Czechoslovakia at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Czechoslovakia at the Olympic Games
Flag of Czechoslovakia – Flag bearers IOC code   TCH
At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne/Stockholm
Competitors	63
Medals Rank: 18	Gold 1	Silver 4	Bronze 1	Total 6
Olympic history (summary)
Summer Games
1920 • 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992
Winter Games
1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992
Other related appearances
Bohemia (1900–1912) Czech Republic (1994–) Slovakia (1994–)

Czechoslovakia competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

Czech athlete Olga Fikotová won a gold medal in women's discus. She also started a famous love affair with American athlete Harold Vincent Connolly here.

The team was warned that their flight back to Czechoslovakia is in a danger of a terrorists' attack. All sportsmen had to undergo a long journey by a Soviet ship Gruzia from Melbourne to Vladivostok, Soviet Union and then by Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow and by plane to Prague, Czechoslovakia. The whole journey took 31 days. The part of the journey from Melbourne to Moscow, Czechoslovakian sportsmen had to share a ship and train with Soviet sportsmen also returning home via this route. The coexistence was not idyllic and Czechoslovakians described it later as very humiliating. The Olympic team spent Christmas Day in the Pacific and New Year's Eve in Siberia. The team experienced high temperatures during voyage across equator and later freezing weather with -50 °C in Siberia.

It is very probable that the reason for the warning was only fictional and a long journey home was only a political decision made by Czechoslovak and Soviet communists. It was never justified.^{[citation needed]}

Medalists

Gold

• Athletics - Women's Discus throw, Olga Fikotová

Silver

• Shooting - 50 m rifle three positions, Otakar Hořínek
• Gymnastics - Women's Balance beam, Eva Bosáková
• Cycling - 1000m time trial, Ladislav Fouček
• Cycling - Tandem; Ladislav Fouček, Václav Machek

Bronze

• Athletics - Men's Shot put, Jiří Skobla

Results by event

Athletics

Men's Marathon

• Emil Zátopek — 2:29:34 (→ 6th place)
• Pavel Kantorek — 2:52:05 (→ 27th place)

Cycling

Men's 1000m Scratch Sprint

• Ladislav Fouček — 6th place

Men's 1000m Time Trial

• Ladislav Fouček — 1:11.4 (→ Silver Medal)

Men's 2000m Tandem

• Ladislav Fouček
  Václav Machek — Silver Medal

Men's 4.000m Team Pursuit

• František Jursa
  Jaroslav Cihlár
  Jirí Nouza
  Jirí Opavský — 7th place

Men's Individual Road Race

• František Jursa — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Jaroslav Cihlár — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Jirí Nouza — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Jirí Opavský — did not finish (→ no ranking)

References

• Official Olympic Reports
• International Olympic Committee results database
• Czech Olympic report (in Czech)