Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics

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.

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

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Bobby Morrow  United States	10.5	Thane Baker  United States	10.5	Hector Hogan  Australia	10.6
200 metres	Bobby Morrow  United States	20.6 (OR)	Andy Stanfield  United States	20.7	Thane Baker  United States	20.9
400 metres	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	Tom Courtney  United States	1:47.7 (OR)	Derek Johnson  Great Britain	1:47.8	Audun Boysen  Norway	1:48.1
1500 metres	Ron Delany  Ireland	3:41.2 (OR)	Klaus Richtzenhain  United Team of Germany	3:42.0	John Landy  Australia	3:42.0
5000 metres	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	Vladimir Kuts  Soviet Union	28:45.6 (OR)	József Kovács  Hungary	28:52.4	Al Lawrence  Australia	28:53.6
110 metres hurdles	Lee Calhoun  United States	13.5 (OR)	Jack Davis  United States	13.5 (OR)	Joel Shankle  United States	14.1
400 metres hurdles	Glenn Davis  United States	50.1 (=OR)	Eddie Southern  United States	50.8	Josh Culbreath  United States	51.6
3000 metres steeplechase	Chris Brasher  Great Britain	8:41.2 (OR)	Sándor Rozsnyói  Hungary	8:43.6	Ernst Larsen  Norway	8:44.0
4 × 100 metres relay	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	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	Alain Mimoun  France	2:25:00	Franjo Mihalić  Yugoslavia	2:26:32	Veikko Karvonen  Finland	2:27:47
20 kilometres walk	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	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	Charles Dumas  United States	2.12 m (OR)	Chilla Porter  Australia	2.10 m	Igor Kashkarov  Soviet Union	2.08 m
Pole vault	Bob Richards  United States	4.56 m (OR)	Bob Gutowski  United States	4.53 m	Georgios Roubanis  Greece	4.50 m
Long jump	Greg Bell  United States	7.83 m (OR)	John Bennett  United States	7.68 m	Jorma Valkama  Finland	7.48 m
Triple jump	Adhemar da Silva  Brazil	16.35 m (OR)	Vilhjálmur Einarsson  Iceland	16.26 m	Vitold Kreyer  Soviet Union	16.02 m
Shot put	Parry O'Brien  United States	18.57 m (OR)	Bill Nieder  United States	18.18 m	Jiří Skobla  Czechoslovakia	17.65 m
Discus throw	Al Oerter  United States	56.36 m (OR)	Fortune Gordien  United States	54.81 m	Des Koch  United States	54.40 m
Hammer throw	Hal Connolly  United States	63.19 m (OR)	Mikhail Krivonosov  Soviet Union	63.03 m	Anatoliy Samotsvetov  Soviet Union	62.56 m
Javelin throw	Egil Danielsen  Norway	85.71 m (WR)	Janusz Sidło  Poland	79.98 m	Viktor Tsybulenko  Soviet Union	79.50 m
Decathlon	Milt Campbell  United States	7937 (OR)	Rafer Johnson  United States	7587	Vasili Kuznetsov  Soviet Union	7465

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Betty Cuthbert  Australia	11.5	Christa Stubnick  United Team of Germany	11.7	Marlene Mathews  Australia	11.7
200 metres	Betty Cuthbert  Australia	23.4 (=OR)	Christa Stubnick  United Team of Germany	23.7	Marlene Mathews  Australia	23.8
80 metres hurdles	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	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	Mildred McDaniel  United States	1.76 m (WR)	Thelma Hopkins  Great Britain Mariya Pisareva  Soviet Union	1.67 m	none awarded
Long jump	Elżbieta Krzesińska  Poland	6.35 m (=WR)	Willye White  United States	6.09 m	Nadezhda Dvalishvili  Soviet Union	6.07 m
Shot put	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	Olga Fikotová  Czechoslovakia	53.69 m (OR)	Irina Beglyakova  Soviet Union	52.54 m	Nina Ponomaryova  Soviet Union	52.02 m
Javelin throw	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

References

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia