1956 Winter Olympics

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)[1]
Events	24 in 4 sports
Opening ceremony	January 26
Closing ceremony	February 5
Officially opened by	President Giovanni Gronchi[2]
Athlete's Oath	Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo[2]
Olympic Torch	Guido Caroli[2]
Stadium	Stadio Olympica

The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The Games were held from January 26–February 5, 1956. Cortina, which had originally been awarded the 1944 Winter Olympics, beat out three other cities for the right to host the 1956 Games. The Cortina Games were unique for several reasons: all of the venues except one were within walking distance of each other, the Games were the first to rely heavily on corporate sponsorship for funding, and these were the first televised Winter Olympics.^[1]

A total of 32 nations participated in the Games, which was more than any Winter Olympics until that time. The largest nation making its Winter Olympics debut was the Soviet Union. The Soviets would go on to win more medals than any other nation at these Games. Politics did not impact the 1956 Winter Games as it did the Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia, when the Soviet response to the Hungarian uprising and the Suez War caused many nations to boycott the Games.

Host city selection

Count Alberto Bornacossa and his wife, Maria, spearheaded the effort to bring the Olympic Games to Cortina d'Ampezzo. Bornacossa, a member of the IOC since 1925, was an accomplished alpine skier. Both he and his wife also held an affinity for figure skating.^[3] They persuaded the city council of Cortina to bid for the 1944 Games. During the 38th IOC Congress held in London in 1939, Cortina d'Ampezzo was awarded the 1944 Winter Games. The outbreak of World War II ended Cortina's chances of hosting these games. At the end of the war, Count Bornacossa immediately pressed the IOC to honor its commitment to Cortina and award it the 1952 Winter Olympics. Cortina lost this bid to Oslo, Norway. The Italian Olympic delegation, headed by Bonacossa, presented Cortina for consideration as the 1956 Winter Games host city. Cortina competed against Montreal, Colorado Springs and Lake Placid. The IOC voted for Cortina d'Amprezzo as the host city for the 1956 Winter Olympics during the 43rd Congress in Rome, Italy, on April 29, 1949.^[4] Bonacossa would die on January 30, 1953, before he could see Cortina host the Games.^[4]

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

Organizing

The 1956 Winter Games were organized by a committee composed of members of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Italian government.^[3] Observers were sent to the Oslo Games of 1952 with instructions to bring back as much information as possible. The primary realization that came from the Oslo Games was that Cortina's facilities were not up to Olympic standards. Cortina did not have an Ice Stadium, or a speed skating rink. The alpine ski runs were in poor condition as was the ski jump and bobsled run. Along with the challenge of upgrading and building new facilities was the problem of infrastructure. Cortina was a small village in the 1950s. In order to accommodate the influx of people for the Games, new roads and rail lines had to be built, and the city's power grid and telephone lines had to be greatly expanded. Enhancements also had to be made to sewer and water capacity.^[5] The Italian government supplied ITL 460 million for infrastructure improvements. CONI was responsible for funding the rest of the costs of hosting the Games. They did this by setting aside monies from their own budget, ticket sales, and sponsorships.^[6]

The Cortina Games were the first to televise a Winter Olympic Games, and they were the first to be subsidized heavily by corporate sponsors.^[1] For example, Fiat was the "official" car of the 1956 Winter Olympics.^[7] The Cortina Games were televised in 22 countries.^[8] The practice of selling television rights did not commence until the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.^[9] As a result, the Cortina Games did not generate revenue from television, but these Games were an experiment in the feasibility of televising the Olympics.^[9] For the first time at an Olympic Games the venues were built with television in mind. For example the cross-country ski venue (Lo Stadio della neve) was built facing south so that the television cameras would not be adversely affected by the rising or setting sun.^[6]

Politics

The Cold War began after the allied victory in World War II. The Soviet Union continued its efforts to come out of international isolation by participating in the Winter Games. Until 1952, many of the Communist countries of Eastern Europe would participate in Worker's Olympics or Spartakiads. The Soviets competed in their first Olympics in 1952 when the Summer Olympics were held in Helsinki, Finland. The Olympic Movement was affected significantly by the Soviet suppression of the in the fall of 1956. The Cortina Games were held before the Hungarian uprising, and the Suez War, which occurred in the fall of 1956. They escaped the turmoil that plagued the Melbourne Olympics of November and December of that year.^[10] The participation of the Soviet Union at the Olympics raised the level of competition. The Soviets dominated the speed skating events, winning three out of the four possible gold medals. They also upset perennial Ice Hockey power Canada.^[11]

Events

The program for the 1956 Games included the 4 sports and 22 events from the 1952 Olympics in Oslo as well as two new events. The additions were the men's 30-kilometer cross-country ski race and the women's 3x5 kilometer cross-country relay race. The Soviet Union requested the inclusion of a women's speed skating event but this was rejected by the IOC at the 49th Congress in Athens in 1954.^[4]

Opening ceremonies

The opening ceremonies took place at 11:30 am on Thursday, January 26, 1956. They were held in the Ice Stadium, which had a capacity of 12,000 people. The athletes representing the 32 participating nations marched in early in the ceremony. Signor Giovanni Gronchi, prime minister of Italy, declared the Games open. At this point, speed skater Guido Caroli skated into the stadium with the Olympic flame. While he was on a circuit of the Ice Stadium he tripped and fell over a television cable. Fortunately he was not hurt and the torch's flame didn't go out. He was able to get back on his feet and light the cauldron.^[12] The Olympic oath was delivered by Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo. She was the first female athlete to deliver the athlete's oath at an Olympic Games.^[13] The Olympic Hymn (different from the Olympic Anthem), officially recognized as such at the IOC congress in Paris on 13 June 1955, was played for the first time at the Cortina Games. The ceremony concluded at 12:27 pm and the athletes filed out.^[2]

Bobsleigh

There were two bobsleigh events in 1956, the two-man and four-man competitions. Each country was limited to a maximum of two sleds in each event. Each team made four runs, with the total time summed. Italy, which had competed at all six prior bobsleigh competitions but had never won a medal, took three—including a gold and two silvers.

The Italians dominated the two-man event, with only one of the eight runs made by its two sleds taking over one minute and twenty-three seconds; in comparison, no other team posted a single run under that time.^[14] Switzerland took third place, coming from behind Spain on the fourth run. In the four-man event held a week later, the Swiss won their fourth overall Olympic gold medal in this event. Italy picked up the silver, with the United States earning the bronze.^[15]

Ice hockey

The eighth Olympic ice hockey tournament also served as both the European and World Championships. The tournament format was round robin play, with no knockouts. The ten teams were first split into three pools, playing a round robin within each pool. The top two teams from each pool advanced to the finals, with the remaining teams playing in a consolation group for 7th through 10th places. Canada, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union finished their preliminary pools with undefeated records. Germany, the United States, and Sweden took second place in their pools.

An important early matchup of the final round was the game between Canada (winners of six gold medals and one silver in the previous seven tournaments) and the United States (which had finished one place behind Canada each of the five times the Americans played). The winning team would join the Soviet Union as the only two undefeated teams after each country had played twice; the United States beat Canada 4–1. The tie at the top of the standings was broken when the US and USSR faced each other in each team's fourth game. The Olympic newcomer Soviets won the matchup, 4–0, in a game that would eventually make the difference in the gold medal as each team won its fifth game (the United States getting revenge on Czechoslovakia for their preliminary loss, and the Soviet Union defeating Canada to avoid a three-way tie at the top).^[16]

Skating

Tenley Albright

The Cortina Games were the last Games to feature Figure Skating outdoors.^[1] The figure skating competition belonged mostly to the United States. The Americans won five medals, sweeping the men's event and taking the top two spots in the ladies' event. Tenley Albright was the clear winner among the ladies, despite a serious injury in practice two weeks before the competition.^[17] Less than two weeks before the Olympics, she was practicing her skating routine when she hit a rut in the ice and fell. Her skate cut through several layers of clothing, severed a vein and scraped the bone on her right leg.^[17] Austria took the gold medal in the pairs event, as well as the lone remaining medal in the individual competitions. Canada and Hungary rounded out the pairs medals.

Another country dominated the speed skating events: the Soviet Union. The Soviet team won seven of the twelve medals, including four golds (a tie for first between two Soviet skaters resulted in two gold medals in the 1,500 metres (0.93 mi)). The Soviets set two world records, an additional Olympic record, and had at least one medalist in each of the four events. Yevgeny Grishin was the top individual performer, with two gold medals and two world records.^[18] Sigvard Ericsson of Sweden had an excellent performance as well, taking an Olympic record and gold and silver medals.

Skiing

Six alpine skiing events were held, three for men and three for women. Toni Sailer of Austria swept the men's gold medals, becoming the first person to win three alpine skiing golds in a single Olympics.^[1] Madeleine Berthod of Switzerland won the women's downhill by an impressive 4.7 seconds.^[1] Led by Sailer, the Austrians dominated the alpine skiing events for both men and women, winning nine out of a possible eighteen medals.^[19]

The Finns introduced a new style of ski jumping in which the athlete held his arms at his side rather than in front of his head. Antti Hyvärinen and Aulis Källakorpi took first and second place in the competition using this new style.^[12] In cross-country skiing two women's events were added to the program for the first time. The Soviet women took the top two spots in the individual 10 kilometre race but lost to Finland in the new three-woman 5 kilometre relay. The men had a new event as well, the 30 kilometer race, which was won Veikko Hakulinen from Finland. The other three men's events were won by three different nations; with Norway taking the short course, Sweden the long course, and the Soviet Union the relay.^[20]

Closing ceremonies

The closing ceremonies took place on Sunday, February 5 at 5:00 pm, in the same Ice Stadium that the opening ceremonies were held in. They were preceded by a figure skating exhibition performed by the men's, women's, and pairs figure skating champions. The flag bearers of each nation then entered the stadium along with the flags of Greece and the United States, which were hoisted up their respective flag poles. The Greek flag represented the roots of the Olympic Games, while the American Flag was presented because the United States would host the 1960 Winter Olympics. Avery Brundage, chairman of the International Olympic Committee, declared the Games closed. A fireworks display capped off the closing of the Games.^[21]

Calendar

The opening ceremony was held on January 26, along with the first games of the hockey tournament. From January 27 until February 5, the day of the closing ceremony, at least one event final was held each day.^[22]

January 1956 February 1956	26th Thu	27th Fri	28th Sat	29th Sun	30th Mon	31st Tue	1st Wed	2nd Thu	3rd Fri	4th Sat	5th Sun	Gold medals
Ceremonies	●										●
Bobsleigh			●							●		2
Ice hockey										●		1
Figure skating							●	●	●			3
Speed skating			●	●	●	●						4
Alpine skiing		●		●	●	●	●		●			6
Cross-country skiing		●	●		●		●	●		●		6
Nordic combined						●						1
Ski jumping											●	1
Total gold medals		2	3	2	3	3	3	2	2	3	1	24
Cumulative Total		2	5	7	10	13	16	18	20	23	24	24

Venues

A unique feature of the Cortina Olympics was the proximity of nearly all the event locations. With the exception of speed skating, the athletic venues were all within walking distance of each other within the town of Cortina. The speed skating events were held at Lake Misurina, roughly 13 km (9 miles) from Cortina. Logistically the competitions were held without incident except for the skiing events, which suffered from a lack of snow. In the weeks preceding the Games the Italian army had to move large amounts of snow to cover the bare spots in the alpine ski runs.^[5]

A notable venue not found at the 1956 Games was an Olympic Village, where the athletes would be housed. The town of Cortina d'Ampezzo had a population of less than 7,000 people in 1956. Local hotels were concerned that after the Olympics an Olympic Village would so significantly increase the hotel capacity as to put many of them out of business. Athletes had to stay in hotels or be billeted by local families during their stay.^[23] The following venues hosted the various competitions during the Games:

• The Ice Stadium (Lo Stadio del ghiaccio) was intended to be the focal point of the Games. It was built at Maion on the banks of the Boite just north of Cortina. With the construction of new roads and a bridge the stadium was an eight minute walk from the center of Cortina. The stadium was built to accommodate 6,000–7,000 people. Due to the limitations on space the stadium seating was nearly vertical, with tiers built directly on top of each other. This venue was the most costly of all venues to construct totaling nearly ITL 1.3 billion. The stadium was used for all of the figure skating competitions. After the Games CONI made the Ice Stadium a gift to the city of Cortina. It was used as an ice skating rink in the winter and an outdoor gymnasium for judo and gymnastics in the summer.^[24]
• The Apollonio Stadium (Stadio Olympica) was used for the ice hockey tournament. It was also the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Considerable work had to be done to bring the stadium up to date. A second rink was added to allow for two games to be held simultaneously. The stadium seating was enlarged to accommodate 2,000 people. Temporary seating was added to increase the capacity to 12,000 seats for the opening and closing ceremonies. The stadium also was outfitted with electric lights for the first time.^[25]
• The Italia Jump (Il trampolino Italia) was originally built in 1923. It was torn down and reconstructed twice in the years between its construction and the Olympic Games. The height of the hill was 72 metres (236 feet). The grandstands at the base of the hill could accommodate 2,900 seated spectators with additional room for 40,000 standing spectators. The longest jump at the Olympics was 84 metres (275.5 feet) by Anton Hyvarinen of Finland.^[26]
• The Snow Stadium (Lo Stadio della neve) was constructed 2 kilometres (a little more than 1 mile) from Cotrina. It hosted all of the cross-country events. The stands could seat 6,000 people. Due to space constraints the cross-country course came into conflict with the bobsleigh run. A bridge had to be constructed over a portion of the run so that the two events would not interfere with each other.^[27]
• The alpine runs (Le piste apline) were established on the slopes of Monte Tofana and Monte Faloria. The men's and women's Downhill and Slalom races were held on Tofana, while the two Giant Slalom events were held on Faloria. It took nearly two years to complete construction on the runs, the delay was due to the terrain, which could not be worked on during the winter. While snow had never failed to fall in sufficient quantity in the areas selected for the alpine events, the winter of 1956 did not produce enough snow to safely navigate the runs. As a consequence snow had to be transported from other parts of the mountains by the Italian army.^[28]
• The bobsleigh run (La pista del bob) was originally constructed in 1928. CONI wanted to construct world-class bobsleigh run. The original run was rebuilt and expanded several times during the years leading up to the Olympics. A state-of-the-art signal board was installed showing a diagram of the run. The position of each sleigh on the run could be shown with lights.^[29]
• The Misurina rink (La pista di Misurina) was the location of the speed skating events. This was the last time that speed skating at the Olympics was held on natural ice. It was the farthest venue from Cortina at 13 kilometres (9 miles). The rink was established at the northern end of the lake with a mountain backdrop. Stands were constructed to accommodate 8,500 people. Despite the event being held outdoors on lake ice, one world record was broken and another was tied during the competition.^[30]

Participating nations

A total of 32 nations sent athletes to Cortina d'Ampezzo.^[31] Along with the Soviet Union, Bolivia, and Iran 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.

Medal count

These are the top ten nations that won medals at these Games:^[1]

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

Notes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1956 Winter Olympics

• Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (1956) (PDF). VII Olympic Winter Games: Official Report. Cortina d'Ampezzo. http://la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1956/orw1956.pdf. Retrieved 2009-05-29. 
• Findling, John E.; Pelle, Kimberly D. (1996). Historical Dictionary of the Modern Olympic Movement. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313284776. http://books.google.com/books?id=InQ_9QaRTlMC&pg=PA258&dq=1956+winter+olympics&ei=9muQSYuiN4vKlQTQtpjGBQ#PPA258,M1. Retrieved 2009-02-09. 
• Guttman, Allen (1986). Sports Spectators. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231064012. http://books.google.com/books?id=i7va9B45XZ0C&pg=PA135&dq=television+rights+cortina+olympics&ei=TSWoScXZKoyEkQSUkpSlBA. Retrieved 2009-03-13. 
• Judd, Ron C. (2008). The Winter Olympics. Seattle, Washington: The Mountaineers Books. ISBN 1594850631. http://books.google.com/books?id=Hc2dCHfyh0AC&printsec=copyright#PPA4,M1. Retrieved 2009-03-13. 
• Noverr, Douglas A.; Ziewacz, Lawrence E. (1983). The Games they Played. Chicago, IL.: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0882297287. http://books.google.com/books?id=-BQ2rKXRMGgC&pg=PA232&dq=ice+hockey+at+the+1956+winter+olympic+games&lr=#PPA232,M1. Retrieved 2009-05-29. 
• Toohey, Kristine; Veal, A.J. (2008). The Olympic Games:A Social Science Perspective. Cambridge MA.: CABI. ISBN 9781845933463. http://books.google.com/books?id=ywy9aslk3M8C&pg=PA148&dq=sponsorship+olympics+cortina&ei=RyCoSbukJpPYlQS73pSMBA#PPA148,M1. Retrieved 2009-02-27.