Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Decathlon		men

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	Bobby Morrow United States (USA)	10.5	Thane Baker United States (USA)	10.5	Hector Hogan Australia (AUS)	10.6
200 metres	Bobby Morrow United States (USA)	20.6 (OR)	Andy Stanfield United States (USA)	20.7	Thane Baker United States (USA)	20.9
400 metres	Charles Jenkins United States (USA)	46.7	Karl-Friedrich Haas Germany (EUA)	46.8	Voitto Hellstén Finland (FIN)	47.0
					Ardalion Ignatyev Soviet Union (URS)	47.0
800 metres	Tom Courtney United States (USA)	1:47.7 (OR)	Derek Johnson Great Britain (GBR)	1:47.8	Audun Boysen Norway (NOR)	1:48.1
1500 metres	Ron Delany Ireland (IRL)	3:41.2 (OR)	Klaus Richtzenhain Germany (EUA)	3:42.0	John Landy Australia (AUS)	3:42.0
5000 metres	Vladimir Kuts Soviet Union (URS)	13:39.6 (OR)	Gordon Pirie Great Britain (GBR)	13:50.6	Derek Ibbotson Great Britain (GBR)	13:54.4
10,000 metres	Vladimir Kuts Soviet Union (URS)	28:45.6 (OR)	József Kovács Hungary (HUN)	28:52.4	Allan Lawrence Australia (AUS)	28:53.6
110 metres hurdles	Lee Calhoun United States (USA)	13.5 (OR)	Jack Davis United States (USA)	13.5 (OR)	Joel Shankle United States (USA)	14.1
400 metres hurdles	Glenn Davis United States (USA)	50.1 (=OR)	Eddie Southern United States (USA)	50.8	Joshua Culbreath United States (USA)	51.6
3000 metres steeplechase	Chris Brasher Great Britain (GBR)	8:41.2 (OR)	Sándor Rozsnyói Hungary (HUN)	8:43.6	Ernst Larsen Norway (NOR)	8:44.0
4 × 100 metres relay	United States (USA) Thane Baker Leamon King Bobby Morrow Ira Murchison	39.5 (WR)	Soviet Union (URS) Leonid Bartenev Yuriy Konovalov Vladimir Sukharev Boris Tokarev	39.8	Germany (EUA) Heinz Fütterer Manfred Germar Lothar Knörzer Leonhard Pohl	40.3
4 × 400 metres relay	United States (USA) Tom Courtney Charles Jenkins Lou Jones Jesse Mashburn	3:04.8	Australia (AUS) Graham Gipson Kevan Gosper Leon Gregory David Lean	3:06.2	Great Britain (GBR) Peter Higgins Derek Johnson John Salisbury Michael Wheeler	3:07.2
Marathon	Alain Mimoun France (FRA)	2:25:00	Franjo Mihalić Yugoslavia (YUG)	2:26:32	Veikko Karvonen Finland (FIN)	2:27:47
20 kilometres walk	Leonid Spirin Soviet Union (URS)	1:31:27.4	Antanas Mikenas Soviet Union (URS)	1:32:03.0	Bruno Junk Soviet Union (URS)	1:32:12.0
50 kilometres walk	Norman Read New Zealand (NZL)	4:30:42.8	Yevgeniy Maskinskov Soviet Union (URS)	4:32:57.0	John Ljunggren Sweden (SWE)	4:35:02.0
Long jump	Greg Bell United States (USA)	7.83 m	John Bennett United States (USA)	7.68 m	Jorma Valkama Finland (FIN)	7.48 m
Triple jump	Adhemar da Silva Brazil (BRA)	16.35 m (OR)	Vilhjálmur Einarsson Iceland (ISL)	16.26 m	Vitold Kreer Soviet Union (URS)	16.02 m
High jump	Charles Dumas United States (USA)	2.12 m (OR)	Chilla Porter Australia (AUS)	2.10 m	Igor Kashkarov Soviet Union (URS)	2.08 m
Pole vault	Bob Richards United States (USA)	4.56 m (OR)	Bob Gutowski United States (USA)	4.53 m	Georgios Roubanis Greece (GRE)	4.50 m
Shot put	Parry O'Brien United States (USA)	18.57 m (OR)	Bill Nieder United States (USA)	18.18 m	Jiří Skobla Czechoslovakia (TCH)	17.65 m
Discus throw	Al Oerter United States (USA)	56.36 m (OR)	Fortune Gordien United States (USA)	54.81 m	Desmond Koch United States (USA)	54.40 m
Javelin throw	Egil Danielsen Norway (NOR)	85.71 m (WR)	Janusz Sidło Poland (POL)	79.98 m	Viktor Tsybulenko Soviet Union (URS)	79.50 m
Hammer throw	Harold Connolly United States (USA)	63.19 m (OR)	Mikhail Krivonosov Soviet Union (URS)	63.03 m	Anatoli Samotsvetov Soviet Union (URS)	62.56 m
Decathlon	Milt Campbell United States (USA)	7937 (OR)	Rafer Johnson United States (USA)	7587	Vasili Kuznetsov Soviet Union (URS)	7465

Women

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

References

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia