Melbourne 1956 - Olympic Games Winners

Start:

22 Nov 1956

End:

08 Dec 1956

Countries:

Athletes:

3314

Sports:

Events:

145

City:

Melbourne, Australia (Stockholm, Sweden - Equestrian)

Melbourne, Australia, was selected to host the 1956 Olympics by one vote over Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The other candidate cities were Mexico and five American cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Detroit, and San Francisco.
Equestrian events were held separately in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 11-17, because Australian quarantine laws were too severe (six months) to allow the entry of foreign horses.

His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened the first Games in the southern hemisphere.
The 1956 Olympics were the first Olympics to be boycotted. Less than three weeks before the beginning of the Olympic Games, the USSR invaded Hungary to quash a revolution against the Communist regime. Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain boycotted the 1956 Summer Olympics to protest against the Soviet invasion. Also, Egypt, Lebanon, and Iraq boycotted Melbourne 1956 due to the Suez Crisis, and China stayed away because of Taiwan.
The United German Team (GDR and FRG) competed under the Olympic flag and used Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as its anthem.
The female gymnast from Hungary Agnes KELETI won four gold and two silver medals.
The Soviet female gymnast Larissa LATYNINA won four gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
The gymnast from the USSR Viktor CHUKARIN won three gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
Another Soviet gymnast, Valentin MURATOV, won three gold and one silver medal.
Australian female athlete Elizabeth CUTHBERT and American Robert MORROW won all three sprint events in Athletics.
Australian athlete Murray ROSE won three gold medals in Swimming.
A new idea was introduced for the Closing ceremony: all the athletes walked together as one team, beginning an Olympic tradition for the following Games.