The United States competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. 297 competitors, 251 men and 46 women, took part in 139 events in 18 sports.
Francis Conn Findlay was an American Olympic rower and sailor. He won four Olympic medals in those two sports, including two golds in coxed pair. He was also part of the America's Cup sailing crews that won in 1974 and 1977. He is one of 11 sailors to have won both the America's Cup and an Olympic medal.
Austria competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and Stockholm, Sweden. 29 competitors, 24 men and 5 women, took part in 33 events in 11 sports.
Romano Sgheiz is an Italian competition rower and Olympic champion.
Angelo Vanzin is an Italian competition rower and Olympic champion.
Ivo Stefanoni is an Italian rowing cox and Olympic champion.
Donald John Arnold was a Canadian competition rower and Olympic champion. He was born in Kelowna, British Columbia.
William Becklean is an American competition rower and Olympic champion.
Thomas Jackson "Tom" Charlton Jr. is an American competition rower and Olympic champion.
Charles Livingston Grimes was an American competition rower and Olympic champion.
Robert Willis "Jack" Morey Jr. was an American competition rower and Olympic champion. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, where he received a gold medal in coxed eights with the American team. He graduated from Yale University in 1958 and was a member of Skull and Bones. He served in the United States Navy aboard the icebreaker USS Atka as a lieutenant jg. and would later earn an MBA from Harvard Business School.
David Henry "Dave" Wight, was an American competition rower and Olympic champion.
Arthur Delancey "Dan" Ayrault Jr. was an American competitive rower and two-time Olympic gold medalist. While competing at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, Ayrault won a gold medal in coxed pair with Conn Findlay and Kurt Seiffert. During the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, he earned a gold medal in coxless four. Ayrault's teammates were Ted Nash, John Sayre, and Rusty Wailes.
Anatoli Ivanovich Bogdanov was a Soviet sport shooter and Olympic champion. He was born in Leningrad. He won a gold medal in the 300 m rifle 3 pos at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, as his teammate Lev Vainshtein won the bronze medal. He won a gold medal in the 50 m rifle 3 pos at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. He died on 30 September 2001.
Archibald MacKinnon is a Canadian competition rower and Olympic champion.
William Tripp Woolsey is an American former competition swimmer and Olympic champion. He represented the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, where he won a gold medal in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay with Wayne Moore, Ford Konno and Jimmy McLane. Four years later at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, he won a silver medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay with Dick Hanley, George Breen and Ford Konno.
The men's coxed pair competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics took place at Lake Wendouree near Ballarat, Australia, from 23 to 27 November. There were 8 boats from 8 nations, with each nation limited to one boat in the event. The event was won by the American crew, rowers Arthur Ayrault and Conn Findlay and coxswain Kurt Seiffert. It was the first victory in the event for the United States since 1932 and second overall, matching Switzerland for most among nations at that point. The United Team of Germany took silver in its debut. The Soviet Union earned its first medal in the event, with Ihor Yemchuk, Heorhiy Zhylin, and Vladimir Petrov (cox) taking bronze.
Beverly Dawn Edith Weigel, with her first name commonly misspelled as Beverley and since her marriage known as Beverly Robertson, is a New Zealand athlete. Mainly active as a long jumper, but also as a sprinter, she represented her country at the 1956 Summer Olympics, the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Kurt Hipper was a West German rower who represented the United Team of Germany. He competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne with the men's double sculls where they came fourth. He later emigrated to South Africa and was the country's representative of the International Rowing Federation (FISA).
The following is the list of squads that took place in the men's field hockey tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics.
