He has been part of an astonishing nine men’s field hockey tournaments at the Olympic Games between 1964 and 2000 – as an elite umpire, tournament director, judge and as assistant manager of the national team.

The Malaysian men’s hockey team has also made nine appearances at the Games, between 1956 and 2000, and enjoyed reasonable outings but has struggled since then.

Sydney 2000 was Vijayanathan’s last Olympics. The Malaysian hockey team has been struggling to qualify for the Games since then.

Vijayanathan was distraught when he had to skip umpiring at the 1980 Moscow Olympics after the United States led a worldwide boycott of the Games following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.

That year, his wife, Rajaletchmy Rasiah, consoled him by replicating the five interlocking rings of the Olympics on the gate of their house in Taman Kanagapuram here.

“Every time I see the rings on the gate, I think of the beautiful moments at the nine Olympics I have attended. The feeling is as good as gold,” said Vijayanathan, who turns 90 in November.

He said the excitement of the Olympic experience was as real to the officials as they were to the athletes.

“To represent Malaysia as an official at the highest level has been the greatest privilege and honour of my life,” said Vijayanathan, who was inducted into the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s Hall of Fame in 2004.

His Olympics experience began in 1964 in Tokyo, when he accompanied the Malaysian men’s hockey team as the honorary secretary of the Malaysian Hockey Federation.

Tokyo will host the Games for the second time from July 23 – Aug 8, but without spectators.

“I had dreamed of going back as a spectator to where I began my Olympic journey but these are unprecedented times,” he said.

He was MHF secretary from 1956 to 1985 under three MHF presidents — then prime ministers Abdul Razak Hussein and Hussein Onn, and Sultan Azlan Shah.

Malaysia finished in ninth place in Tokyo, as they did in their first Olympic outing in Melbourne 1956.

One of Vijayanathan’s enduring memories was the use of bicycles at the Games. “Thousands of bicycles were available throughout the Olympic village and it felt like a community. We simply got on a parked bicycle and rode it anywhere and left it there. Then, it was fair game for anyone else,” he recalled.

At Mexico 1968, Vijayanathan was the assistant manager of the team that won only against the hosts for 15th spot despite having some brilliant players like Ho Koh Chye, A Francis, N Sri Shanmuganathan, Ranjit Singh and R Yogeswaran.

Vijayanathan, who became an international umpire in 1969, officiated several key fixtures at Munich 1972 when Malaysia finished eighth overall. Most of the players later formed the backbone of the now legendary 1975 Kuala Lumpur World Cup team.

After co-umpiring the rapturous 1975 World Cup final between India and Pakistan, at the age of 44, he was a star umpire at the Montreal Olympics a year later.

Even Pakistan, who had disputed the so-called controversial goal – awarded by Vijayanathan – that gave India the World Cup, succeeded in getting him to umpire their victorious bronze medal playoff against The Netherlands although he was actually in line for the final.

Vijayanathan said he decided to skip the 1980 Moscow Games even though he had been appointed as an umpire by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

When he retired as umpire in 1982 after the Bombay World Cup, he progressed rapidly in other areas of hockey administration, helped by his stature and natural authority.

His rise in world hockey led to him being a member of the two most powerful committees in FIH, in sharp contrast to the fortunes of the Malaysian team which had the talent but often choked under pressure.

At Los Angeles 1984, where Vijayanathan was appointed the tournament director, the Malaysian team, who finished eighth in Montreal, slumped to 11th placing, beating the hosts 9-8 on penalties after a 3-3 draw.

He said his stint as a hockey judge at the next Olympics in Seoul, where the Malaysian team did not qualify, was stress-free and gave him the chance to enjoy other sports.

At Barcelona 1992, he was the assistant tournament director and although Malaysia finished ninth overall, a star was born: a young Mirnawan Nawawi around whose playmaking and scoring genius the team was built.

It was the same story in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 – Vijayanathan shone as tournament director but the team settled for a lowly 11th placing.

Vijayanathan, who was rated the No 1 hockey umpire in the world by FIH in 1972, said he was working on a follow-up book to his 2012 autobiography, ‘The Memoirs of Mr Hockey’, to give an insight into his Olympic adventures.

He said his Olympic and World Cup mementos reminded him of the unifying power of such multicultural sporting events.

One keepsake of significance to him is a 46-year-old metal Balilla whistle, a gift from Alain Renaud of France, his co-umpire at the 1975 World Cup.

“I treasure it very dearly because the 1975 final is much talked about until today and the tournament embellished determination as my strongest characteristic,” he said.

Vijayanathan is unfailingly polite; when you say matter-of-factly that he was a master of the whistle, he says simply, “Thank you, thank you”.