 Yoshinori Sakai at the 1964 Olympics | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | August 6, 1945 Miyoshi, Hiroshima, Japan | |||||||||||
| Died | September 10, 2014 (aged 69) Tokyo, Japan | |||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||
| Country |  Japan | |||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | |||||||||||
| Club | Waseda University | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Yoshinori Sakai (坂井 義則, Sakai Yoshinori, August 6, 1945 – September 10, 2014) was the Olympic flame torchbearer who lit the cauldron at the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Biography
Sakai was born on the day of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He was chosen for the role to symbolize Japan's postwar reconstruction and peace. An enthusiastic part-time athlete, at the time of the 1964 Olympics he was a member of Waseda University's running club. The nineteen-year-old was coached in the ceremonial duty by Teruji Kogake, a triple jump world record-holder turned coach. He never actually competed in any events at the Olympics.
Two years after the Olympics, he won a gold medal in the 4 × 400 m relay and a silver in the 400 m at the 1966 Asian Games. He joined Fuji Television in 1968 as a journalist and worked mainly in the fields of news and sports.
He died of cerebral bleeding in Tokyo at age 69, on September 10, 2014.
References
- No.2 Teruji Kogake (President of the Tokyo Athletic Association). Tokyo 2016 website
- Masuda, Masafumi (2004). "JOC – 東京オリンピックから40年 (Forty years from Tokyo Olympics)" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
- "1964 Tokyo Olympic torch runner Sakai dies at 69". Mainichi. Kyodo. September 10, 2014. Archived from the original on September 11, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
External links
Media related to Yoshinori Sakai at Wikimedia Commons
| Olympic Games | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byJosl Rieder | Final Olympic torchbearer Tokyo 1964 |
Succeeded byAlain Calmat |
| Preceded byGiancarlo Peris | Final Summer Olympic torchbearer Tokyo 1964 |
Succeeded byNorma Enriqueta Basilio de Sotelo |
 | This biographical article relating to Japanese athletics is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
- 1945 births
- 2014 deaths
- Sportspeople from Hiroshima Prefecture
- People of Shōwa-period Japan
- Japanese male sprinters
- Japanese television journalists
- Olympic cauldron lighters
- Asian Games gold medalists for Japan
- Asian Games medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Asian Games silver medalists for Japan
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1966 Asian Games
- Medalists at the 1966 Asian Games
- Japan Championships in Athletics winners
- Waseda University alumni
- 20th-century Japanese sportsmen
- Japanese athletics biography stubs