1956 Melbourne Olympic Games

1956 Melbourne Olympic Games
Official logo
City	Melbourne, Australia
Venue	West Melbourne Stadium
Team Gold Medalist Team Gold Medalist - Portable Apparatus	USSR Polina Astakhova Ludmila Egorova Lidia Ivanova Larisa Latynina Tamara Manina Sofia Muratova Hungary Andrea Molnár-Bodó Erzsébet Gulyás-Köteles Agnes Keleti Alice Kertész Margit Korondi Olga Lemhényi-Tass
All-Around Gold Medalist	Larisa Latynina (USSR)
Vault Gold Medalist	Larisa Latynina (USSR)
Uneven Bars Gold Medalist	Agnes Keleti (HUN)
Balance Beam Gold Medalist	Agnes Keleti (HUN)
Floor Exercise Gold Medalist	Larisa Latynina (USSR) Agnes Keleti (HUN)
Preceded by	1952 Helsinki Olympic Games
Succeeded by	1960 Rome Olympic Games

The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations. Instead, those events were held five months earlier in Stockholm, Sweden, marking the second time that events of the same Olympics were held in different countries. (At the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, one sailing event had been held in Dutch waters because of water quality). The 1956 Games were the first to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the first to be held outside Europe and North America.

Format of Competition

Each country was allowed to enter a team of eight gymnasts, but in contrast to the previous Olympics not more than six of them were allowed to participate in all exercises. Nations with incomplete teams, could enter one to three gymnasts for the individual competition.

Each team member performed compulsory and optional routines on each of four apparatus. Gymnast's scores in these performances counted for all of the events, except the separate team exercise with portable apparatus event (also known as group exercise with hand apparatus event), which was a group rhythmic exercises similar to the group competition event in rhythmic gymnastics. Scores of gymnasts from incomplete teams counted only for individual events.

The scoring in the team competition was different from the one at the previous Olympics, its principle became the same: five best scores constituted the team's score for the routine; these scores constituted the overall team's totals.

Competition Schedule

November 25	Compulsory Round
November 27	Optional Round
November 29	Team Final - Portable Apparatus
December 1	All-Around
December 6	Vault Event Final
December 7	Uneven Bars Event Final
December 8	Balance Beam Event Final
December 9	Floor Exercise Event Final

Results

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Team	USSR Polina Astakhova Ludmila Egorova Lidia Ivanova Larisa Latynina Tamara Manina Sofia Muratova	Hungary Andrea Molnár-Bodó Erzsébet Gulyás-Köteles Agnes Keleti Alice Kertész Margit Korondi Olga Lemhényi-Tass	Romania Georgeta Hurmuzachi Sonia Iovan Elena Leuşteanu Elena Mărgărit Elena Săcălici Emilia Vătăşoiu
Team - Portable Apparatus	Hungary Andrea Molnár-Bodó Erzsébet Gulyás-Köteles Agnes Keleti Alice Kertész Margit Korondi Olga Lemhényi-Tass	Sweden Karin Lindberg Ann-Sofi Pettersson Eva Rönström Evy Berggren Doris Hedberg Maud Karlén	USSR Polina Astakhova Ludmila Egorova Lidia Ivanova Larisa Latynina Tamara Manina Sofia Muratova Poland Helena Rakoczy Natalia Kot Danuta Nowak-Stachow Dorota Horzonek-Jokiel Barbara Wilk-Ślizowska Lidia Szczerbińska
All-Around	Larisa Latynina Soviet Union (USSR)	Agnes Keleti Hungary (HUN)	Sofia Muratova Soviet Union (USSR)
Vault	Larisa Latynina Soviet Union (USSR)	Tamara Manina Soviet Union (USSR)	Olga Lemhényi-Tass Hungary (HUN) Ann-Sofi Pettersson Sweden (SWE)
Uneven Bars	Agnes Keleti Hungary (HUN)	Larisa Latynina Soviet Union (USSR)	Sofia Muratova Soviet Union (USSR)
Balance Beam	Agnes Keleti Hungary (HUN)	Eva Bosáková Czechoslovakia (TCH) Tamara Manina Soviet Union (USSR)	N/A
Floor Exercise	Agnes Keleti Hungary (HUN) Larisa Latynina Soviet Union (USSR)	N/A	Elena Leuşteanu Romania (ROU)

Notable Moments

• USSR's Larisa Latynina became the first gymnast to follow a World All-Around title with an Olympic All-Around title.

Medal Count

Rank	Country				Total
1	USSR	4	3	3	10
2	Hungary	4	2	1	7
3	Sweden	0	1	1	2
4	Romania	0	0	2	2
5	Czechoslovakia	0	1	0	1
6	Poland	0	0	1	1