They say you always remember your first. Mine in Olympics terms was Tokyo in 1964, where I was a fresh - faced young scribe in his early twenties (and one still with hair, if somewhat wet behind the ears!) assigned to his Games debut.

It was one that remains etched in the consciousness for many reasons, not least because I had been married just a few weeks before disappearing to the Far East for over a month. The new missus wasn't best pleased - though we're still together 49 years later.

And so the Olympic Rings have turned full circle. Tokyo it will be again in 2020 - although alas probably not a journey I shall be repeating in my journalistic dotage.

But Tokyo's selection as host city seven years hence evokes memories of what I consider the last of the "pure" Olympics, untainted by drugs, terrorism, boycotts, body searches, brown envelopes or other assorted scandals.

No one played political Games and perhaps for the last time competitors seemed to reflect the Olympic ideal that it is not so much the winning, but the taking part. Baron Pierre de Coubertin was surely smiling down on them benevolently.

Tokyo 1964 is what I consider the last of the "pure" Olympics

It is highly doubtful whether such purity of sporting spirit will prevail in 2020, for the Olympics have changed darkly beyond anything that Tokyo 1964 would recognise.

For one thing, there are pros involved now - plus quite a few cons.

In the dozen Summer Games I have covered since I have seen the Olympics manifestly outgrow anything that Tokyo could have offered them half century ago.

Then there was a simple, innocent charm about those Games that has never been totally replicated, no doubt because the Olympic bandwagon has rolled deep into too-frequently malevolent territory, beginning in 1968 when the Mexican Government ruthlessly gunned down protesting students in the notorious Place of the Three Cultures and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), not for the first time, suddenly developed a case of myopia.

Mexico City followed up with the Black Power demo by Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Four years earlier in Tokyo the only black and white issue was the fact that this was how the Olympics were viewed on our television screens.

Munich brought the Israeli massacre, Montreal, Moscow and Los Angeles were winged by boycotts and then in Seoul a red-eyed Ben Johnson injected drugs into the Olympic bloodstream where it has been coursing virulently through the veins ever since.

I missed Atlanta (some say I wasn't a bad judge) but Barcelona had been pleasantly good and while all had a few hiccups and controversies along the way Sydney, Athens and, of course London were eminently enjoyable.

While some distance from the simplistic Games of '64, they helped alleviate some of those earlier bad Olympic dreams.

Tokyo 1964 was a happy Olympics for Britain, who collected 20 medals overall including long-jump gold from Lynn Davies


No nightmares about Tokyo though. Just fond recollections.

I sometimes still hum the catchy jingle that woke us every day: "Good morning, Tokyo, happy to be greeting you."

These really were a happy Olympics, especially for Britain, who collected 20 medals overall with long-jump golds from Lynn "The Leap" Davies and the original Golden Girl, Mary Rand.

Plus outsider Ann Packer's shock triumph in the 800 metres and the poignant moment when the wife of the walker Ken Matthews dashed on to the track to embrace him as he crossed the line.

No politics in the last of the Olympics Summer Wine, but a future eminent politician played his part.

Menzies Campbell, later to become Lib Dem leader, was a former rugby winger whose fleet-footedness translated into sprinting for Britain in Tokyo.

Now Sir Menzies, 72-year-old "Ming" typified how different were those Games to those that followed. "They, were free of drugs - at least we assumed they were - and it was before commercialism set in," he told insidethegames. "Adidas gave us gave us a pair of spikes and a pair of warm-ups and if you were lucky you got a bag.

"Most of us had only run on grass or cinder tracks and I remember the team captain, Robbie Brightwell, looking at all those wonderful facilities there and saying to us: 'There are only two ways to compete here - be a total scrubber or go home with a gold medal'."

Ming didn't win gold but he was never a scrubber. His 10.2sec for the 100m was a British record that lasted for eight years and he once broke a 53-year-old record for the rarely run 300 yards. The year after Tokyo he was appointed British team captain.

Yoshinori Sakai, born on the day of the Hiroshima bomb, lights the
Tokyo 1964 Olympic flame


It rained quite a lot in Tokyo but no one seemed to mind. The Games were held late in the year, between October 10 and 24, the last lap of the Torch Relay from Olympia to light the flame poignantly being run by the 19-year-old Yoshinori Sakai, a young athlete born in Hiroshima on the day of the atomic bomb.

Swimmer Anita Lonsborough, a gold medallist in Rome four years earlier, carried the British flag, but it was the Stars and Stripes that fluttered most triumphantly in the Olympic Stadium.

Bob Hayes, one of the fastest men ever seen, returned the 100m sprint title to the United States and his compatriot Billy Mills, surprisingly defeated Australian favourite Ron Clarke in the 10,000m, becoming the first Native American to win Olympic gold.

The 5,000m was also a sad affair for the demoralised Clarke, who finished fourth to another American unknown, Bob Schul.

There were other shocks too, but one of the biggest was how comparatively easy it became to gain access to the Olympic Village.

In Tokyo, there was no hype, and no hassle either. Getting into the village was a piece of cake - or rather, a bottle of gin.

I should explain. Tokyo's Olympic Village was not the maximum-security compound that others, by necessity, later became.

No scowling armed police or heavy-handed militia. Just one charming chap, booted and suited in civvies, checking passes at the gate.

However, entry to journalists was restricted to certain times, not all of them convenient for our deadlines.

Although he spoke little English, our benevolent gatekeeper chum always seemed pleased to see us. We gathered he had a liking for all things British - not least, Booths Gin.

One of us happened to have a Duty Free bottle that we decided to present to him as a goodwill gesture, much to his delight.

From then on whenever we wanted to interview any of the athletes inside the village he would motion us through without any check, bowing low as he smilingly murmured: "Ah, Booths!"

It was during such a Booths-facilitated excursion that I had one of the most memorable encounters of my career.

Tokyo 1964 is where I became the first man to put Smokin' Joe Frazier on the floor

I was wandering through the village when hurtling around a corner pedalling furiously on a bike came this large American with the biggest thighs I had ever seen.

He swerved to avoid me and promptly fell off.

He looked the aggressive sort so I gulped and swiftly apologised. "No, problem," he replied, dusting himself down. "My fault. Shoulda looked where I was going. You ok fellah?"

Thus, I became the first man to put Smokin' Joe Frazier on the floor.

Fortunately for me the late Joe, who went on to win the Olympic heavyweight gold and the world heavyweight championship, wasn't smokin', just smilin'.

While my personal, preference for the 2020 Games would have been persistent contenders Istanbul, where there would have been a refreshing change of pace and culture in an alluring city that straddles two continents, I have no doubt Tokyo will do a superb job as second time round hosts.

And it may or may not be significant that no Japanese athlete has ever failed a drugs test in the Olympics or, as far as can be ascertained, at any other major sports event.

The 2020 Olympics are in a safe pair of hands


As Jacques Rogge said after opening the envelope, being a surgeon he appreciates a safe pair of hands, and Tokyo will provide them. Clean ones, too, apparently.

Their 2020 vision is based on a sound economy, with a reserve fund for the Games of $4.5 billion (£2.9 billion/€3.3 billion).

The bid was built on the pedigree of Japan successfully staging not only a previous Olympics, but the football World Cup, an Athletics World Championships and a Winter Olympics.

Japanese fans are polite, enthusiastic, surprisingly knowledgeable and respectful of Olympic ideals. There will be no problems with TV and sponsorship revenue, and infrastructure is excellent.

And by 2020 the nuclear accident of Fukushima should be long forgotten.

Of course, there will be a hard act to follow after the extraordinary flair of London 2012 and, despite current misgivings, what is sure to be a carnival in Rio.

And here's a thought. With wrestling back in the Olympics at least for 2016 and 2020 - something the Japanese themselves had wanted - might we even see sumo on the menu?

Personally, I'd settle for another touch of sporting sushi.

So, good morning again Tokyo. Happy to be greeting you again.

And thanks for the memories.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.