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1960 Summer Olympics

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Games of the XVII Olympiad
Emblem of the 1960 Summer Olympics
LocationRome, Italy
Nations83
Athletes5,347 (4,734 men, 613 women)
Events150 in 17 sports (23 disciplines)
Opening25 August 1960
Closing11 September 1960
Opened by
Giovanni Gronchi
President of Italy[1]
Closed by
Avery Brundage
President of the International Olympic Committee
Cauldron
Giancarlo Peris[1]
StadiumStadio Olimpico
Summer
Winter
1960 Summer Paralympics

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

The 1st Paralympic Games were held in Rome in conjunction with the 1960 Summer Olympics, marking the first time such events coincided.

Host city selection

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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.[2]

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.[3] 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.[4]

1960 Summer Olympics bidding results[5]
City Country Round
1 2 3
Rome  Italy 15 26 35
Lausanne   Switzerland 14 21 24
Detroit  United States 6 11 —
Budapest  Hungary 8 1 —
Brussels  Belgium 6 — —
Mexico City  Mexico 6 — —
Tokyo  Japan 4 — —

Highlights

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The Olympic Torch of Rome 1960
Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia wins the marathon barefooted

Lowlights

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  • 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.[9] The International Olympic Committee stated on its website that "drugs were implicated, although that was never proven."[10] 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.[11]

Historical landmarks

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  • 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

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Broadcasting

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  • CBS paid US$394,000 (equivalent to $3.11 million in 2023) 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.[12]

Venues

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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

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Participating National Olympic Committees

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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. 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.[13] 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.[14]

Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees

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Sports

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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

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All dates are in Central European Time (UTC+1)
See also: Chronological summary of the 1960 Summer Olympics
OC Opening ceremony ● Event competitions 1 Gold medal events CC Closing 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
Ceremonies OC CC —
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 2 4 6 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 events 2 4 0 11 5 14 8 11 15 0 14 15 14 12 10 14 1 150
Cumulative total 2 6 6 17 22 36 44 55 70 70 84 99 113 125 135 149 150
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

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Main article: 1960 Summer Olympics medal table

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1960 Games:[15]

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 entries)134112105351

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "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". Archived from the original on 25 May 2008. Retrieved 11 June 2008.
  3. ^ Bradburn, Jamie (6 August 2024). "Outbid: How Toronto lost the Olympics again and again — and again". TVO Today. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  4. ^ Edwards, Peter (24 July 2015). "Toronto has made 5 attempts to host the Olympics. Could the sixth be the winner?". thestar.com.
  5. ^ "Past Olympic host city election results". GamesBids. Archived from the original on 24 January 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  6. ^ Coplan, Joseph (19 July 2000). "Profiling Jeff Farrell, 1968 ISHOF Honor Swimmer". USMS. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  7. ^ Zaborney, Mark (11 March 2016). "Ramon 'Buddy' Carr (1926-2016): TPD officer coached gold-medalist boxer". Toledo Blade.
  8. ^ Henderson, Jon (26 June 2012). "Great Olympic Moments: UCLA friends Rafer Johnson and Yang Chuan-kwang make decathlon history in 1960". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  9. ^ Wallechinsky, David. The complete book of the Winter Olympics : 2014 edition. ISBN 978-1-937530-70-9. OCLC 870338894.
  10. ^ 1967: Creation of the IOC Medical Commission
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ "OLYMPICS AND TELEVISION - The Museum of Broadcast Communications". Museum.tv. Archived from the original on 27 July 2009. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  13. ^ Xiao, Li. "China and the Olympic Movement". China Internet Information Center. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  14. ^ Official Olympic Reports. Archived from the original on 22 June 2006.
  15. ^ Byron, Lee; Cox, Amanda; Ericson, Matthew (4 August 2008). "A Map of Olympic Medals". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
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Summer Olympics
Preceded by XVII Olympiad
Rome
1960 		Succeeded by
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