1964 Summer Paralympics

Nine sports were competed at the 1964 games. In athletics, a wheelchair racing event in the form of a 60 m dash was added; previously the athletics program had included only field events. Wheelchair racing has since become one of the most prominent Paralympic events.[5]

• Archery
• Athletics
• Dartchery
• Snooker
• Swimming
• Table tennis
• Weightlifting
• Wheelchair basketball
• Wheelchair fencing

Athletes from 17 of the 19 National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) won at least one medal. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals. If nations are still tied, equal ranking is given and they are listed alphabetically by IPC country code.

With a few exceptions, each event contributed one medal of each type to the table (although for team events, multiple physical medals were actually awarded). Two bronze medals were awarded in the dartchery, snooker and table tennis events.[6][7][8] Some swimming events did not award silver or bronze medals.[9]

Inaccurate reports

At the start of the Paralympic Games there was no precision in reporting the results of the competitions. The Israeli athlete Michal Escapa was reported to be of Italian nationality and without a first name, as she is mentioned in the International Paralympic Committee[10] of the Italian Paralympic Committee[11] web sites) for the reports of the Swimming at the 1964 Summer Paralympics where she won two bronze medals, simply reported as Escapa and not as Michal Escapa.[12][13] However, as can be seen from a 1968 Israeli newspaper reporting an interview with the athlete, she was the same athlete who had won medals in swimming and table tennis in Tokyo 1964.[14]

  ‡ First-time Paralympic appearance

• To sort this table by nation, total medal count, or any other column, click on the icon next to the column title.

  *   Host nation (Japan)

Rank	NPC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	50	41	32	123
2	Great Britain	18	23	20	61
3	Italy	14	15	14	43
4	Australia	12	11	7	30
5	Rhodesia	10	5	2	17
6	South Africa	8	8	3	19
7	Israel	7	3	13	23
8	Argentina	6	15	16	37
9	West Germany	5	2	5	12
10	Netherlands	4	6	4	14
11	France	4	2	5	11
12	Austria	4	1	7	12
13	Japan*	1	5	4	10
14	Belgium	1	0	2	3
15	Switzerland	0	1	0	1
16	Malta	0	0	2	2
17	Sweden	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		144	138	137	419

Athletes with outstanding performances included Margaret Harriman of Rhodesia who won two gold medals in archery,[15] and Serge Bec of France who won two individuals gold medals, one team gold medal and one team silver medal.[16] Dick Thompson of the United Kingdom won two individual golds, one silver and one bronze in athletics.[17] The United States' Ron Stein won six golds and South Africa's Daniel Erasmus won two golds and two silvers in athletics.[17]

Nineteen delegations participated in the Tokyo Paralympics.[18]

The 1964 Games marked Austria,Fiji and South Africa's Paralympic Games début. South Africa had just been banned from taking part in the 1964 Summer Olympic Games, due to its policy of apartheid. It was not, however, banned from the Paralympics until 1980 Summer Paralympics,as Japan (in a host country position) did not oppose its participation.[19][20] A letter from archery medalist Irene Preslipski published in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader on December 1st, 1964 also mentions delegations from Ceylon, Mexico and the Philippines marching in the opening ceremony. However, these countries only sent in officials.

Members of the Australian Team march at the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 1964 Summer Paralympic Games

The Opening ceremony was organized in the Yoyogi Park, and the Closing Ceremony at Yoyogi National Gymnasium.[5] About 5000 spectators were present at both of the ceremonies.[5] Then Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko were present in both of them.[5]

Earlier it was thought that the Games might not get much media coverage, due to the focus on the Olympic Games, but both radio and television media gave high coverage to the Games.[5]

Yoshisuke Kasai was the chairman of the board of directors.[1] The board had 3 vice-chairmen, namely T. Azuma, H. Dazai and I. Miki.[1] The auditor of the organizing committee was M. Tozawa,[1] and the secretary general was K. Ujiie.[1]

• The Tokyo Games For The Physically Handicapped - Paralympic Tokyo 1964 (Japanese)