Mikio Oda

was a Japanese athlete and the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist. He was the first Asian Olympic champion in an individual event.. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-04-26.

Oda's main event was triple jump, but he also competed in long jump and high jump, and participated in all three events in the 1924, 1928 and 1932 Summer Olympics. His Olympic gold medal win came in 1928, in Amsterdam, where he won the triple jump event with a result of 15.21 meters. Oda later also set the world record in the sport, when he jumped for 15.58 m while studying in Waseda University during 1931.

Upon retirement from competitive athletics, he focused his efforts on sports administration, becoming a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee in 1948 and later taking part in the IAAF's technical committee. His sporting achievements were recognised with the creation of the Mikio Oda Memorial International Amateur Athletic Game, an annual track and field competition that has been held since 1967.

During the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the Olympic flag was raised to a height of exactly 15.21 meters, to pay respect to Oda's achievement 36 years earlier. In 2000, Oda was chosen as the best Asian male athlete of the century by a panel of track and field experts.

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