1964 Tokyo Olympics was my first memory of Olympics. Though I was a die hard cricket Fan I followed Olympics too. Tokyo Olympics was held during October. Lyndon B. Johnson was U.S.President and Lalbahadur Sastri was our Priminister. I did my degree in a college situated in Chennai. Our college was in mount road (now Anna Salai) surrounded by New Globe and Odeon theaters. Our college conveniently closes at 3.30.p.m. English Films in those theatres was at 3.45.p.m.Midland Theatre is another theater which was near by where in Hindi Films like Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behati Hi and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje were screened. If we decided to see Hindi films we just cut our last period. The beauty of those days was if you had just Rs.1/- You could have a samosa and tea in nearby Irani café and still buy a decent class ticket. My dad used to give me 10 bucks as pocket money every month. I usually cycle my way to college. Those were the golden days.

The Tokyo Olympics is best remembered for the stunning feat of Abebe Bikila from Ethiopia who repeated the performance of1960 Rome Olympics and won the gold for second time. He won the gold in Rome Olympics by running barefoot. But this time he ran with shoes. Hailing from a poor country that is known for famine and lions he had achieved it with all the odds. What a great performance!

Bob Hayes from U.S.A. won the fastest sprint and bagged the gold in 100 meters dash.

Joe Frazier who won the Heavy weight boxing gold medal went on to became famous in boxing arena and locked in several bouts with Mohamed Ali.

Middle distance running is always my favorite events. Sebastian Coe, Paavo Nurmi and now Kenyan runners are some of the few who are great runners of Middle distance.. Middle Distance involves tactical running and endurance. Peter Snell of New Zealand has won double gold in 800 and 1500 meters. No athlete has repeated since.

India won the Hockey gold perhaps for the last time.

These are my earliest memories of Tokyo Olympics.

Medal Tally for first three places.