In Rome, two sailors, Alan David Butler and Christopher Bevan, finished fourth, which was Rhodesia's best result until it became Zimbabwe in 1980.

Southern Rhodesia sent 29 competitors, including a field hockey team, to the 1964 Summer Games, which was its last Olympic appearance under the Rhodesian banner.

[4] Leonard Hall, for example, won a gold medal in the welterweight division of the 1930 British Empire Games under the South African banner.

Fourteen athletes — nine men and five women — took part in six sports: track and field, boxing, diving, sailing, shooting, and swimming.

[1] Competing in the Flying Dutchman class, sailors Alan David Butler and Christopher Bevan finished fourth, which was Rhodesia's best result under that name.

The threat of an African boycott (supported by the British)[4] of the Games, however, added further pressure from the Mexican government on the organizing committee to withdraw its invitation.

[1] Following the Munich massacre, IOC President Avery Brundage compared the attacks to the political motivation behind the boycott, arguing that both were seeking to dampen the spirit of Olympism.

[1] Rhodesia was still able to compete at the Paralympics in 1968 and 1972, as it had in 1960 and 1964, due to "deliberate decisions by politicians who were unwilling (for a variety of reasons) to invoke sanctions against disabled athletes.