsuyoshi Yamanaka died of pneumonia Friday at a Tokyo hospital, his family said. He was 78. Yamanaka won two silver medals in the men's 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle at the 1956 Melbourne Games as a high school ...
Sata Maruyama, who played on the gold-winning women's volleyball team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, died on Sunday, her family revealed Monday. She was 72. At 20 years of age, Maruyama, known more by her maiden name Isobe, was the youngest starter and an attacker ...
Gold in 1964 Tokyo Games set Cassell on life path
From humble roots growing up in a coal mining camp in Wise County, Virginia, Ollan Cassell built a successful, inspiring career in track and field. After first attending East Tennessee State, he rose to prominence at the University of Houston, then continued his athletic career ...
