With the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 volleyball competition underway, many in Japan and beyond will remember Tokyo 1964; the Olympic birthplace of volleyball and the Japan women’s national team’s historic gold-medal-winning performance which captured the hearts of a nation.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Volleyball
Volleyball celebrates return to Olympic birthplace for Tokyo 2020
Looking back at volleyball’s Tokyo 1964 Olympic debut and the making of Japan’s volleyball heroines
Published 06:49, 29 Jul 2021
Volleyball’s illustrious history at the Games actually began at the Olympic Games Paris 1924 with a demonstration event performed by the USA. However, it would be a long 40-year wait – which included the founding of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) in 1947 - for the sport which was booming in popularity worldwide to finally make its official Olympic debut.
It was indeed a long wait for the Volleyball Family, but one which set the wheels in motion for the Japan women’s team – dubbed the “Oriental Witches” by Russian media – to sweep aside the competition at a home Games and carve their names in volleyball and Olympic history.
Japanese team possessed exceptional resilience and determination. Photo credit: JVA
Despite heading to the Games as World Champions, the Japanese team of the 1960s were by no means the favourites going into the tournament. In fact, many deemed their victory at the 1962 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship to be a fluke. However, any notion of a fluke was soon extinguished in 1964.
With the hopes and dreams of a nation behind them, the Japanese team took immense pressure and funnelled it into a fierceness on court that no other team could withstand. They may not have been the tallest (the team’s tallest player was 170cm) or the strongest, but their fighting spirit, determination and resolve were boundless. And, most importantly, their superior teamwork and magical receive and rotate technique which was honed by coach Hirobumi Daimatsu, helped propel them to victories most thought impossible.
During the final, the Japanese team toppled an incredibly strong Soviet Union team – 15-11, 15-8, 15-13 – to roars of adulation from the packed stadium. Outside of the stadium, much of Japan was glued to television sets and, according to research, 94.5 per cent of all TV-owning households in Japan watched the final point on television. To this day, it is the second-most-watched TV programme in Japanese history.
The Japanese team toppled an incredibly strong Soviet Union team to win the world’s first Olympic volleyball gold medal. Photo Credit: JVA
They were the world’s first Olympic volleyball champions and the Olympics’ first-ever gold medallists in a women’s team sport. It will forever be a source of pride that volleyball was able to provide the platform for a victory which many consider a symbol of Japan’s resurgence after World War II.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union took home the first-ever men’s Olympic volleyball gold medal with victory over Czechoslovakia. While the Japan men’s team of the 1960s did not quite match the gold medal of the women’s team, they did beat the Soviet Union during the tournament and earned a bronze medal podium finish.
Tokyo 1964 may have marked the sport of volleyball’s Olympic debut, but much more importantly, it was the beginning of an incredible story which brought joy to so many. And just as it is now, it was an opportunity for volleyball players who train tirelessly to demonstrate their skill at the world’s largest celebration of sport, so that they can continue to tell their stories on the field of play.
Olympic volleyball’s return to Japan after nearly 57 years is already underway at the beautiful Ariake Arena. The current Japan women’s national team face Kenya, Serbia, Brazil, South Korea and the Dominican Republic in the pool phase of their Olympic volleyball campaign in the city of Tokyo.