List of 1956 Winter Olympics medal winners

Tenley Albright, the American gold medalist in the ladies' singles event in figure skating

The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the VII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from 26 January to 5 February 1956. A total of 821 athletes representing 32 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in these Games in 24 events across 8 disciplines.^[1] The Olympic program was similar to four years prior, with two new cross-country events added to the competition. Both men and women competed at these Games, though women only contested events in alpine skiing, figure skating, and cross-country skiing. The Soviet Union attempted to secure the inclusion of a women's speed skating event, but this was rejected by the IOC at its 49th session in Athens in 1954.^[2] Women would compete in speed skating four years later at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics.^[3]

A total of 131 athletes won medals in Cortina d'Ampezzo.^[4] In their Winter Olympic debut,^[1] athletes from the Soviet Union won sixteen medals, seven of which were gold. Both medal totals were the most of any NOC at the Games. Two of these seven medals were earned in a single event, the 1500 meters speed skating competition, when two Soviet skaters tied for first place in a world record time.^[5] Athletes from Austria and Sweden won the second and third most medals, with 11 and 10 respectively. Of the 32 NOCs that competed in Cortina d'Ampezzo, 13 won at least one medal. Host nation Italy won three medals, all in bobsleigh.^[6]

Cross-country skier Sixten Jernberg of Sweden won four medals, and Austrian Toni Sailer won three gold medals in alpine skiing, both of which were the most of any athlete in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Tenley Albright improved on her silver medal from four years prior in Oslo to win the gold medal in ladies figure skating.^[7] The Soviet Union won six medals—exactly half of the medals awarded—in speed skating, with two each being won by Yevgeny Grishin and Oleg Goncharenko. Grishin would repeat his performance with golds in the same two events four years later in Squaw Valley.^[8]

Alpine skiing

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's downhill[9]	Toni Sailer Austria (AUT)	Raymond Fellay Switzerland (SUI)	Anderl Molterer Austria (AUT)
Men's giant slalom[10]	Toni Sailer Austria (AUT)	Anderl Molterer Austria (AUT)	Walter Schuster Austria (AUT)
Men's slalom[11]	Toni Sailer Austria (AUT)	Chiharu Igaya Japan (JPN)	Stig Sollander Sweden (SWE)
Women's downhill[12]	Madeleine Berthod Switzerland (SUI)	Frieda Dänzer Switzerland (SUI)	Lucille Wheeler Canada (CAN)
Women's giant slalom[13]	Ossi Reichert Germany (EUA)	Putzi Frandl Austria (AUT)	Thea Hochleitner Austria (AUT)
Women's slalom[14]	Renée Colliard Switzerland (SUI)	Regina Schöpf Austria (AUT)	Yevgeniya Sidorova Soviet Union (URS)

Bobsleigh

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's two-man	Italy (ITA)[15] Italy I Lamberto Dalla Costa Giacomo Conti	Italy (ITA)[15] Italy II Eugenio Monti Renzo Alverà	Switzerland (SUI)[16] Switzerland I Max Angst Harry Warburton
Men's four-man	Switzerland (SUI)[16] Switzerland I Franz Kapus Gottfried Diener Robert Alt Heinrich Angst	Italy (ITA)[15] Italy II Eugenio Monti Ulrico Girardi Renzo Alverà Renato Mocellini	United States (USA)[17] USA I Arthur Tyler William Dodge Charles Butler James Lamy

Cross-country skiing

Veikko Hakulinen won one gold and two silver medals in the 1956 Winter Olympics.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's 15 km[18]	Hallgeir Brenden Norway (NOR)	Sixten Jernberg Sweden (SWE)	Pavel Kolchin Soviet Union (URS)
Men's 30 km[19]	Veikko Hakulinen Finland (FIN)	Sixten Jernberg Sweden (SWE)	Pavel Kolchin Soviet Union (URS)
Men's 50 km[20]	Sixten Jernberg Sweden (SWE)	Veikko Hakulinen Finland (FIN)	Fyodor Terentyev Soviet Union (URS)
Men's 4×10 km	Soviet Union (URS)[21] Fyodor Terentyev Pavel Kolchin Nikolay Anikin Vladimir Kuzin	Finland (FIN)[22] August Kiuru Jorma Kortelainen Arvo Viitanen Veikko Hakulinen	Sweden (SWE)[23] Lennart Larsson Gunnar Samuelsson Per-Erik Larsson Sixten Jernberg
Women's 10 km[24]	Lyubov Kozyreva Soviet Union (URS)	Radya Yeroshina Soviet Union (URS)	Sonja Edström Sweden (SWE)
Women's 3×5 km	Finland (FIN)[22] Sirkka Polkunen Mirja Hietamies Siiri Rantanen	Soviet Union (URS)[21] Lyubov Kozyreva Alevtina Kolchina Radya Yeroshina	Sweden (SWE)[23] Irma Johansson Anna-Lisa Eriksson Sonja Edström

Figure skating

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's[25]	Hayes Alan Jenkins United States (USA)	Ronnie Robertson United States (USA)	David Jenkins United States (USA)
Ladies'[26]	Tenley Albright United States (USA)	Carol Heiss United States (USA)	Ingrid Wendl Austria (AUT)
Pairs	Austria (AUT)[27] Sissy Schwarz Kurt Oppelt	Canada (CAN)[28] Frances Dafoe Norris Bowden	Hungary (HUN)[29] Marianna Nagy László Nagy

Ice hockey

Wendell Anderson, silver medalist for the United States in ice hockey, would be elected Governor of Minnesota in 1971.^[30]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's team	Soviet Union (URS)[31] Yevgeny Babich Vsevolod Bobrov Alexei Guryshev Nikolay Khlystov Valentin Kuzin Yuri Krylov Alfred Kuchevsky Grigory Mkrtychan Viktor Nikiforov Yuri Pantyukhov Nikolaï Puchkov Viktor Shuvalov Genrikh Sidorenkov Nikolai Sologubov Ivan Tregubov Dmitry Ukolov Aleksandr Uvarov	United States (USA)[32] Wendell Anderson Wellington Burtnett Eugene Campbell Gordon Christian Bill Cleary Richard Dougherty Willard Ikola John Matchefts John Mayasich Daniel McKinnon Richard Meredith Weldon Olson John Pettroske Kenneth Purpur Don Rigazio Richard Rodenheiser Ed Sampson	Canada (CAN)[33] Denis Brodeur Charles Brooker William Colvin Alfred Horne Art Hurst Byrle Klinck Paul Knox Ken Laufman Howard Lee James Logan Floyd Martin Jack McKenzie Donald Rope George Scholes Gerry Theberge Robert White Keith Woodall

Nordic combined

Sverre Stenersen, the 1952 bronze medalist in Nordic combined, won gold in Cortina d'Ampezzo.^[34]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's individual[35]	Sverre Stenersen Norway (NOR)	Bengt Eriksson Sweden (SWE)	Franciszek Gąsienica Groń Poland (POL)

Ski jumping

Ski jumping bronze medalist Harry Glaß of the Unified Team of Germany, pictured here in Oberhof, East Germany shortly after the 1956 Olympics

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's individual[36]	Antti Hyvärinen Finland (FIN)	Aulis Kallakorpi Finland (FIN)	Harry Glaß Germany (EUA)

Speed skating

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's 500 metres[37]	Yevgeny Grishin Soviet Union (URS)	Rafayel Grach Soviet Union (URS)	Alv Gjestvang Norway (NOR)
Men's 1500 metres[5]	Yevgeny Grishin Soviet Union (URS)	None awarded[a]	Toivo Salonen Finland (FIN)
	Yuri Mikhaylov Soviet Union (URS)
Men's 5000 metres[38]	Boris Shilkov Soviet Union (URS)	Sigvard Ericsson Sweden (SWE)	Oleg Goncharenko Soviet Union (URS)
Men's 10000 metres[39]	Sigvard Ericsson Sweden (SWE)	Knut Johannesen Norway (NOR)	Oleg Goncharenko Soviet Union (URS)

Multiple medalists

Sixten Jernberg (left), who represented Sweden in cross-country skiing, won four medals including a gold medal in the 50 km race.

Athletes who won multiple medals during the 1956 Winter Olympics are listed below.

Athlete	Nation	Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Jernberg, SixtenSixten Jernberg	Sweden (SWE)	Cross-country skiing	1	2	1	4
Sailer, ToniToni Sailer	Austria (AUT)	Alpine skiing	3	0	0	3
Hakulinen, VeikkoVeikko Hakulinen	Finland (FIN)	Cross-country skiing	1	2	0	3
Kolchin, PavelPavel Kolchin	Soviet Union (URS)	Cross-country skiing	1	0	03 !2	3
Grishin, YevgenyYevgeny Grishin	Soviet Union (URS)	Speed skating	2	0	0	2
Kozyreva, LyubovLyubov Kozyreva	Soviet Union (URS)	Cross-country skiing	1	1	0	2
Ericsson, SigvardSigvard Ericsson	Sweden (SWE)	Speed skating	1	1	0	2
Terentyev, FyodorFyodor Terentyev	Soviet Union (URS)	Cross-country skiing	1	0	1	2
Alverà, RenzoRenzo Alverà	Italy (ITA)	Bobsleigh	0	2	0	2
Monti, EugenioEugenio Monti	Italy (ITA)	Bobsleigh	0	2	0	2
Yeroshina, RadyaRadya Yeroshina	Soviet Union (URS)	Cross-country skiing	0	2	0	2
Molterer, AnderlAnderl Molterer	Austria (AUT)	Alpine skiing	0	1	1	2
Edström, SonjaSonja Edström	Sweden (SWE)	Cross-country skiing	0	0	2	2
Goncharenko, OlegOleg Goncharenko	Soviet Union (URS)	Speed skating	0	0	2	2

See also

• 1956 Winter Olympics medal table

Note

• ^a No silver medal was awarded in this event because Grishin and Mikhaylov tied for first place with a world record time of 2:08.6.^[40]

References

General

• "Results and Medalists". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. 
• Kubatko, Justin. "1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Games". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 9 August 2010. 
• Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (1956). VII Olympic Winter Games: Official Report (PDF). Cortina d'Ampezzo. Retrieved 1 October 2010. 

Specific