1956 Melbourne, Australia
The 1956 Olympic games in Melbourne were an event of two phases, the rise
of the new and dynamic stars and the last of the legends of the previous
games.
It was the first time that blood was drawn in the Olympic Games. During the water polo game between the USSR and Hungary, the Russian athlete Valentin Propokov cried out “Fascist Hungarians” and then punched the Hungarian Ervin Zantor. This action was followed by a massive brawl between the two teams. The referee stopped the game in favor of Hungary.
On the other hand a romantic story was created between the American athlete Harold Connely and the Chechoslovakian athlete Olga Figotova which ended in marriage. Later on Figotova completed in four more Olympiads as an American and in 1972 she was the standard bearer for the US team.
In these Olympics
we see for the first time the signs of boycott since several nations did
not participate, mainly for political reasons. The Suez war resulted in
the withdrawal of Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon. The Russian invasion in Hungary
caused many countries to demonstrate their opposition to this action.
These were Switzerland, Holland and Spain. 112 athletes made up the Hungarian
team but only 44 returned to Hungary after the Games. Finally the Chinese
withdrew from the Games one day before they started because of the recognition
of Taiwan.