Taiko drummers, flag wavers and traditional dance troupes paved the way for the star turn Usain Bolt, who took part in an exhibition relay to formally introduce the stadium.

Olympic organisers have promised a hi-tech celebration and outstanding facilities for the Games themselves next July, by which time the International Olympic Committee will also have to make a decision on whether a country will be allowed to participate.

There was a similar scenario the last time the Games were held in Tokyo.

Russian participation was not in question in 1964, but South Africa’s apartheid regime had alienated the nation in world sport.

Although they were not yet formally expelled from the Olympic Movement, they did not appear on the Olympic stage at the Games in Innsbruck or Tokyo.

The IOC also threatened a ban on athletes from Indonesia and North Korea.

In 1963, Indonesia had staged the "Games of the New Emerging Forces" (GANEFO).

These were overtly political in nature and had not received official sanction from the IOC or from most International Federations.

The dispute dragged on for much of the year before a decision was reached and those who competed at GANEFO were indeed barred from the Tokyo Olympics.

The most significant athlete to be affected was North Korea’s world-class women’s 400 metres star Sin Kim-dan. She was destined never to compete at an Olympics.

The Indonesians did taste success in Tokyo in 1964. They beat Denmark to win the Thomas Cup, badminton’s international men’s team competition, when it was held in the city.

President Sukarno was said to have exhorted them to "do their utmost to retain the cup and uphold the reputation of the Indonesian revolution".

The Tokyo Olympics naturally took centre stage in the sporting year, but were not scheduled until October, although qualification competitions took place throughout the year.

In May, there was tragedy at a football qualifier in Lima.

Controversy raged when Peru were denied a late equaliser by Argentina and the crowd came onto the field, while police fired tear gas.

As spectators tried to escape the fumes, many were crushed on the stairways leading from the stadium.

‘"We were in the dressing room for two hours before we could leave so we did not know the magnitude of what was going on," recalled Peruvian star Hector Chumpitaz.

The respected Argentinian football magazine El Grafico described the scenes as "a picture of horror".

The exact death toll was never established but over 300 are known to have perished and some believe the true figure was much higher.

In Lima, daily newspaper El Comercio calculated 80 per cent of those who died were between the ages of 18 and 22.

The Government decreed seven days of mourning and the police officer who gave the order to fire tear gas was later imprisoned.

The year had begun with another Olympic tragedy in the mountains.

A few days before the Winter Olympics were due to begin in Innsbruck, Australian skier Ross Milne and Polish-born British luger Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki were both killed as a result of accidents in training.

Flags were lowered to half mast when the Games opened.

Their modest character was reflected in the passage of the Olympic Flame, lit in Ancient Olympia in what was a first for the Winter Games.

Sweden’s Sixten Jernberg won two cross-country skiing golds and a bronze to bring his career tally to nine, at the time a record for the Winter Games which has since been surpassed.

Italy’s leading bobsledder Eugenio Monti also inscribed his name in the annals.

He loaned a vital axel to the British crew of Tony Nash and Robin Dixon after an equipment failure threatened their prospects. The British won gold but Monti earned a golden reputation for sportsmanship.

"Technical conditions at Innsbruck were excellent but that members of the IOC had not been treated according to their protocol," complained IOC member Lord Burghley.

Although tennis was not Olympic in those days, major competitions were strictly amateur, and it was an era when Australian players dominated.

They swept the board at their own Championships in January to set the tone for another year of dominance. Roy Emerson needed only 78 minutes to defeat countryman Fred Stolle and went on to beat the same opponent at Wimbledon and at the US Championships.

Margaret Smith was almost as dominant in the women’s game and won the first two singles titles of the year. When she beat Brazil’s Maria Bueno at the French Championships in Paris, one reporter described her as "an assassin in a white skirt".

At Wimbledon, Bueno exacted revenge for Paris and also won the US Championships

It was Australian business as usual in the team events as Smith led the way in the Federation Cup, and Emerson and Stolle combined to lift the Davis Cup.

Arnold Palmer was at the height of his powers in golf and reigned supreme at the Augusta Masters.

"He made it look easy," wrote Lincoln A. Warden in the New York Times. His victory by six strokes earned him a fourth green jacket, an unprecedented feat.

An American also won the Open Championship at St Andrews. It was Tony Lema’s only major title. Two years later he died in a plane crash.

The format of football's European Championship in 1964 had echoes of Euro 2020 as no single country hosted the final tournament.

Quarter-finals were conducted on a home-and-away basis and then a host was selected to stage the semi-finals and final.

This honour fell to Spain, then still under Franco’s dictatorship.

They beat Hungary after extra time and then in the final, before 79,000 at the Bernabeu, they defeated the Soviet Union, a result which no doubt pleased the "Generalissimo".

In the European Cup, Internazionale of Milan beat a Real Madrid team still boasting  the legendary Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskás.

It was the first of two successive victories in the competition for Inter. The third did not come until the days of Jose Mourinho over 40 years later.

Emperor Hirohito opened the Olympics in Tokyo that October and many of the performances still resonate today.

Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila was the first to win marathon gold at successive Games, while Billy Mills electrified the track events with an unexpected triumph over 10,000m. An Olympic record was the icing on the cake.

Mary Rand of Great Britain set a world record in the long jump. Her gold medal leap was set in paving stones in her home city of Wells.

In the 800m, compatriot Ann Packer also set a world record to win another dramatic gold, while Australia’s Dawn Fraser broke new barriers with her third successive 100m freestyle gold in the pool.

In her autobiography she told the Australian journalist Harry Gordon how she subsequently acquired a souvenir at the Imperial Palace.

"We followed the moat for a while and suddenly the flag poles were sprouting like large exclamation marks all around us. We chose a fine big Olympic banner with five circles on it," she wrote.

She was arrested but a few hours later and police presented her with the flag. Australian swimming authorities were not so forgiving and issued a life ban.

Judo was part of the Olympics for the first time. It was a source of great pride to the Japanese but they did not bargain for a victory by Dutchman Anton Geeksink in the prestigious open category.

In the boxing ring, Joe Frazier won Olympic heavyweight gold. He would be later become far better known for his fights with another American Olympic champion of a previous vintage.

In February 1964, Cassius Clay faced the fearsome defending champion Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title and made a prediction for the fight in a style which was to become famous.

"If you like to lose your money, then be a fool and bet on Sonny, but if you wanna have a good day, then put it on Clay!"

He won when Liston did not emerge for the seventh round.

Much later it emerged that J.Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had taken a keen interest in the fight after suspicions of match fixing but nothing was ever proved.

By the time they met again, Cassius Clay had become Muhammad Ali. A legend had begun.