Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 2024)
Venue	Stadio Olimpico
Dates	August 31–September 8
Competitors	1,016 from 73 nations
←  1956 1964  →

At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, 34 events in athletics were contested, 24 by men and 10 by women. There were a total number of 1016 participating athletes from 73 countries.

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Armin Hary   United Team of Germany	10.2 (=OR)	Dave Sime   United States	10.2 (=OR)	Peter Radford   Great Britain	10.3
200 metres details	Livio Berruti   Italy	20.5 (=WR)	Lester Carney   United States	20.6	Abdoulaye Seye   France	20.7
400 metres details	Otis Davis   United States	44.9 (WR)	Carl Kaufmann   United Team of Germany	44.9 (WR)	Malcolm Spence   South Africa	45.5
800 metres details	Peter Snell   New Zealand	1:46.3 (OR)	Roger Moens   Belgium	1:46.5	George Kerr   British West Indies	1:47.1
1500 metres details	Herb Elliott   Australia	3:35.6 (WR)	Michel Jazy   France	3:38.4	István Rózsavölgyi   Hungary	3:39.2
5000 metres details	Murray Halberg   New Zealand	13:43.4	Hans Grodotzki   United Team of Germany	13:44.6	Kazimierz Zimny   Poland	13:44.8
10,000 metres details	Pyotr Bolotnikov   Soviet Union	28:32.2 (OR)	Hans Grodotzki   United Team of Germany	28:37.0	Dave Power   Australia	28:38.2
110 metres hurdles details	Lee Calhoun   United States	13.8	Willie May   United States	13.8	Hayes Jones   United States	14.0
400 metres hurdles details	Glenn Davis   United States	49.3 (OR)	Clifton Cushman   United States	49.6	Dick Howard   United States	49.7
3000 metres steeplechase details	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak   Poland	8:34.2 (OR)	Nikolay Sokolov   Soviet Union	8:36.4	Semyon Rzhishchin   Soviet Union	8:42.2
4 × 100 metres relay details	United Team of Germany  (EUA) Bernd Cullmann Armin Hary Walter Mahlendorf Martin Lauer	39.5 (=WR)	Soviet Union  (URS) Gusman Kosanov Leonid Bartenyev Yuriy Konovalov Edvin Ozolin	40.1	Great Britain  (GBR) Peter Radford David Jones David Segal Nick Whitehead	40.2
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States  (USA) Jack Yerman Earl Young Glenn Davis Otis Davis	3:02.2 (WR)	United Team of Germany  (EUA) Hans-Joachim Reske Manfred Kinder Johannes Kaiser Carl Kaufmann	3:02.7	British West Indies  (BWI) Malcolm Spence Jim Wedderburn Keith Gardner George Kerr	3:04.0
Marathon details	Abebe Bikila   Ethiopia	2:15:16.2 (WB)	Rhadi Ben Abdesselam   Morocco	2:15:41.6	Barry Magee   New Zealand	2:17:18.2
20 kilometres walk details	Volodymyr Holubnychy   Soviet Union	1:34:07.2	Noel Freeman   Australia	1:34:16.4	Stan Vickers   Great Britain	1:34.56.4
50 kilometres walk details	Don Thompson   Great Britain	4:25:30.0 (OR)	John Ljunggren   Sweden	4:25:47.0	Abdon Pamich   Italy	4:27:55.4
High jump details	Robert Shavlakadze   Soviet Union	2.16 m (OR)	Valeriy Brumel   Soviet Union	2.16 m (OR)	John Thomas   United States	2.14 m
Pole vault details	Don Bragg   United States	4.70 m (OR)	Ron Morris   United States	4.60 m	Eeles Landström   Finland	4.55 m
Long jump details	Ralph Boston   United States	8.12 m (OR)	Bo Roberson   United States	8.11 m	Igor Ter-Ovanesyan   Soviet Union	8.04 m
Triple jump details	Józef Szmidt   Poland	16.81 m (OR)	Vladimir Goryaev   Soviet Union	16.63 m	Vitold Kreyer   Soviet Union	16.43 m
Shot put details	Bill Nieder   United States	19.68 m (OR)	Parry O'Brien   United States	19.11 m	Dallas Long   United States	19.01 m
Discus throw details	Al Oerter   United States	59.18 m (OR)	Rink Babka   United States	58.02 m	Dick Cochran   United States	57.16 m
Hammer throw details	Vasily Rudenkov   Soviet Union	67.10 m (OR)	Gyula Zsivótzky   Hungary	65.79 m	Tadeusz Rut   Poland	65.64 m
Javelin throw details	Viktor Tsybulenko   Soviet Union	84.64 m	Walter Krüger   United Team of Germany	79.36 m	Gergely Kulcsár   Hungary	78.57 m
Decathlon details	Rafer Johnson   United States	8392 (OR)	Yang Chuan-kwang   Formosa	8334	Vasili Kuznetsov   Soviet Union	7809

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Wilma Rudolph   United States	11.0	Dorothy Hyman   Great Britain	11.3	Giuseppina Leone   Italy	11.3
200 metres details	Wilma Rudolph   United States	24.0	Jutta Heine   United Team of Germany	24.4	Dorothy Hyman   Great Britain	24.7
800 metres details	Lyudmila Shevtsova   Soviet Union	2:04.3 (=WR)	Brenda Jones   Australia	2:04.4	Ursula Donath   United Team of Germany	2:05.6
80 metres hurdles details	Irina Press   Soviet Union	10.8	Carole Quinton   Great Britain	10.9	Gisela Birkemeyer   United Team of Germany	11.0
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States  (USA) Martha Hudson Lucinda Williams Barbara Jones Wilma Rudolph	44.5	United Team of Germany  (EUA) Martha Langbein Anni Biechl Brunhilde Hendrix Jutta Heine	44.8	Poland  (POL) Teresa Wieczorek Barbara Janiszewska Celina Jesionowska Halina Richter	45.0
High jump details	Iolanda Balaș   Romania	1.85 m (OR)	Jarosława Jóźwiakowska   Poland	1.71 m	none awarded as there was a tie for silver
			Dorothy Shirley   Great Britain
Long jump details	Vera Krepkina   Soviet Union	6.37 m (OR)	Elżbieta Krzesińska   Poland	6.27 m	Hildrun Claus   United Team of Germany	6.21 m
Shot put details	Tamara Press   Soviet Union	17.32 m (OR)	Johanna Lüttge   United Team of Germany	16.61 m	Earlene Brown   United States	16.42 m
Discus throw details	Nina Ponomaryova   Soviet Union	55.10 m (OR)	Tamara Press   Soviet Union	52.59 m	Lia Manoliu   Romania	52.36 m
Javelin throw details	Elvīra Ozoliņa   Soviet Union	55.98 m (OR)	Dana Zátopková   Czechoslovakia	53.78 m	Birutė Kalėdienė   Soviet Union	53.45 m

Medal table

3000 m steeplechase final. Sokolov (#570, URS) is in the lead, chased by Roelants (#242, BEL), Rzhishchin (#568, URS) and Konov (URS). Jones (#420, USA) is on the left

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States  (USA)	12	8	6	26
2	Soviet Union  (URS)	11	5	5	21
3	United Team of Germany  (EUA)	2	8	3	13
4	Poland  (POL)	2	2	3	7
5	New Zealand  (NZL)	2	0	1	3
6	Great Britain  (GBR)	1	3	4	8
7	Australia  (AUS)	1	2	1	4
8	Italy  (ITA)	1	0	2	3
9	Romania  (ROU)	1	0	1	2
10	Ethiopia  (ETH)	1	0	0	1
11	Hungary  (HUN)	0	1	2	3
12	France  (FRA)	0	1	1	2
13	Belgium  (BEL)	0	1	0	1
	Czechoslovakia  (TCH)	0	1	0	1
	Formosa  (ROC)	0	1	0	1
	Morocco  (MAR)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden  (SWE)	0	1	0	1
18	British West Indies  (BWI)	0	0	2	2
19	Finland  (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	South Africa  (RSA)	0	0	1	1
Totals (20 entries)		34	35	33	102

Participating nations

•   Afghanistan  (6)
•   Argentina  (4)
•   Australia  (28)
•   Austria  (10)
•   Bahamas  (3)
•   Belgium  (12)
•   Brazil  (5)
•   British West Indies  (8)
•   Bulgaria  (9)
•   Burma  (1)
•   Canada  (16)
•   Ceylon  (1)
•   Chile  (4)
•   Cuba  (3)
•   Czechoslovakia  (28)
•   Denmark  (9)
•   Egypt  (2)
•   Ethiopia  (6)
•   Fiji  (2)
•   Finland  (26)
•   Formosa  (6)
•   France  (36)
•   United Team of Germany  (91)
•   Ghana  (7)
•   Great Britain  (62)
•   Greece  (19)
•   Guyana  (4)
•   Hungary  (27)
•   Iceland  (7)
•   India  (12)
•   Indonesia  (1)
•   Iran  (1)
•   Iraq  (11)
•   Ireland  (9)
•   Israel  (8)
•   Italy  (47)
•   Japan  (20)
•   Kenya  (5)
•   South Korea  (6)
•   Lebanon  (1)
•   Liberia  (4)
•   Liechtenstein  (2)
•   Luxembourg  (6)
•   Malaya  (3)
•   Mexico  (5)
•   Morocco  (8)
•   Netherlands  (11)
•   New Zealand  (14)
•   Nigeria  (8)
•   Norway  (11)
•   Pakistan  (12)
•   Panama  (4)
•   Philippines  (7)
•   Poland  (52)
•   Portugal  (5)
•   Puerto Rico  (8)
•   Rhodesia  (3)
•   Romania  (9)
•   Somalia  (1)
•   South Africa  (7)
•   Soviet Union  (83)
•   Spain  (13)
•   Sudan  (2)
•   Suriname  (1)
•   Sweden  (28)
•   Switzerland  (22)
•   Thailand  (8)
•   Tunisia  (11)
•   Turkey  (14)
•   Uganda  (4)
•   United States  (81)
•   Uruguay  (1)
•   Venezuela  (8)
•   Yugoslavia  (22)

Records broken

During the 1960 Summer Olympic Games, 28 new Olympic records and 4 new world records were set in the athletics events.

Men's Olympic and world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result	OR	WR
100 metres	August 31	Final	Armin Hary	United Team of Germany	10.2 s	OR
200 metres	September 3	Semi-Final	Livio Berruti	Italy	20.5 s	OR
400 metres	September 6	Final	Otis Davis	United States	44.9 s	OR	WR
800 metres	September 2	Final	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1:46.3	OR
1500 metres	September 6	Final	Herb Elliott	Australia	3:35.6	OR	WR
10,000 metres	September 8	Final	Pyotr Bolotnikov	Soviet Union	28:32.2	OR
4 × 400 metres relay	September 8	Final	Jack Yerman Earl Young Glenn Davis Otis Davis	United States	3:02.2	OR	WR
400 metres hurdles	September 2	Final	Glenn Davis	United States	49.3 s	OR
3000 metres steeplechase	September 3	Final	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak	Poland	8:34.2	OR
Marathon	September 10	Final	Abebe Bikila	Ethiopia	2:15:16.2	OR
50 km walk	September 7	Final	Don Thompson	Great Britain	4:25:30.0	OR
High jump	September 3	Final	Robert Shavlakadze Valeriy Brumel	Soviet Union	2.16 m	OR
Long jump	September 2	Final	Ralph Boston	United States	8.12 m	OR
Triple jump	September 6	Final	Józef Szmidt	Poland	16.81 m	OR
Pole vault	September 7	Final	Don Bragg	United States	4.70 m	OR
Shot put	August 31	Final	Bill Nieder	United States	19.68 m	OR
Hammer throw	September 3	Final	Vasily Rudenkov	Soviet Union	67.10 m	OR
Decathlon	September 6	Final	Rafer Johnson	United States	8,392 points	OR

Women's Olympic and world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result	OR	WR
100 metres	September 2	Semi-Final	Wilma Rudolph	United States	11.3 s	OR
200 metres	September 3	First Round	Wilma Rudolph	United States	23.2 s	OR
800 metres	September 7	Final	Lyudmila Shevtsova	Soviet Union	2:04.03	OR
80 metres hurdles	August 31	Semi-Final	Irina Press	Soviet Union	10.6 s	OR
4 × 100 metres relay	September 7	First Round	Martha Hudson Lucinda Williams Barbara Jones Wilma Rudolph	United States	44.4 s	OR	WR
High jump	September 8	Final	Iolanda Balaş	Romania	1.85 m	OR
Long jump	August 31	Final	Vera Krepkina	Soviet Union	6.37 m	OR
Discus throw	September 5	Final	Nina Romashkova	Soviet Union	55.10 m	OR
Shot put	September 2	Final	Tamara Press	Soviet Union	17.32 m	OR
Javelin throw	September 1	Final	Elvīra Ozoliņa	Soviet Union	55.98 m	OR

References

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia