This is:         Olympics 1956 - Cortina d'Ampezzo
Go to:           Olympic Summer Games   Olympic Winter Games   Ancient Olympic Games
                 Previous Games   Next Games 

Olympics 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, January 26 - February 5
No. of countries: 32
No. of athletes:  820 (688 m + 132 w)
No. of events: 24 in 6 sports

Cortina d'Ampezza was compensated for the cancelled games in 1944. For the first time the Soviet Union entered the Olympic Games, and became the leading winter sports nation immediately. The divided Germany still competed under the same flag. These games were also the first television broadcasted Olympics. Continuing the tradition from Oslo four years earlier, there was an Olympic torch relay, this time from Rome

Austrian Toni Sailer won all three gold medals in alpine skiing, crushing the opposition. His smallest victory margin was 3,5 seconds in the downhill event. The Soviet Union beat Canada for the gold in the ice hockey tournament. The Russian team went undefeated and only allowed 5 goals, non against the 7 times Olympic champions Canada. For the first time, the ski jump gold medal did not go to Norway, but to Finland instead.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.