Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics was represented by 15 events: 7 for women and 8 for men. All events were held at the West Melbourne Stadium between December 3 and December 7. It is located some 3.4 km north-west of the main Olympic venue, Melbourne Cricket Ground, and named Festival Hall as of 2006.[1]

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.

Men's competition

The team included from five to eight gymnasts. Each team member performed compulsory and optional routines on each of six apparatus. Gymnast's scores in these performances counted for all of the events. Scores of gymnasts from incomplete teams counted only for individual events.

Like in the women's events, five best scores constituted the team's score for the routine. These scores constituted the overall team's totals.

Women's 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, as for men's events: five best scores constituted the team's score for the routine; these scores constituted the overall team's totals.

Medal summary

Men’s events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual all-around	Viktor Chukarin  Soviet Union	Takashi Ono  Japan	Yuri Titov  Soviet Union
Team all-around	Soviet Union (URS) Albert Azaryan Viktor Chukarin Valentin Muratov Boris Shakhlin Pavel Stolbov Yuri Titov	Japan (JPN) Nobuyuki Aihara Akira Kono Masami Kubota Takashi Ono Masao Takemoto Shinsaku Tsukawaki	Finland (FIN) Raimo Heinonen Olavi Laimuvirta Onni Lappalainen Berndt Lindfors Martti Mansikka Kalevi Suoniemi
Floor exercise	Valentin Muratov  Soviet Union	Nobuyuki Aihara  Japan	none awarded
		William Thoresson  Sweden
		Viktor Chukarin  Soviet Union
Horizontal bar	Takashi Ono  Japan	Yuri Titov  Soviet Union	Masao Takemoto  Japan
Parallel bars	Viktor Chukarin  Soviet Union	Masumi Kubota  Japan	Takashi Ono  Japan
			Masao Takemoto  Japan
Pommel horse	Boris Shakhlin  Soviet Union	Takashi Ono  Japan	Viktor Chukarin  Soviet Union
Rings	Albert Azaryan  Soviet Union	Valentin Muratov  Soviet Union	Masao Takemoto  Japan
			Masumi Kubota  Japan
Vault	Helmut Bantz  United Team of Germany	none awarded	Yuri Titov  Soviet Union
	Valentin Muratov  Soviet Union

Women's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual all-around	Larisa Latynina  Soviet Union	Ágnes Keleti  Hungary	Sofia Muratova  Soviet Union
Team all-around	Soviet Union (URS) Polina Astakhova Lyudmila Yegorova Lidia Kalinina Larisa Latynina Tamara Manina Sofia Muratova	Hungary (HUN) Andrea Molnár-Bodó Erzsébet Gulyás-Köteles Ágnes Keleti Alice Kertész Margit Korondi Olga Lemhényi-Tass	Romania (ROU) Georgeta Hurmuzachi Sonia Iovan Elena Leuşteanu Elena Mărgărit Elena Săcălici Emilia Vătăşoiu
Balance beam	Ágnes Keleti  Hungary	Eva Bosáková  Czechoslovakia	none awarded
		Tamara Manina  Soviet Union
Floor exercise	Ágnes Keleti  Hungary	none awarded	Elena Leuşteanu  Romania
	Larisa Latynina  Soviet Union
Uneven bars	Ágnes Keleti  Hungary	Larisa Latynina  Soviet Union	Sofia Muratova  Soviet Union
Vault	Larisa Latynina  Soviet Union	Tamara Manina  Soviet Union	Olga Lemhényi-Tass  Hungary
			Ann-Sofi Pettersson  Sweden
Team, portable apparatus	Hungary (HUN) Andrea Molnár-Bodó Erzsébet Gulyás-Köteles Ágnes Keleti Alice Kertész Margit Korondi Olga Lemhényi-Tass	Sweden (SWE) Karin Lindberg Ann-Sofi Pettersson Eva Rönström Evy Berggren Doris Hedberg Maud Karlén	Soviet Union (URS) Polina Astakhova Lyudmila Yegorova Lidia Kalinina Larisa Latynina Tamara Manina Sofia Muratova
			Poland (POL) Helena Rakoczy Natalia Kot-Wala Danuta Stachow Dorota Horzonek-Jokiel Barbara Ślizowska Lidia Szczerbińska

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	11	6	6	23
2	Hungary (HUN)	4	2	1	7
3	Japan (JPN)	1	5	5	11
4	United Team of Germany (EUA)	1	0	0	1
5	Sweden (SWE)	0	2	1	3
6	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	1	0	1
7	Romania (ROU)	0	0	2	2
8	Finland (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	Poland (POL)	0	0	1	1
Totals (9 nations)		17	16	17	50

References

1. "Gymnastics at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2019.

Sources

• The Official Report of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad. Melbourne: W. M. Houston, Government Printer. 1958. Archived from the original on 2006-06-22. Retrieved 2012-06-26.
• "1956 Olympic Games". Gymn-Forum.com. Retrieved May 6, 2006.