Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 2017)
Dates	23 November – 1 December
No. of events	33
Competitors	720 from 61 nations
←  1952 1960  →

At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, 33 athletics events were contested, 24 for men and 9 for women. There were a total number of 720 participating athletes from 61 countries.

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Bobby Morrow   United States	10.5	Thane Baker   United States	10.5	Hector Hogan   Australia	10.6
200 metres details	Bobby Morrow   United States	20.6 (OR)	Andy Stanfield   United States	20.7	Thane Baker   United States	20.9
400 metres details	Charles Jenkins   United States	46.7	Karl-Friedrich Haas   United Team of Germany	46.8	Voitto Hellsten   Finland	47.0
					Ardalion Ignatyev   Soviet Union	47.0
800 metres details	Tom Courtney   United States	1:47.7 (OR)	Derek Johnson   Great Britain	1:47.8	Audun Boysen   Norway	1:48.1
1500 metres details	Ron Delany   Ireland	3:41.2 (OR)	Klaus Richtzenhain   United Team of Germany	3:42.0	John Landy   Australia	3:42.0
5000 metres details	Vladimir Kuts   Soviet Union	13:39.6 (OR)	Gordon Pirie   Great Britain	13:50.6	Derek Ibbotson   Great Britain	13:54.4
10,000 metres details	Vladimir Kuts   Soviet Union	28:45.6 (OR)	József Kovács   Hungary	28:52.4	Al Lawrence   Australia	28:53.6
110 metres hurdles details	Lee Calhoun   United States	13.5 (OR)	Jack Davis   United States	13.5 (OR)	Joel Shankle   United States	14.1
400 metres hurdles details	Glenn Davis   United States	50.1 (=OR)	Eddie Southern   United States	50.8	Josh Culbreath   United States	51.6
3000 metres steeplechase details	Chris Brasher   Great Britain	8:41.2 (OR)	Sándor Rozsnyói   Hungary	8:43.6	Ernst Larsen   Norway	8:44.0
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States  (USA) Ira Murchison Leamon King Thane Baker Bobby Morrow	39.5 (WR)	Soviet Union  (URS) Leonid Bartenyev Boris Tokarev Yuriy Konovalov Vladimir Sukharev	39.8	United Team of Germany  (EUA) Lothar Knörzer Leonhard Pohl Heinz Fütterer Manfred Germar	40.3
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States  (USA) Lou Jones Jesse Mashburn Charles Jenkins Tom Courtney	3:04.8	Australia  (AUS) Leon Gregory David Lean Graham Gipson Kevan Gosper	3:06.2	Great Britain  (GBR) John Salisbury Michael Wheeler Peter Higgins Derek Johnson	3:07.2
Marathon details	Alain Mimoun   France	2:25:00	Franjo Mihalić   Yugoslavia	2:26:32	Veikko Karvonen   Finland	2:27:47
20 kilometres walk details	Leonid Spirin   Soviet Union	1:31:27.4 (OR)	Antanas Mikėnas   Soviet Union	1:32:03.0	Bruno Junk   Soviet Union	1:32:12.0
50 kilometres walk details	Norman Read   New Zealand	4:30:42.8	Yevgeny Maskinskov   Soviet Union	4:32:57.0	John Ljunggren   Sweden	4:35:02.0
High jump details	Charles Dumas   United States	2.12 m (OR)	Chilla Porter   Australia	2.10 m	Igor Kashkarov   Soviet Union	2.08 m
Pole vault details	Bob Richards   United States	4.56 m (OR)	Bob Gutowski   United States	4.53 m	Georgios Roubanis   Greece	4.50 m
Long jump details	Greg Bell   United States	7.83 m (OR)	John Bennett   United States	7.68 m	Jorma Valkama   Finland	7.48 m
Triple jump details	Adhemar da Silva   Brazil	16.35 m (OR)	Vilhjálmur Einarsson   Iceland	16.26 m	Vitold Kreyer   Soviet Union	16.02 m
Shot put details	Parry O'Brien   United States	18.57 m (OR)	Bill Nieder   United States	18.18 m	Jiří Skobla   Czechoslovakia	17.65 m
Discus throw details	Al Oerter   United States	56.36 m (OR)	Fortune Gordien   United States	54.81 m	Des Koch   United States	54.40 m
Hammer throw details	Hal Connolly   United States	63.19 m (OR)	Mikhail Krivonosov   Soviet Union	63.03 m	Anatoliy Samotsvetov   Soviet Union	62.56 m
Javelin throw details	Egil Danielsen   Norway	85.71 m (WR)	Janusz Sidło   Poland	79.98 m	Viktor Tsybulenko   Soviet Union	79.50 m
Decathlon details	Milt Campbell   United States	7937 (OR)	Rafer Johnson   United States	7587	Vasili Kuznetsov   Soviet Union	7465

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Betty Cuthbert   Australia	11.5	Christa Stubnick   United Team of Germany	11.7	Marlene Mathews   Australia	11.7
200 metres details	Betty Cuthbert   Australia	23.4 (=OR)	Christa Stubnick   United Team of Germany	23.7	Marlene Mathews   Australia	23.8
80 metres hurdles details	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty   Australia	10.7 (OR)	Gisela Köhler   United Team of Germany	10.9	Norma Thrower   Australia	11.0
4 × 100 metres relay details	Australia  (AUS) Shirley Strickland de la Hunty Norma Croker Fleur Mellor Betty Cuthbert	44.5 (WR)	Great Britain  (GBR) Anne Pashley Jean Scrivens June Paul Heather Armitage	44.7	United States  (USA) Mae Faggs Margaret Matthews Wilma Rudolph Isabelle Daniels	44.9
High jump details	Mildred McDaniel   United States	1.76 m (WR)	Thelma Hopkins   Great Britain Mariya Pisareva   Soviet Union	1.67 m	none awarded
Long jump details	Elżbieta Krzesińska   Poland	6.35 m (=WR)	Willye White   United States	6.09 m	Nadezhda Dvalishvili   Soviet Union	6.07 m
Shot put details	Tamara Tyshkevich   Soviet Union	16.59 m (OR)	Galina Zybina   Soviet Union	16.53 m	Marianne Werner   United Team of Germany	15.61 m
Discus throw details	Olga Fikotová   Czechoslovakia	53.69 m (OR)	Irina Beglyakova   Soviet Union	52.54 m	Nina Ponomaryova   Soviet Union	52.02 m
Javelin throw details	Inese Jaunzeme   Soviet Union	53.86 m (OR)	Marlene Ahrens   Chile	50.38 m	Nadezhda Konyayeva   Soviet Union	50.28 m

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	16	10	5	31
2	Soviet Union	5	7	10	22
3	Australia	4	2	6	12
4	Great Britain	1	4	2	7
5	Poland	1	1	0	2
6	Norway	1	0	2	3
7	Czechoslovakia	1	0	1	2
8	Brazil	1	0	0	1
	France	1	0	0	1
	Ireland	1	0	0	1
	New Zealand	1	0	0	1
12	United Team of Germany	0	5	2	7
13	Hungary	0	2	0	2
14	Chile	0	1	0	1
	Iceland	0	1	0	1
	Yugoslavia	0	1	0	1
17	Finland	0	0	3	3
18	Greece	0	0	1	1
	Sweden	0	0	1	1
Totals (19 entries)		33	34	33	100

Participating nations

•   Argentina  (2)
•   Australia  (79)
•   Austria  (3)
•   Bahamas  (1)
•   Belgium  (6)
•   Brazil  (6)
•   Bulgaria  (1)
•   Burma  (1)
•   Canada  (18)
•   Ceylon  (1)
•   Chile  (6)
•   Republic of China  (4)
•   Colombia  (4)
•   Cuba  (2)
•   Czechoslovakia  (16)
•   Denmark  (2)
•   Ethiopia  (13)
•   Fiji  (1)
•   Finland  (19)
•   France  (29)
•   United Team of Germany  (45)
•   Great Britain  (56)
•   Greece  (6)
•   Guyana  (2)
•   Hungary  (19)
•   Iceland  (2)
•   India  (8)
•   Indonesia  (3)
•   Iran  (2)
•   Iraq  (1)
•   Ireland  (3)
•   Israel  (1)
•   Italy  (21)
•   Jamaica  (5)
•   Japan  (20)
•   Kenya  (9)
•   South Korea  (8)
•   Liberia  (5)
•   Luxembourg  (3)
•   Malaya  (7)
•   Mexico  (1)
•   New Zealand  (9)
•   Nigeria  (10)
•   North Borneo  (2)
•   Norway  (5)
•   Pakistan  (18)
•   Philippines  (4)
•   Poland  (25)
•   Puerto Rico  (8)
•   Romania  (5)
•   Singapore  (5)
•   South Africa  (9)
•   Soviet Union  (77)
•   Sweden  (18)
•   Thailand  (9)
•   Trinidad and Tobago  (3)
•   Uganda  (3)
•   United States  (83)
•   Uruguay  (1)
•   Venezuela  (5)
•   Yugoslavia  (7)

References

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia