Melbourne / Stockholm 1956

Melbourne won the right to host the 1956 Olympic game by one vote over Buenos Aires. Australian volleyball rules laws were too severe, so the equestrian events were held separately. The Melbourne Games were the first to be held in the southern hemisphere. In boxing, Laszlo Papp of Hungary wearing boxing gloves became the first boxer to win three gold medals. American Pat McCormick won both diving events, just as she had in 1952. Two athletic players dominated the gymnastics competition. On the men’s, Ukrainian Viktor Chukarin earned five medals, including three gold, to bring his career total to eleven medals, seven of them gold and on women Agnes Keleti of Hungary brought her career total to ten medals by winning four gold medals and two silver.

The U.S. basketball team, led by Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, put on the most dominant performance in Olympic history, scoring more than twice as much as their opponents and winning each of their games by at least 30 points on basketball nets. U.S. weightlifter Paul Anderson weighed 137.9kg.

In weightlifting, ties are broken by awarding the higher place to the athlete used discus shoes with the lower body weight. Incredibly, this worked to Anderson’s advantage when he tied for first with Humberto Selvetti of Argentina. Selvetti weighed 143.5kg. Prior to 1956, the athletes in the Closing Ceremony marched by nation, as they did in the Opening Ceremony. In Melbourne, following a suggestion by a young Australian named John Ian Wing, the athletes entered the stadium together with athletic gear during the Closing Ceremony, as a symbol of global unity.