Melbourne 1956

Olympic Games Melbourne 1956 Medals

Front: Seated Victory holding laurel wreath and palm branch with Colosseum in background. At right, "XVIth Olympiad Melbourne 1956"

Back: Victoriuous athlete with palm branch carried by jubilant athletes with stadium in background.

Medals were presented in a plastic cream-colored case.

Designer: Giuseppe Cassioli
Mint: K.G. Luke, Melbourne, Australia

Bobby Jo Morrow led the medal count for the United States with his three gold medals in men's 100-, 200- and the 4x100-meter in track and field.

Pat McCormick completed her back-to-back, double-double, winning gold again in both the women's springboard and platform diving events.

This was the first time the Olympic Games were held in Oceania. To allow for the equestrian sports to be held and to avoid the quarantine for horses entering Australia, the Games took place in two different cities (Melbourne and Stockholm), in two different countries (Australia and Sweden) and in two different seasons (June and November). This is the only time in the Games' hundred-year existence that the unity of time and place, as stipulated in the Charter, has not been observed.