Last Updated on November 17, 2012 by Jimson Lee
If you are going to buy an Olympic History DVD, my first choice is Bud Greenspan.
My second choice is the official documentary of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – Tokyo Olympiad – Criterion Collection
Why?
Because there are no interviews and practically no dialog in this documentary. It’s about capturing the emotions and heartbreaks of the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
For the camera person or aspiring firm director, it’s about proper use of lighting, angles, and zoom.
The DVD is over 2.5 hours long, but if you are a cheap bastard and look hard enough, you can find all the parts on YouTube.
HD Quality Video on YouTube
From the DVD, you can find them on YouTube videos in Japanese with Spanish sub-titles.
The men’s 10,000 meter (an upset victory by the American runner Billy Mills) and the marathon (Abebe Bikila’s 2nd Gold medal with shoes) are followed right to the end showing the last finishers. The 1968 Marathon finish would have its fair share of heroics.
Of course, we have Bob Hayes individual 100m victory over Harry Jerome and the famous 8.5 second relay leg in the 4x100m.
Jocelyn Delecour, France’s anchor leg runner, famously said to Paul Drayton before the relay final, “You can’t win, all you have is Bob Hayes”.
Afterwards, Drayton replied, “All you need is Bob Hayes”.
Here is the 4x100m Relay video on YouTube.
Here is the individual race on YouTube. Note the cinder tracks and hammering in the short starting blocks.
UPDATE: Sorry, the video is no longer on YouTube.
Bob Hayes is the fastest human ever.Bob was undefeated in 49 consecutive sprints,between 1962-1964,at 60yds,100yds,100meters.He was world record holder at these 3 distances.At the 1963 aau college track&field championships in ST.Louis,Bob set a new world record at 100yds.9.1 sec.in the pre-lims.In the final,Bob sliped coming out of the blocks,for any other sprinter then or now,the race would have been lost.Hayes still won the race,and equaled his world record,at 9.1sec.This is almost unbeleiveable.Bob Hayes ran as fast as he needed to win.At the 1964 Tokoyo Olympics,Bob won the 100 meters at 10.04,he had a 9.91 in the pre-lims at Tokoyo.This was 47 years ago,on a dirt track.If Hayes was running on todays spring board tracks,better shoes,aerodynamic suits,He would still be the Man.SA.
Bob Hayes anchor leg performance at the 1964 Tokoyo Olympics is considered by the experts to be the fastest 100 meters of all time.Caculated to be 9.5 from a standing start,from an actual 8.6sec.he was timed at for this winning anchor at the 1964 Tokoyo Olympics.Remember this was on a basically, dirt track at Tokoyo.Bob Hayes was clocked at 26.9 miles per hour in 1963,at the 75 yard mark of a 100yd. dash.I wish someone could have got a mph.clocking on him,at this Tokoyo relay win for the U.S.it probably would have been close to 28mph.No doubt in my mind,Bob Hayes is the fastest human ever.SA.