The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's invasion of China, before ultimately being canceled because of World War II. The 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia, and the first time South Africa was barred from taking part due to its apartheid system in sports. (South Africa was, however, allowed to compete at the 1964 Summer Paralympics, also held in Tokyo, where it made its Paralympic Games début.) These games were also the first to be telecast internationally. The games were telecast to the United States using Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, and from there to Europe using Relay 1.

Tokyo won the rights to the Games on May 26, 1959, at the 55th IOC Session in Munich, West Germany, over bids from Detroit, Brussels and Vienna.

The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that started in 1904. The Winter Olympics were also created due to the success of the summer Olympics.

The olympics have increased from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male athletes to a 300-event sporting celebration with over 10,000 competitors from 205 nations. Organizers for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing expected approximately 10,500 athletes to take part in the 302 events on the program for the games.

The United States has hosted four Summer Olympics Games, more than any other nation. The United Kingdom will have hosted three Summer Olympics Games when they return to the British capital in 2012, all of them have been (and will be) in London, making it the first city to hold the Summer Olympic Games three times. Australia, France, Germany and Greece have all hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. Other countries that have hosted the summer Olympics are Belgium, China, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the Soviet Union and Sweden. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro will host the first Summer Games in South America. Four cities have hosted two Summer Olympic Games: Los Angeles, London, Paris and Athens. Stockholm, Sweden, has hosted events at two Summer Olympic Games, having hosted the games in 1912 and the equestrian events at the 1956 Summer Olympics—which they are usually listed as jointly hosting. Events at the summer Olympics have also been held in Hong Kong and the Netherlands (both represented by their own NOCs), with the equestrian events at the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Hong Kong and two sailing races at the 1920 Summer Olympics being held in the Netherlands.

Yukio Endo (遠藤 幸雄, Endō Yukio^?, 18, 1937 – March 25, 2009) was a Japanese artistic gymnast, Olympic champion and world champion.

He was born in Akita City, Akita-ken.

He won gold medals with the Japanese team in three Olympics, in 1960, 1964 and 1968. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo he also received two individual gold medals, in parallel bars, and in individual all-around.

He died of esophageal cancer.

Endō received six individual medals at the 1962 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, including a gold medal in floor exercise, and Japan also won the team competition. He received two individual silver medals at the 1966 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and Japan won the team competition.

Endō was a four-time Japanese all-around Men's Gymnastic champion.

Endō was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1999. He received the Japanese Emperor's Medal in 1996.

Shuji Tsurumi (鶴見 修治, Tsurumi Shūji^?, born January 29, 1938) is a Japanese gymnast and Olympic champion.

Tsurumi competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome where he received a gold medal in team combined exercises, and a bronze medal in pommel horse. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo he received a gold medal in team combined exercises, and silver medals in individual all-around, pommel horse, and parallel bars.

Tsurumi received a silver medal in individual all-around at the 1966 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and Japan won the team competition.

Robert Lee "Bullet Bob" Hayes (December 20, 1942 – September 18, 2002) was an Olympic sprinter turned American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. An American track and field athlete, he was a two-sport stand-out in college in both track and football at Florida A&M University. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. He was officially inducted in Canton, Ohio on August 8, 2009. Hayes is the second Olympic gold medalist to be inducted to the Hall of Fame, after Jim Thorpe.

Once considered the world's fastest man by virtue of his multiple world records in the 60-yard, 100-yard, 220-yard, and Olympic 100-meter dashes, Hayes is the only man to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring.

Hayes attended Matthew Gilbert High School (now a middle school) in Jacksonville, where he was a backup halfback on the football team. The 1958 Gilbert High Panthers finished 12-0, winning the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Association black school state championship with a 14-7 victory over Dillard High School of Fort Lauderdale before more than 11,000 spectators. In times of segregation laws, their achievement went basically unnoticed, yet 50 years later they were recognized as one of the best teams in FHSAA history.