1956 Summer Olympics

The Summer Olympic Games 1956 ( officially Games of the XVI. Olympiad called ) took place between December 8, 1956 in Melbourne, Australia from November 22. Due to strict quarantine regulations for horse riders games, however, were discharged five months earlier from 10 to 17 June in Stockholm ( Sweden).

  • 6.1 schedule
  • 6.2 Demonstration sports

Award

Melbourne was elected at the 43rd Session of the IOC on 28 April 1949 in Rome to the venue. In the final round of voting to put the city in a voice lead through to Buenos Aires. Other candidate cities were Mexico City as well as Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and San Francisco six U.S. cities. It was the last time that several cities from the same country competed to host the Olympic Games.

Closing ceremony without separation by nation

Prior to 1956, the athletes ran at the closing ceremony, as at the opening, according to a separate nations. In Melbourne, all came to a proposal by the 17 -year-old Melbourners John Wing as a symbol of global sporting ties mixed into the stadium. As Wing watched the opening ceremony, he turned with a letter to the organizers, in which he suggested that athletes should not invade separated by nations at the closing ceremony, but can move freely should. She discovered that the athletes belong to one big Olympic family in which there were no nations and borders. The informal graduation ceremony and then the proposal was well received, so this applies since then as an Olympic tradition.

Outstanding athletes

  • The most successful athletes were the gymnasts Agnes Keleti of Hungary with four gold medals and two silver medals and Larissa Latynina of the Soviet Union with four gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze medal.
  • The best male athletes was the Soviet gymnast Viktor Chukarin with three gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze medal.
  • The heroines of Australians were the sprinter Betty Cuthbert with the gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters, as well as the Australian 4 x 100 - meter relay and the swimmer Dawn Fraser with two gold medals and one silver medal.
  • To olympic legend of the German Olympic champion Hans Günter Winkler was with his wonder mare Halla during the Equestrian Games in Stockholm.

Worth mentioning

  • For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games outside Europe and the USA as well as in the southern hemisphere were held.
  • Flag bearer for the German team at the opening ceremony was the athlete Karl -Friedrich Haas.
  • The first gold medal for Germany in Melbourne won the canoeists Meinrad Miltenberger and Michel scouring the double kayak. This was also the first gold medal for a German team for the Games in Berlin in 1936; 1948 Germany was excluded; 1952 neither West Germany nor the Saarland had been able to win a gold medal, the GDR had not participated.
  • Carlo Pedersoli, better known under the name Bud Spencer, took the second time after 1952 Olympics part. He reached over 100 meters freestyle eleventh place.
  • The games were the first to be televised live.
  • At the games, it had come to a head, accidentally than for the national Chinese team the flag of the People's Republic of China was hoisted. The National Chinese athletes stormed then the cheers of the spectators the flagpole and tore down the red flag.
  • The Games of Melbourne have also been called " the friendly games".
  • Athletes reaped during the invasion of Hungary into the stadium during the opening ceremony more applause than the host team Australia. Famous and infamous was the blood game of Melbourne, the meeting of the Hungarian with the Soviet Select Matchday on the penultimate of the Olympic water polo tournament. With the score at 4-0 for the Hungarian water polo player, both parties run with great aggressiveness game one minute abandoned before the end of normal time. After canceling the police had to intervene because the audience - consisting to a large extent from exile Hungary - Soviet water polo players were concerned aggressive. In the common dressing room a chain of police officers separated the two teams.

Participant

At the games in total participated 3348 athletes from 72 nations in Stockholm 164 athletes from 29 nations, in Melbourne, only 67 nations with 3184 athletes ( 2813 men, 371 women). Ethiopia, Fiji, Kenya, Liberia, Malaya and North Borneo - now both countries are parts of Malaysia - and Uganda had their Olympic debut.

The once divided Germany took, as well as later at the Olympic Games in 1960 and 1964, with an all-German team part. It brought together athletes from the FRG, the GDR, and the 1956 still autonomous Saarland. This first all-German team came under the banner of black-red- gold (without coat of arms ), which was the official flag of both West Germany and East Germany until September 1959. For the list of all-German team at the Winter and Summer Games 1956, the National Olympic Committees of the two German states were given in 1958 by the IOC Alberto - Bonacossa trophy.

Boycotts

Three countries ( Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland ) boycott the games because of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact in Hungary ( Hungarian national uprising ) only a few weeks before the Games. Three other countries ( Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq) boycott the Games because of the Suez crisis. At the early Equestrian Games in June Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland and Egypt had yet participated. The People's Republic of China issued two weeks before the Games announced that they would not participate, because the Republic of China was admitted.

Sports

A total of 151 competitions were held, of which 6 are in the Equestrian Games in Stockholm. The number of sports was 17, which also included swimming water polo and diving. According to today's count, there were even 23 sports.

The competitions were the same as in 1952 in Helsinki, only two in swimming competitions have been included in the butterfly to get the classic breaststroke.

Schedule

Demonstration sports

As with the 1952 Games, the organizing committee could take two demonstration competitions in the program: a national sport and a foreign sport. The OC decided to

  • Australian Football
  • And baseball.

The game in the Australian Football was played on Friday, December 7th, between two Australian teams in the Main Stadium. Inclusion in the Olympic program has this discipline as well as the U.S. version, which was 1932 demo station sport not yet been found.

The baseball game was six days earlier, on Saturday, December 1, also in the Main Stadium. An American selection defeated the Australian selection with clear 11:3. Baseball was still repeatedly demonstration sport and belonged from 1992 to 2008 on the Olympic program.

Swell

  • Official IOC Report 1956 ( PDF, 34.1 MB)
  • Official IOC report Equestrian Games 1956 ( PDF; 52.7 MB)
Olympic Oath John Landy Ron Clarke Italy Unified Team of Germany 1956 Summer Olympics medal table International Olympic Committee Ágnes Keleti Halla (horse) Karl-Friedrich Haas Michael Scheuer (kayaker) Blood in the Water match Children of Glory 1960 Summer Olympics 1964 Summer Olympics BRD (Germany) Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics Water polo at the 1956 Summer Olympics Diving at the 1956 Summer Olympics Basketball at the 1956 Summer Olympics Cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics Rowing at the 1956 Summer Olympics Sailing at the 1956 Summer Olympics Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics American Football 1924 Summer Olympics 1940 Summer Olympics 1988 Summer Olympics Winter Olympic Games 1928 Winter Olympics 1940 Winter Olympics 1948 Winter Olympics 1952 Winter Olympics 1960 Winter Olympics 1972 Winter Olympics 1984 Winter Olympics 1960 Summer Paralympics 1964 Summer Paralympics 1968 Summer Paralympics 1972 Summer Paralympics 1976 Summer Paralympics 1980 Summer Paralympics 1984 Summer Paralympics 1988 Summer Paralympics 1992 Summer Paralympics 1996 Summer Paralympics 2000 Summer Paralympics 2004 Summer Paralympics 2012 Summer Paralympics 2016 Summer Paralympics 2020 Summer Paralympics 1976 Winter Paralympics 1980 Winter Paralympics 1984 Winter Paralympics 1988 Winter Paralympics 1992 Winter Paralympics 1994 Winter Paralympics 1998 Winter Paralympics 2002 Winter Paralympics 2006 Winter Paralympics 2010 Winter Paralympics 2014 Winter Paralympics 2018 Winter Paralympics Youth Olympic Games 2010 Summer Youth Olympics 2014 Summer Youth Olympics 2016 Winter Youth Olympics 2018 Summer Youth Olympics Integrated Authority File
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