Gold-medal winning Soviet ice
hockey team plays with good
sportsmanship.
|
A live television broadcast came to the Winter
Games for the first time, as Italian television (RAI)
provided live coverage. The Games saw the arrival
of a new national team at the quadrennial Olympic
gathering: the Soviet Union. And did the Soviets
make an impression. East and West German
athletes competed together under a unified flag. Highlights
 Canadian teams had dominated
Olympic ice hockey virtually from the first
face-off in 1924, taking five out of six gold
medals in Olympic competition. That all
changed in 1956 with an impressive gold
medal performance by the Soviet team. American figure skaters had a field day
in Cortina. In the women's event Tenley
Albright, skating on an injured foot, took the
gold, and Carol Heiss the silver. In men's
figure skating, it was a clean sweep for the
United States, with Hayes Alan Jenkins
winning the gold, Ronald Robertson the
silver and David Jenkins (the younger
brother of the gold-medal winner) taking the
bronze. Tony Sailer (Austria) astounded the
Alpine skiing world by sweeping all three
gold medals in the slalom, giant slalom and
downhill. He became an instant celebrity in
his Austrian homeland, and was showered
with offers from both music promoters and
motion picture producers after the Games. The 1956 Games saw the last time an
American bobsled team won a medal. The
United States finished third in the two-man
event. With rare
exceptions, powerful Swiss, German and
Soviet teams would rule Olympic
bobsledding for many years to come.
| Attendance | Male Athletes | Female Athletes | Most-Medaled | U.S. Rank | | 32 nations | 686 | 132 | USSR (16) | Fifth (tied) |
Source: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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