1956 Winter Olympics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

VII Olympic Winter Games
The emblem is a stylized snowflake with the Olympic rings and a star, the emblem of the Italian National Olympic Committee.
Host city	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Nations participating	32
Athletes participating	821 (687 men, 134 women)
Events	24 in 4 sports
Opening ceremony	January 26
Closing ceremony	February 5
Officially opened by	Giovanni Gronchi
Athlete's Oath	Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo
Olympic Torch	Guido Caroli
Stadium	Stadio Olympica

The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games, were celebrated in 1956 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The USSR made its Winter Olympics debut and immediately showed their strength by winning more medals than any other nation. These were the first televised Winter Olympics.

[edit] Host City Selection

Cortina d'Ampezzo had three other candidate cities bidding against it for the 1956 Winter Olympics. As you will see and this information comes from the International Olympic Committee Vote History web page, this sort of choosing more than one candidate city from one nation was the norm then. The vote was made at the 43rd IOC Session in Rome, Italy, on April 28, 1949.

1956 Winter Olympics Bidding Results
City	NOC Name	Round 1
Cortina d'Ampezzo	Italy	31
Montreal, Quebec	Canada	7
Colorado Springs, Colorado	United States	2
Lake Placid, New York	United States	1

[edit] Highlights of the Games

• In the Alpine Skiing Toni Sailer won all the events (Downhill, Slalom and the Giant Slalom).
• The USSR won the Games with 16 medals, 7 of them being gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze.

[edit] Medal winners

• Alpine skiing
• Bobsleigh
• Figure skating
• Ice hockey
• Nordic skiing
  • Cross-country skiing
  • Nordic combined
  • Ski jumping
• Speed skating

[edit] Participating nations

A total of 32 nations sent athletes to Cortina d'Ampezzo. Bolivia, Iran, and the USSR competed at the Winter Games for the first time. Korea, Liechtenstein, and Turkey returned after having missed the 1952 Winter Olympics. Argentina, Denmark, New Zealand, and Portugal did not compete at these Games, after having participated in 1952.

Athletes from West Germany (FRG) and East Germany (GDR) competed together as the United Team of Germany at these Games, an arrangement that would continue for the following two Olympiads.

[edit] Medal count

Main article: 1956 Winter Olympics medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games:

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union	7	3	6	16
2	Austria	4	3	4	11
3	Finland	3	3	1	7
4	Switzerland	3	2	1	6
5	Sweden	2	4	4	10
6	United States	2	3	2	7
7	Norway	2	1	1	4
8	Italy (host nation)	1	2	0	3
9	Germany	1	0	1	2
10	Canada	0	1	2	3

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

1956 Winter Olympics

• International Olympic Committee – Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 main page
• Cortina 1956 – official report, digitized copy online