1960 Summer Olympics

The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad (Italian: Giochi della XVII Olimpiade), was an international multi-sport event that was held from August 25 to September 11, 1960, in Rome, Italy. The city of Rome had previously been awarded the administration of the 1908 Summer Olympics, but following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, Rome had no choice but to decline and pass the honour to London. The Soviet Union won the most gold and overall medals.

Games of the XVII Olympiad
Host cityRome, Italy
Nations83
Athletes5,338 (4,727 men, 611 women)
Events150 in 17 sports (23 disciplines)
Opening25 August
Closing11 September
Opened by
President Giovanni Gronchi[1]
Cauldron
Giancarlo Peris[1]
StadiumStadio Olimpico
Summer
← Melbourne 1956 Tokyo 1964 →
Winter
← Squaw Valley 1960 Innsbruck 1964 →

The Games lasted 18 days, one more than a typical Olympics would usually last nowadays.

Host city selection

On June 15, 1955, at the 50th IOC Session in Paris, France, Rome won the rights to host the 1960 Games, having beaten Brussels, Mexico City, Tokyo, Detroit, Budapest and finally Lausanne. Tokyo and Mexico City would subsequently host the proceeding 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics respectively.[2]

Toronto was initially interested in the bidding, but appears to have dropped out during the final phase of the bid process.[3] This was the first of five unsuccessful attempts by Toronto to secure the Summer Olympics from then until the 2008 games.

1960 Summer Olympics bidding results[4]
City Country Round 1 Round 2 Round 3
Rome Italy152635
Lausanne  Switzerland142124
Detroit United States611—
Budapest Hungary81—
Brussels Belgium6——
Mexico City Mexico6——
Tokyo Japan4——

Highlights
The Olympic Torch of Rome 1960
Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia wins the marathon barefooted
  • Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the marathon barefooted to become the first black African Olympic champion.
  • Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, won boxing's light-heavyweight gold medal. Ramon "Buddy" Carr was one of the coaches that led this team to winning gold.[6]
  • Herb Elliott, AUS, won the men's 1500 meters in one of the most dominating performances in Olympic history.
  • Rafer Johnson defeated his rival, fellow U.C.L.A. Bruin and friend C.K. Yang in one of the greatest Decathlon events in Olympic history.[7]
  • Lance Larson, US, was controversially denied a 100 metres freestyle swimming gold, despite showing the best time.
  • 16-years-old phenom Chris von Saltza won four medals in women's swimming, three of them gold.
  • The future Constantine II, last King of Greece (abdicated and ended hybrid monarchy, 1973) won his country a gold in sailing: dragon class.
  • The Pakistani Men's Field Hockey team broke a run of Indian team victories since 1928, defeating India in the final and winning Pakistan's first Olympic gold medal.
  • Wrestlers Shelby Wilson, and Doug Blubaugh, who wrestled together growing up, won gold medals in their respective weight classes.

Lowlights

Historical landmarks
  • South Africa appeared in the Olympic arena for the last time under its apartheid regime. It would not be allowed to return until 1992, by when apartheid in sport was being abolished.
  • Singapore competed for the first time under its own flag, which was to become its national flag after independence, as the British had granted it self-government a year earlier. Tan Howe Liang won silver in the Weightlifting lightweight category, which was the first time (and the only time until 2008) that an athlete from Singapore won an Olympic medal.

Non-medal winners

Broadcasting
  • CBS paid US$394,000 (equivalent to $3,405,064 in 2019) for the exclusive right to broadcast the Games in the United States. This was the first Summer Olympic games to be telecast in North America. In addition to CBS in the United States, the Olympics were telecast for the first time in Canada (on CBC Television) and in Mexico (through the networks of Telesistema Mexicano). Since television broadcast satellites were still two years into the future, CBS, CBC, and TSM shot and edited videotapes in Rome, fed the tapes to Paris where they were re-recorded onto other tapes which were then loaded onto jet planes to North America. Planes carrying the tapes landed at Idlewild Airport in New York City, where mobile units fed the tapes to CBS, to Toronto for the CBC, and to Mexico City for TSM. Despite this arrangement, many daytime events were broadcast in North America, especially on CBS and CBC, the same day they took place.[9]

Venues
Main article: Venues of the 1960 Summer Olympics
Opening Ceremony in 1960 Summer Olympics in Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy

1 New facilities constructed in preparation for the Olympic Games. 2 Existing facilities modified or refurbished in preparation for the Olympic Games.

Games

Participating National Olympic Committees
Participants
Number of athletes per country

A total of 83 nations participated at the Rome Games. Athletes from Morocco, San Marino, Sudan, and Tunisia competed at the Olympic Games for the first time. Athletes from Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago would represent the new (British) West Indies Federation, competing as "Antilles", but this nation would only exist for this single Olympiad. Athletes from Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia competed under the Rhodesia name while representing the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Athletes from East Germany and West Germany would compete as the United Team of Germany from 1956 to 1964. The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants that each country contributed.

Participating National Olympic Committees
  •  Suriname also made its first Olympic appearance, but its lone athlete (Wim Esajas) withdrew from competition due to a scheduling error.[10]

Sports

The 1960 Summer Olympics featured 17 different sports encompassing 23 disciplines, and medals were awarded in 150 events. In the list below, the number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.

Calendar
All dates are in Central European Time (UTC+1)
See also: Chronological summary of the 1960 Summer Olympics
OCOpening ceremony ●Event competitions 1Gold medal events CCClosing ceremony
August / September 25
Thu		 26
Fri		 27
Sat		 28
Sun		 29
Mon		 30
Tue		 31
Wed		 1
Thu		 2
Fri		 3
Sat		 4
Sun		 5
Mon		 6
Tue		 7
Wed		 8
Thu		 9
Fri		 10
Sat		 11
Sun		 Events
CeremoniesOCCCN/A
Athletics 2 4 7 3 3 4 4 6 1 34
Basketball ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 1 1
Boxing ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 10 10
Canoeing ● ● 7 7
Cycling 2 1 2 1 6
Diving ● 1 1 1 ● ● 1 4
Equestrian ● 1 1 ● ● 2 1 5
Fencing ● 1 ● 1 1 1 ● 1 ● 1 1 1 8
Field hockey ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 1 ● ● 1
Football ● ● ● ● ● ● 1 1
Gymnastics ● ● ● 2 5 7 14
Modern pentathlon ● ● ● ● ● 2 2
Rowing ● ● ● ● 7 7
Sailing ● ● ● ● ● ● 5 5
Shooting ● 1 1 ● 1 2 1 6
Swimming ● 2 1 2 2 3 2 3 15
Water polo ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 1 1
Weightlifting 2 2 2 1 7
Wrestling ● ● ● ● 8 ● ● ● ● 8 16
Daily medal events240115148111501415121211151150
Cumulative total266172236445570708499111123134149150
August / September 25
Thu		 26
Fri		 27
Sat		 28
Sun		 29
Mon		 30
Tue		 31
Wed		 1
Thu		 2
Fri		 3
Sat		 4
Sun		 5
Mon		 6
Tue		 7
Wed		 8
Thu		 9
Fri		 10
Sat		 11
Sun		 Total events

Medal count
Main article: 1960 Summer Olympics medal table

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1960 Games:[11]

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Soviet Union432931103
2 United States34211671
3 Italy*13101336
4 United Team of Germany12191142
5 Australia88622
6 Turkey7209
7 Hungary68721
8 Japan47718
9 Poland461121
10 Czechoslovakia3238
Totals (10 nations)134112105351

See also

References
  1. "Factsheet - Opening Ceremony of the Games of the Olympiad" (PDF) (Press release). International Olympic Committee. 9 October 2014. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  2. "IOC VOTE HISTORY".
  3. "Toronto has made 5 attempts to host the Olympics. Could the sixth be the winner?". thestar.com. 24 July 2015.
  4. "Past Olympic host city election results". GamesBids. Archived from the original on 24 January 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  5. Coplan, Joseph (July 19, 2000). "Profiling Jeff Farrell, 1968 ISHOF Honor Swimmer". USMS. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
  6. Zaborney, Mark (March 11, 2016). "Ramon 'Buddy' Carr (1926-2016): TPD officer coached gold-medalist boxer". Toledo Blade.
  7. Henderson, Jon (June 26, 2012). "Great Olympic Moments: UCLA friends Rafer Johnson and Yang Chuan-kwang make decathlon history in 1960". The Telegraph. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  8. Maraniss, David (2008). Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World (1st ed.). New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-4165-3407-5.
  9. "OLYMPICS AND TELEVISION - The Museum of Broadcast Communications". Museum.tv. Archived from the original on July 27, 2009. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
  10. Official Olympic Reports. Archived from the original on 2006-06-22.
  11. Byron, Lee; Cox, Amanda; Ericson, Matthew (August 4, 2008). "A Map of Olympic Medals". The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
Preceded by
Melbourne/Stockholm		 Summer Olympic Games
Rome
XVII Olympiad (1960)		 Succeeded by
Tokyo
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