Alpine skiing at the 1956 Winter Olympics

Alpine skiing at the VII Olympic Winter Games
Venue	Tofana and Faloria (men's GS) Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Dates	27 January – 3 February 1956
No. of events	6
Competitors	183 from 29 nations
←  1952 1960  →

At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, the six alpine skiing events were held from Friday, 27 January to Friday, 3 February. ^{[1] [2]}

Toni Sailer of Austria won all three men's events to become the first alpine ski racer to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. The feat has been repeated once, by Jean-Claude Killy in 1968.

The races were held at the adjacent Tofana, except for the men's giant slalom, which was held at Monte Faloria. The men's downhill was the final event. ^[1]

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Downhill details	Toni Sailer   Austria	2:52.2	Raymond Fellay   Switzerland	2:55.7	Anderl Molterer   Austria	2:56.2
Giant Slalom details	Toni Sailer   Austria	3:00.1	Anderl Molterer   Austria	3:06.3	Walter Schuster   Austria	3:07.2
Slalom details	Toni Sailer   Austria	3:14.7	Chiharu Igaya   Japan	3:18.7	Stig Sollander   Sweden	3:20.2

Source: ^[1]

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Downhill details	Madeleine Berthod   Switzerland	1:40.7	Frieda Dänzer   Switzerland	1:45.4	Lucille Wheeler   Canada	1:45.9
Giant Slalom details	Ossi Reichert   United Team of Germany	1:56.5	Putzi Frandl   Austria	1:57.8	Thea Hochleitner   Austria	1:58.2
Slalom details	Renée Colliard   Switzerland	1:52.3	Regina Schöpf   Austria	1:55.4	Yevgeniya Sidorova   Soviet Union	1:56.7

Source: ^[1]

Participating nations

•   Australia  (7)
•   Austria  (11)
•   Belgium  (1)
•   Bolivia  (1)
•   Bulgaria  (3)
•   Canada  (5)
•   Chile  (3)
•   Czechoslovakia  (4)
•   Finland  (2)
•   France  (13)
•   United Team of Germany  (11)
•   Great Britain  (15)
•   Greece  (3)
•   Iceland  (5)
•   Iran  (3)
•   Italy  (13)
•   Japan  (2)
•   Lebanon  (3)
•   Liechtenstein  (6)
•   Norway  (10)
•   Poland  (8)
•   Romania  (4)
•   Soviet Union  (10)
•   Spain  (4)
•   Sweden  (8)
•   Switzerland  (14)
•   Turkey  (4)
•   United States  (12)
•   Yugoslavia  (4)

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Austria	3	3	3	9
2	Switzerland	2	2	0	4
3	United Team of Germany	1	0	0	1
4	Japan	0	1	0	1
5	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Soviet Union	0	0	1	1
	Sweden	0	0	1	1
Totals (7 entries)		6	6	6	18

Course information

Date	Race	Start Elevation	Finish Elevation	Vertical Drop	Course Length	Average Gradient
Fri  3-Feb	Downhill - men	2,282 m (7,487 ft)	1,380 m (4,528 ft)	902 m (2,959 ft)	3.461 km (2.151 mi)	26.1%
Wed  1-Feb	Downhill - women	2,114 m (6,936 ft)	1,612 m (5,289 ft)	502 m (1,647 ft)	1.552 km (0.964 mi)	32.3%
Sun 29-Jan	Giant Slalom - men	2,336 m (7,664 ft)	1,713 m (5,620 ft)	623 m (2,044 ft)	2.660 km (1.653 mi)	23.4%
Fri 27-Jan	Giant Slalom - women	2,020 m (6,627 ft)	1,612 m (5,289 ft)	408 m (1,339 ft)	1.366 km (0.849 mi)	29.9%
Tue 31-Jan	Slalom - men	1,748 m (5,735 ft)	1,497 m (4,911 ft)	251 m (823 ft)	0.617 km (0.383 mi)	40.7%
Mon 30-Jan	Slalom - women	1,673 m (5,489 ft)	1,498 m (4,915 ft)	175 m (574 ft)	0.456 km (0.283 mi)	38.4%

Source: ^[1]

World championships

From 1948 through 1980, the alpine skiing events at the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships, held every two years. With the addition of the giant slalom, the combined event was dropped for 1950 and 1952, but returned as a World Championship event in 1954 as a "paper race" which used the results from the three events. During the Olympics from 1956 through 1980, World Championship medals were awarded by the FIS for the combined event. The combined returned as a separate event at the World Championships in 1982 and at the Olympics in 1988.

Combined

Men's Combined Medal Athlete   Points   DH GS SL Toni Sailer (AUT) 0.00 Charles Bozon (FRA) 12.65 8 5 7 Stig Sollander (SWE) 16.92 10 16 4     Raymond Fellay (SUI)   18.39 27 11 5 Asle Sjåstad (NOR) 27.25 14 22 18 6 Gino Burrini (ITA) 30.43 6 10 27 Downhill: 3 February, Giant Slalom: 29 January, Slalom: 31 January

Women's Combined Medal Athlete   Points   DH GS SL     Madeleine Berthod (SUI) 9.85 4 17     Frieda Dänzer (SUI) 11.19 11 10 Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo (ITA) 12.31 4 13 4 4 Dorothea Hochleitner (AUT) 12.79 7 12 5 Borghild Niskin (NOR) 13.80 9 7 11 Josefine Frandl (AUT) 13.80 13 5 Downhill: 1 February, Giant Slalom: 27 January, Slalom: 30 January

References

1. "VII Olympic Winter Games: Official Report" (PDF). Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano. LA84 Foundation. 1956. pp. 164–174, 585–599. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
2. "Alpine Skiing at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2018.

External links

• International Olympic Committee results database
• FIS-Ski.com – results – 1956 Olympics – Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
• FIS-Ski.com – results – 1956 World Championships – Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy