1. Mikio Oda was a Japanese athlete and the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist.
12 Facts About Mikio Oda
1. 2.
Mikio Oda was the first Asian Olympic champion in an individual event.
3.
Mikio Oda was selected as a member of the Japanese Olympic team for the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, participating in all three events.
4.
In 1931, Oda graduated from Waseda University and was employed by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
5.
Mikio Oda served as coach and captain of the Japanese athletics team at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
6.
Mikio Oda served as coach for the Japanese athletics team at the 1952 Summer Olympics at Helsinki and the 1954 Asian Games in Manila.
7.
Mikio Oda's sporting achievements were recognized with the creation of the Mikio Oda Memorial International Amateur Athletic Game, an annual track and field competition that has been held since 1967.
8.
Mikio Oda became a professor at Waseda University from 1965.
9.
In 1976, Mikio Oda was awarded the Olympic Order, the highest award of the Olympic Movement.
10.
In 1988, Mikio Oda was honored by the government as a Person of Cultural Merit, and in 1989, he was named honorary chairman of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations.
11.
Mikio Oda's grave is at the Buddhist temple of Tokei-ji in Kamakura.
12.
In 2000, Mikio Oda was posthumously chosen as the best Asian male athlete of the century by a panel of track and field experts.