Soviet Union at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Sporting event delegation
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The Soviet Union (USSR) competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. 272 competitors, 233 men and 39 women, took part in 135 events in 17 sports.[1] The Netherlands, Spain, the Netherlands Antilles, Egypt, Lebanon, Cambodia, Iraq and Switzerland protested against Soviet participating amidst their invasion of Hungary by boycotting the games.
| Soviet Union at the 1956 Summer Olympics | |
|---|---|
| |
| IOC code | URS |
| NOC | Soviet Olympic Committee |
| in Melbourne/Stockholm | |
| Competitors | 272 (233 men, 39 women) in 17 sports |
| Flag bearer | Aleksey Medvedev |
| Medals Ranked 1st |
|
| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |
| Other related appearances | |
 Russian Empire (1900–1912) Estonia (1920–1936, 1992–pres.) Latvia (1924–1936, 1992–pres.) Lithuania (1924–1928, 1992–pres.) Unified Team (1992) Armenia (1994–pres.) Belarus (1994–2020) Georgia (1994–pres.) Kazakhstan (1994–pres.) Kyrgyzstan (1994–pres.) Moldova (1994–pres.) Russia (1994–2016) Ukraine (1994–pres.) Uzbekistan (1994–pres.) Azerbaijan (1996–pres.) Tajikistan (1996–pres.) Turkmenistan (1996–pres.) ROC (2020) Individual Neutral Athletes (2024) | |
Medalists
The USSR finished first in the final medal rankings, with 37 gold and 98 total medals.
Gold
Silver
Bronze
|
|
Athletics
Men's 110 m hurdles
- Heat — 14.4s
- Semifinals — 14.5s
- Final — 14.6s (→ 6th place)
- Heat — 14.5s (→ did not advance)
Men's marathon
- Ivan Filine — 2:30:37 (→ 7th place)
- Boris Grichaev — did not finish (→ no ranking)
- Albert Ivanov — did not finish (→ no ranking)
Basketball
Boxing
Canoeing
Cycling
- Boris Romanov — 7th place
- Boris Savostin — 1:12.3 (→ 5th place)
- Rostislav Vargashkin
Vladimir Leonov — 9th place
- Anatoly Cherepovich
Mykola Kolumbet
Viktor Kapitonov — 63 points (→ 6th place)
- Anatoly Cherepovich — 5:23:50 (→ 15th place)
- Mykola Kolumbet — 5:23:50 (→ 16th place)
- Viktor Kapitonov — 5:30:45 (→ 32nd place)
- Viktor Vershinin — 5:34:21 (→ 35th place)
Diving
- Men
| Athlete | Event | Preliminary | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Total | Rank | ||
| Roman Brener | 3 m springboard | 83.82 | 4 Q | 55.32 | 8 | 139.14 | 6 |
| Yury Kasakov | 74.68 | 12 Q | 54.66 | 9 | 129.34 | 9 | |
| Gennady Udalov | 83.06 | 6 Q | 57.58 | 5 | 140.64 | 5 | |
| Roman Brener | 10 m platform | 76.56 | 5 Q | 66.39 | 5 | 142.95 | 5 |
| Mikhail Chachba | 73.02 | 8 Q | 61.50 | 8 | 134.52 | 8 | |
| Gennady Galkin | 68.92 | 13 | Did not advance | ||||
- Women
| Athlete | Event | Preliminary | Final | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Rank | Points | Rank | Total | Rank | ||
| Zoya Blyuvas | 3 m springboard | 62.12 | 9 Q | 36.03 | 12 | 98.15 | 11 |
| Valentina Chumicheva | 65.42 | 5 Q | 53.08 | 3 | 118.50 | 5 | |
| Ninel Krutova | 61.54 | 10 Q | 38.80 | 10 | 100.34 | 10 | |
| Raisa Gorokhovskaya | 10 m platform | 52.64 | 2 Q | 21.20 | 12 | 73.84 | 9 |
| Tatyana Karakashyants | 52.19 | 3 Q | 24.76 | 7 | 76.95 | 5 | |
| Lyubov Zhigalova | 49.22 | 8 Q | 27.18 | 5 | 76.40 | 6 | |
Fencing
20 fencers, 17 men and 3 women, represented the Soviet Union in 1956.
Football
Gymnastics
Modern pentathlon
Three male pentathletes represented the Soviet Union in 1956. The Soviet pentathletes won gold in the team event.
- Individual
- Team
- Igor Novikov
- Aleksandr Tarasov
- Ivan Deriuhin
Rowing
The Soviet Union had 25 male rowers participate in seven rowing events in 1956.[2]
- Men's single sculls – 1st place (
gold medal)
- Vyacheslav Ivanov (Вячеслав Иванов)
- Men's double sculls – 1st place ( gold medal)
- Aleksandr Berkutov (Александр Беркутов)
- Yuriy Tyukalov (Юрий Тюкалов)
- Men's coxless pair – 2nd place (
silver medal)
- Igor Buldakov (Игорь Булдаков)
- Viktor Ivanov (Виктор Иванов)
- Men's coxed pair – 3rd place (
bronze medal)
- Ihor Yemchuk (Ihor Yemchuk, Игорь Емчук)
- Heorhiy Zhylin (Georgy Zhilin, Георгий Жилин)
- Vladimir Petrov (Владимир Петров)
- Leonid Zakharov (Леонид Захаров)
- Aleksandr Sheff (Александр Шефф)
- Nikolay Karasyov (Николай Карасёв)
- Igor Ivanov (Игорь Иванов)
- Andrey Arkhipov (Андрей Архипов)
- Yury Popov (Юрий Попов)
- Valentin Zanin (Валентин Занин)
- Yaroslav Cherstvy (Ярослав Черствый)
- Anatoly Fetisov (Анатолий Фетисов)
- Ernest Verbin (Эрнест Вербин)
- Boris Fyodorov (Борис Фёдоров)
- Slava Amiragov (Слава Амирагов)
- Leonid Gissen (Леонид Гиссен)
- Yevgeny Samsonov (Евгений Самсонов)
- Anatoly Antonov (Анатолий Антонов)
- Georgy Gushchenko (Георгий Гущенко)
- Vladimir Kryukov (Владимир Крюков)
- Vladimir Petrov (Владимир Петров)
Sailing
Shooting
Eleven shooters represented the Soviet Union in 1956.
Swimming
- Men
| Athlete | Event | Heat | Semifinal | Final | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | Time | Rank | ||
| Lev Balandin | 100 m freestyle | 59.6 | 21 | Did not advance | |||
| Vitaly Sorokin | 58.6 | 16 Q | 58.2 | 12 | Did not advance | ||
| Boris Nik'it'ini | 400 m freestyle | 4:42.8 | 16 | N/a | Did not advance | ||
| Gennady Androsov | 1500 m freestyle | 19:22.6 | 16 | N/a | Did not advance | ||
| Farid Dosayev | 200 m breaststroke | 2:43.9 | 10 | N/a | Did not advance | ||
| Kharis Yunichev | 2:41.2 | 6 Q | N/a | 2:36.8 |  | ||
| Igor Zaseda | 2:40.1 | 4 Q | N/a | 2:39.0 | 5 | ||
| Vitaly Sorokin Vladimir Struzhanov Gennady Nikolayev Boris Nik'it'ini |
4 × 200 m freestyle | 8:39.5 | 4 Q | N/a | 8:34.7 | | |
- Women
| Athlete | Event | Heat | Final | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | Rank | Time | Rank | ||
| Liudmyla Klipova | 100 m backstroke | 1:16.1 | 14 | Did not advance | |
Water polo
Weightlifting
Wrestling
Medals by republic
In the following table for team events number of team representatives, who received medals are counted, not "one medal for all the team", as usual. Because there were people from different republics in one team.
| Rank | Republic | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Russian SFSR | 47 | 33 | 36 | 116 |
| 2 |  Ukrainian SSR | 14 | 4 | 11 | 29 |
| 3 |  Armenian SSR | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 |  Georgian SSR | 2 | 0 | 6 | 8 |
| 5 |  Latvian SSR | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 6 |  Lithuanian SSR | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 7 |  Azerbaijan SSR | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
 Byelorussian SSR | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 9 |  Estonian SSR | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (9 entries) | 68 | 46 | 55 | 169 | |