The USA Basketball Men's National Team, commonly known as the United States men's national basketball team, is the basketball team representing the United States. They are the most successful team in international competition, winning medals in all nineteen Olympic tournaments it has entered, including sixteen golds. In the professional era, the team won the Olympic gold medal in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. Two of its gold medal-winning teams were inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August 2010: the 1960 team, which featured six Hall of Famers, and the 1992 "Dream Team", featuring 14 Hall of Famers. The team is currently ranked second in the FIBA World Rankings, only behind Spain.
Robert Eugene Richards was an American athlete, minister, and politician. He made three U.S. Olympic Teams in two events: the 1948, 1952, and 1956 Summer Olympics as a pole vaulter and as a decathlete in 1956. He won gold medals in pole vault in both 1952 and 1956, becoming the only male two-time champion in the event in Olympic history.
Tamio "Tommy" Kono was a Japanese American weightlifter in the 1950s and 1960s. Kono set world records in four different weight classes: lightweight, middleweight, light-heavyweight and middle-heavyweight.
Hayes Alan Jenkins is an American former figure skater. He is the 1956 Olympic champion, a four-time World champion (1953–1956), and a four-time U.S. national champion (1953–1956).
Harold Vincent "Hal" Connolly was an American athlete and hammer thrower from Somerville, Massachusetts. He won a gold medal in the hammer throw at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Connolly became the first American to throw hammer more than 200 feet. He set his first of six world records just prior to the 1956 Olympics, and held the world record for nearly 10 years.
Isaac "Ike" Berger was an American weightlifter, in the featherweight division, who competed for the United States at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics and won one gold and two silver medals. He held eight world records, and won the United States national title eight times. In the highest level international competition, he was world featherweight champion in 1958 and 1961, and was the runner-up for that title in 1957, 1959, and 1963.
Robert James Elder, OC is a Canadian retired businessman and former equestrian. He competed at six Olympic Games between 1956 and 1984, winning one gold and one bronze medal. He missed the 1964 and 1980 Olympics because Canada did not send eventing and jumping teams there.
Harold David Goldsmith, known as Hal was an American Olympic foil and epee fencer.
James Boyd was a boxer from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States, who competed in the Light Heavyweight division during his career as an amateur. Boyd won the gold medal in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia.
Charles Thomas Vinci Jr. was an American weightlifter and Olympic champion. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Vinci was the United States Senior National Champion from 1954 to 1956 and from 1958 to 1961. He received silver medals in the 1955 and 1958 world championships. He won gold medals at the 1955 and 1959 Pan American games. He won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, with a world-record three-lift total of 342.5 kilograms (755.1 lb). Just prior to weighing-in, Vinci was 1.5 pounds overweight. After an hour of running and sweating, he was still seven ounces over the limit, but a severe last-minute haircut saw him make the weight limit. He won gold again at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
James Edward "Jim" Bradford was an American heavyweight weightlifter. He competed at two Olympics and four world championships and won silver medals on all occasions.
Peter T. George was an American weightlifter and Olympic and World champion. He was later an assistant professor of stomatology. Because of his ethnic origin, and despite the long list of Bulgarian weightlifters with Olympic medals, he was the first Bulgarian to win Olympic gold.
Greece has risen to prominence in a number of sporting areas in recent decades. Football in particular has seen a rapid transformation, with the Greece national football team winning the UEFA Euro 2004. Many Greek athletes have also achieved significant success and have won world and olympic titles in numerous sports during the years, such as basketball, wrestling, water polo, athletics, weightlifting, with many of them becoming international stars inside their sports. The successful organisation of the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games led also to the further development of many sports and has led to the creation of many world class sport venues all over Greece and especially in Athens. Greek athletes have won a total 161 medals for Greece in 17 different Olympic sports at the Summer Olympic Games, including the Intercalated Games, an achievement which makes Greece one of the top nations globally, in the world's rankings of medals per capital
Péter Baczakó was a Hungarian weightlifter.
Daniel Bukantz was an American four-time individual United States national foil fencing champion, Maccabiah Games individual foil champion, four-time Olympic fencer, fencing referee, and a dentist. He has been inducted into the United States Fencing Hall of Fame, the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Arnold Milton Sowell is a former middle distance runner from the United States, who represented his native country at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. He finished fourth in the Men's 800-meter race.
James Roy Hill, also known as Jim Hill, was a New Zealand rower from Hamilton. A joiner by trade, he became a funeral director after his sporting career.
James Edward Grelle was an American middle-distance runner. He had his best achievements in the 1500 m event, finishing eighth at the 1960 Olympics, winning a gold and a silver medal at the Pan American Games in 1963 and 1959, respectively.
Max Edwin Truex was an American long-distance runner. He was a two-time Olympian, running the 10,000 metres at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. He also was a two-time United States champion in the 6 mile run, the imperial equivalent and added a 3-mile championship in 1962.
Norbert "Norb" Schemansky was an American weightlifter. He was the first weightlifter to win four Olympic medals, despite missing the 1956 Summer Olympics due to back problems. He won a silver medal in the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, a gold in the 1952 Summer Olympics and bronzes in the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics.
