Japan at the Olympics JPN-11 Leslie Terrones

1. Tokyo 1964

Japan’s First Summer Olympics Because the XVIII Summer Olympics were held post-war, Japan underwent major changes such as the roads and suburbs being widened and the Shinkansen being built. 93 nations attended and 16 countries attended the Olympics for the first time. The Games established 47 new world records and 111 Olympic records. Judo was included for the first time in the Olympics and Japan won gold in all weight classes except for one special division. Japan’s Women’s Volleyball Team wins for the very first time in Olympic History.

Japan vs. The Soviet Union

2. Sapporo 1972

Japan’s First Winter Olympics The XI Winter Olympics was the first ever winter game held in Asia. It consisted of 35 events in 6 sports and 10 disciplines (alpine skiing, bobsleigh, ice hockey, etc.) Japan won their very first gold in the Winter games and it was earned by Kasaya Yukio in the 70-meter ski jump event along with team-mates Akitsugu Konno and Seiji Aochi winning silver and bronze. This Winter Olympics was the last time a skier won gold using all-wooden skis.

3. Nagano 1998

The XVIII Olympics saw the introduction of new events such as women’s ice hockey, curling, and half-pipe snowboarding. 72 countries participated along with 2,176 athletes in 68 events. The Seventh Paralympic Games were also held in Nagano following the Olympics. It included 34 events with 580 athletes from 32 countries. Japan ranked 7th on the 1998 Winter Olympic Medal Table, with first going to Germany , second to Norway,third to Russia and fifth to the US.

Olympic Medals Gold Silver Bronze Tokyo 1964 16 5 8 Sapporo 1972 1 Nagano 1998 4

Pyeongchang 2018 Japan in the recent Winter Olympics Japan won 13 medals: 4 Gold, 5 Silver, 4 Bronze with six medals won in speed skating alone. Noriaki Kasai (45) the flag bearer for Japan in Pyeongchang 2018, became the first athlete in history to participate in 8 different Winter Olympics. Yuzuru Hanyu (23) won gold in Sochi 2014 and in Pyeongchang 2018, making him the first male singles figure skater in the Winter Olympics since the 1950’s to win a gold medal back-to-back.

From Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo ✈ Tokyo Rio de Janeiro

Tokyo 2020 未来 をつかもう Discover Tomorrow

The 2020 Olympics will be Japan’s first olympics in this century. The Tokyo Games will use as many as their existing venues as they can instead of building new ones. Venues such as the Nippon Budokan for judo and Yoyogi National Gymnasium for handball will be used. The new stadium created by Kengo Kuma is still being built and it will be done in November 2019. It is called the New National Stadium. It will be used for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the track and field events along with the Paralympics. New sports added to the Olympics include: baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding. The mascots for the 2020 Olympics have also been chosen.

B AA 200,000+ Classes from around 16,000 schools in Japan voted on these three pairs of mascots. The winners were pair A and they will be named in June 2018. C

My Opinion The Olympics are an interesting tradition that we keep today. It challenges the world to be at their best and it provides for great entertainment. Japan has begun preparations for 2020 and I look forward to seeing what cultural aspects they incorporate in the Opening Ceremony. I enjoy watching the Olympics and I look forward to the upcoming olympics in Beijing, Paris and LA.

Works Cited http://web-japan.org/factsheet/en/pdf/e18_olympics.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo_at_the_1964_Summer_Olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Winter_Olympics https://www.olympic.org/olympic-games https://www.olympic.org/tokyo-2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzuru_Hanyu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Winter_Olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_at_the_2018_Winter_Olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Summer_Olympics