1960 Summer Olympics

On 15 June 1955, at the 50th IOC Session in Paris, France, Rome won the right 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.aldaver.com/votes.html |title=IOC VOTE HISTORY |access-date=11 June 2008 |archive-date=25 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080525070757/http://www.aldaver.com/votes.html |url-status=usurped }}

Toronto was initially interested in the bidding, but was automatically removed from consideration when it failed to return the IOC's mandatory questionnaire by the deadline. The questionnaire may have been mislaid in the confusion following the death of the Toronto bid's chief organiser, Robert Hood Saunders, in a plane crash weeks before the deadline.{{cite news |last1=Bradburn |first1=Jamie |title=Outbid: How Toronto lost the Olympics again and again — and again |url=https://www.tvo.org/article/outbid-how-toronto-lost-the-olympics-again-and-again-and-again |access-date=September 8, 2024 |work=TVO Today |date=August 6, 2024}} This was the first of five unsuccessful attempts by Toronto to secure the Summer Olympics, the most recent being a bid for the 2008 Games.{{cite news |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/07/24/toronto-has-made-5-attempts-to-host-the-olympics-could-the-sixth-be-the-winner.html |title=Toronto has made 5 attempts to host the Olympics. Could the sixth be the winner? |date=24 July 2015 |work=thestar.com|last1=Edwards |first1=Peter }}

File:Torcia Olimpica Roma 1960.jpg

• Swedish sprint canoeist Gert Fredriksson won his sixth Olympic title.
• Fencer Aladár Gerevich of Hungary won his sixth consecutive gold medal in the team sabre event.
• The Japanese men's gymnastics team won the first of five successive golds (see 1976 Summer Olympics).
• The United States men's national basketball team—led by promising college players Walt Bellamy, Jerry Lucas, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West—captured its fifth straight Olympic gold medal.
• Danish sailor Paul Elvstrøm won his fourth straight gold medal in the Finn class. Others to emulate his performance in an individual event are Al Oerter, Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps, Kaori Icho, Mijaín López and, if the Intercalated (Interspaced) Games of 1906 are included, Ray Ewry.
• German Armin Hary won the 100 metres in an Olympic record time of 10.2 seconds. American Dave Sime also ran 10.2 s in the final, but was credited with silver after a controversial video review.
• Wilma Rudolph, a former polio patient, won three gold medals in sprint events on the track. She was acclaimed as "the fastest woman in the world".
• Jeff Farrell won two gold medals in swimming. He underwent an emergency appendectomy six days before the Olympic Trials.{{cite web |url=https://www.usms.org/hist/sto/index.php?ID=11&srt= |title=Profiling Jeff Farrell, 1968 ISHOF Honor Swimmer |first=Joseph |last=Coplan |publisher=USMS |date=July 19, 2000 |access-date=March 23, 2011}}

File:Abebe Bikila sprints away from Rhadi Ben Abdesselam.jpg of Ethiopia wins the marathon barefooted]]

• Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the marathon barefooted to become the first African and Ethiopian Olympic champion.
• 18-year-old Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, won boxing's light-heavyweight gold medal. Ramon "Buddy" Carr was his coach.{{cite news |url=https://www.toledoblade.com/Deaths/2016/03/11/Ramon-Buddy-Carr-TPD-officer-coached-gold-medalist-boxer.html |title=Ramon 'Buddy' Carr (1926-2016): TPD officer coached gold-medalist boxer |date=March 11, 2016 |first=Mark |last=Zaborney |newspaper=Toledo Blade}}
• Herb Elliott of Australia 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.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/olympicsvideo/great-olympic-moments/9346841/Rafer-Johnson-beats-Yang-Chuan-kwang-Olympic-decathlon-1960.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120726182940/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/olympicsvideo/great-olympic-moments/9346841/Rafer-Johnson-beats-Yang-Chuan-kwang-Olympic-decathlon-1960.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 26, 2012 |title=Great Olympic Moments: UCLA friends Rafer Johnson and Yang Chuan-kwang make decathlon history in 1960 |first=Jon |last=Henderson |date=June 26, 2012 |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=June 21, 2018}}
• Lance Larson of the United States 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.

• Danish cyclist Knud Jensen collapsed during the 100km team race because of heat stroke and later died in the hospital. It was suspected that he had been under the influence of Roniacol, a blood circulation stimulant.{{Cite book |last=Wallechinsky |first=David |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/870338894 |title=The complete book of the Winter Olympics : 2014 edition |isbn=978-1-937530-70-9 |oclc=870338894}} The International Olympic Committee stated on its website that "drugs were implicated, although that was never proven."[https://olympics.com/ioc/1967-creation-of-the-ioc-medical-commission 1967: Creation of the IOC Medical Commission] It was the second time (and as of 2024, the most recent) an athlete died in competition at the Olympics, after the death of Portuguese marathon runner Francisco Lázaro at the 1912 Summer Olympics.{{cite book |last=Maraniss |first=David |author-link=David Maraniss |title=Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2008 |location=New York City, NY |edition=1st |page=[https://archive.org/details/rome1960olympics00mara/page/138 138] |isbn=978-1-4165-3407-5}}

• 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.

• Finnish Vilho Ylönen, a field shooter, shot a bullseye to a wrong target; in doing so, he dropped from second place to fourth.
• Peter Camejo, a 2004 American vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party, competed in yachting for Venezuela.
• The future Queen Sofía of Spain represented her native Greece in sailing events.

• CBS paid {{USD|394000}} (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|394000|1960|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/O/htmlO/olympicsand/olympicsand.htm |title=OLYMPICS AND TELEVISION - The Museum of Broadcast Communications |publisher=Museum.tv |access-date=March 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727104517/http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/O/htmlO/olympicsand/olympicsand.htm |archive-date=July 27, 2009 |url-status=dead}}

{{Main|Venues of the 1960 Summer Olympics}}

File:Rome Olympics 1960 - Opening Day.jpg in Rome, Italy]]

• Olympic Stadium² (Stadio Olimpico) – opening/closing ceremonies, athletics, equestrian events
• Flaminio Stadium¹ (Stadio Flaminio) – football finals
• Swimming Stadium¹ – swimming, diving, water polo, modern pentathlon (swimming)
• Sports Palace¹ (Palazzo dello sport) – basketball, boxing
• Olympic Velodrome¹ – cycling (track), field hockey
• Small Sports Palace¹ (Palazzetto dello Sport) – basketball, weightlifting
• Marble Stadium² (Stadio dei Marmi) – field hockey preliminaries
• Baths of Caracalla – gymnastics
• Basilica of Maxentius – wrestling
• Palazzo dei Congressi – fencing
• Umberto I Shooting Range¹ – modern pentathlon (shooting), shooting (pistol/ rifle)
• Roses Swimming Pool¹ (Piscina delle Rose) – water polo
• Lake Albano, Castelgandolfo – rowing, canoeing
• Piazza di Siena, Villa Borghese gardens – equestrian (dressage, eventing – jumping, jumping – individual)
• Pratoni del Vivaro, Rocca di Papa – equestrian (eventing)
• Gulf of Naples, Naples – yachting
• Communal Stadium, Florence – football/soccer preliminaries
• Communal Stadium, Grosseto – football/soccer preliminaries
• Communal Stadium, L'Aquila – football/soccer preliminaries
• Ardenza Stadium, Livorno – football/soccer preliminaries
• Adriatico Stadium, Pescara – football/soccer preliminaries
• Saint Paul's Stadium, Naples – football/soccer preliminaries
• Campo Tre Fontane – field hockey preliminaries
• Acqua Santa Golf Club Course – modern pentathlon (running)
• Arch of Constantine – athletics (marathon finish)
• Cesano Infantry School Range – shooting (300 m free rifle)
• Lazio Pigeon Shooting Stand – shooting (trap shotgun)
• Passo Corese – modern pentathlon (riding)
• Grande Raccordo Anulare – athletics (marathon)
• Via Appian Antica – athletics (marathon)
• Via Cassia – cycling (individual road race)
• Via Flaminia – cycling (individual road race)
• Via Cristoforo Colombo – athletics (marathon), cycling (road team time trial)
• Via di Grottarossa – cycling (individual road race)

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

File:1960 Summer Olympic games countries.png

File:1960 Summer olympics team numbers.gif

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. Athletes from the People's Republic of China last competed at the 1952 Summer Games but had since withdrawn from the Olympic movement due to a dispute with the Republic of China over the right to represent China.{{cite web|title=China and the Olympic Movement|last=Xiao|first=Li|publisher=China Internet Information Center|url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/null/116819.htm|access-date=August 4, 2011}} The number in parentheses indicates the number of participants that each country contributed.

• {{flagIOC|SUR|1960 Summer}} also made its first Olympic appearance, but its lone athlete (Wim Esajas) withdrew from competition due to a scheduling error.{{cite book |title=Official Olympic Reports |url=http://www.la84foundation.org/5va/reports_frmst.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060622162855/http://www.la84foundation.org/5va/reports_frmst.htm |archive-date=2006-06-22}}

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.

{{div col|colwidth=17em}}

• Aquatics
• {{GamesSport|Diving|Events=4|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Swimming|Events=15|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Water polo|Events=1|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Athletics|Events=34|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Basketball|Events=1|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Boxing|Events=10|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Canoeing|Events=7|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Cycling|Format=d}}
• Road (2)
• Track (4)
• {{GamesSport|Equestrian|Format=d}}
• Dressage (1)
• Eventing (2)
• Jumping (2)
• {{GamesSport|Fencing|Events=8|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Field hockey|Events=1|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Football|Events=1|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Gymnastics|Events=14|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Modern pentathlon|Events=2|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Rowing|Events=7|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Sailing|Events=5|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Shooting|Events=6|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Weightlifting|Events=7|Format=d}}
• {{GamesSport|Wrestling|Format=d}}
• Freestyle (8)
• Greco-Roman (8)

{{div col end}}

:All dates are in Central European Time (UTC+1)

{{see also|Chronological summary of the 1960 Summer Olympics}}

{{#section:Chronological summary of the 1960 Summer Olympics|Calendar}}

{{Main|1960 Summer Olympics medal table}}

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1960 Games:{{cite news |author=Byron, Lee |author2=Cox, Amanda |author3=Ericson, Matthew |title=A Map of Olympic Medals |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html |access-date=February 26, 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 4, 2008}}

{{Medals table

| caption =

| host =

| show_limit =

| remaining_text =

| flag_template = flagIOC

| event = 1960 Summer

| team =

| gold_URS = 43 | silver_URS = 29 | bronze_URS = 31

| gold_USA = 34 | silver_USA = 21 | bronze_USA = 16

| gold_ITA = 13 | silver_ITA = 10 | bronze_ITA = 13 | host_ITA = yes

| gold_EUA = 12 | silver_EUA = 19 | bronze_EUA = 11

| gold_AUS = 8 | silver_AUS = 8 | bronze_AUS = 6

| gold_TUR = 7 | silver_TUR = 2 | bronze_TUR = 0

| gold_HUN = 6 | silver_HUN = 8 | bronze_HUN = 7

| gold_JPN = 4 | silver_JPN = 7 | bronze_JPN = 7

| gold_POL = 4 | silver_POL = 6 | bronze_POL = 11

| gold_TCH = 3 | silver_TCH = 2 | bronze_TCH = 3

}}

{{IOC seealso|games=1960 Summer Olympics}}

• Universiades celebrated in Italy
• 1959 Summer Universiade – Turin
• 1966 Winter Universiade – Sestriere
• 1970 Summer Universiade – Turin
• 1975 Winter Universiade – Livigno
• 1975 Summer Universiade – Rome
• 1985 Winter Universiade – Belluno
• 1997 Summer Universiade – Sicily
• 2003 Winter Universiade – Tarvisio
• 2007 Winter Universiade – Turin
• 2013 Winter Universiade – Trentino
• 2019 Summer Universiade – Naples
• 2025 Winter Universiade – Turin
• Deaflympics celebrated in Italy
• 1957 Summer Deaflympics – Milan
• 2001 Summer Deaflympics – Rome
• 2019 Winter Deaflympics – Province of Sondrio

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{IOC games|games=1960 Summer Olympics }}
• [https://archive.org/details/rome1960olympics00mara Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World], David Maraniss, New York, NY, U.S.: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080507191400/http://www.marcolympics.org/jeux/1960/summer/index.php The program of the 1960 Rome Olympics]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=EE8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA16 LIFE 12 Sep 1960]

{{S-start}}

{{s-sports|soly}}

{{s-bef|before=Melbourne/Stockholm}}

{{s-ttl|title=XVII Olympiad
Rome|years=1960}}

{{s-aft|after=Tokyo}}

{{S-end}}

{{Olympic Games}}

{{Nations at the 1960 Summer Olympics}}

{{EventsAt1960SummerOlympics}}

{{1960 Summer Olympic venues}}

{{CBS Sports}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Portal bar|Olympics|Italy|Sports|1960s}}

Category:Sports competitions in Rome

Category:Olympic Games in Italy

Olympics Games

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Category:Summer Olympics by year

Category:1960s in Rome

Category:August 1960 sports events in Europe

Category:September 1960 sports events in Europe