Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Olympic games for wider area of: "AUSTRALIA Country SOUTH WEST PACIFIC" .
BROCKLESBY (Town) NEW SOUTH WALES
25/8/1894 - 1955
MELBOURNE (Town) VICTORIA
The Melbourne Olympics were also called the Olympics of Bureaucracy.
With just one opposing vote the IOC had decided, in 1949, to send the Games
to Australia. Their hesitation was due to the Australian's tardiness in finishing
the facilities as well as the inflexible australian laws that prohibited the
importation of animals, thus excluding the equestrian sports to be held in Melbourne.
So, for the first time and contrary to IOC rules, an event was detached from
the main Games and was held elsewhere, in Sweden.
The 1956 Olympics, the only Olympiad so far to take place in the
Southern Hemisphere, opened in Melbourne under a cloud of international ill-will,
caused by the Soviet invasion in Hungary and by the Franco-British intervention
in the Suez Canal dispute. Protesting Holland, Switzerland and Spain withdrew.
So did Lebanon and Egypt. Communist China followed suit and withdrew in a protest
for Taiwan's presence.
The distance runs were dominated by Soviet sailor Vladimir Kuts
with record victories at 5,000m and 10,000m. Ireland took one gold with Ronnie
Delany at 1,500m. The ever great Emil Zatopek has his first taste of defeat
from the Algerian-French Alain Mimoun. Mimoun came first leaving Zatopek six
places behind. Let us be reminded that in the last three Olympiads, Mimoun was
always a standard second, with Zatopek first.
In the closing day, the participants did not parade in rows of
four as it was done until then. They entered the stadium "en masse" signifying
the closeness and the friendship of the Games. The idea came from an Australian-born
Chinese boy, John Whing, in a letter he addressed to the Olympic Committee.
A happy postscript to the games took place in Prague the next year when Harold
Connolly, the American hammer-throw winner, married Olga Figotova, the Czech
Olympic discus champion. Best man for the occasion? Who would be more appropriate
than a smiling Emil Zatopek?
Text by Dimitri N. Marcopoulos
Melbourne 1956
Links with various Organizations' WebPages:
The Olympic Movement
American Sport Art Museum and Archives , a division of the United States Sports Academy
International Sailing Federation
Melbourne 1956
Links with various Media's WebPages:
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
British Broadcasting Corporation
1956 Melbourne Olympics: Various WebPages
SYDNEY (Town) NEW SOUTH WALES
The Sydney Olympics were considered to be among the best-organized
Games in history and their security system was exemplary. Also more nations and
athletes than ever before participated in these games (199 nations/10.651 athletes).
The team of the host to the Olympics was the largest to ever represent Australia
in Olympic competition.
Juan Antonio Samaranch attended the events for the last time as President
of the International Olympic Committee and appeared very moved. He was IOC President
from 1980 until 2001 and his name has been strongly connected with the history
of modern Olympics organization. He now is Honorary ICO President for life.
Cathy Freeman who afterwards won the golden medal in 400m lit the
Olympic Flame.
The Sydney experience recalled to many minds the Olympic Creed as
stated by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games: "The
most important thing is not to win but to take part, just as the most important
thing to life is not the triumph but the struggle". Those athletes who had persisted
in their efforts, instead of giving up after losing in the past, were finally
rewarded. The USA softball team may have lost three games at start but they soon
"recovered", their performances were very good and they finally defeated the teams
they had lost to. Birgit Fischer who competed in canoeing won two gold medals
- her first after 20 years. Judo athlete Judika Ryoko Tamura who had competed
both in the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic finals without managing to defeat her
adversaries, finally made it in Sydney and won the gold medal.
There were, of course, cases of athletes keeping on a very impressive
course such as rower Steve Redgrave who won the gold medal in five consecutive
Olympics. Swimmer Ιan Thorpe, apart from wining the silver medal with the 4x200m
freestyle Australian relay team, won the gold medal in 4x100m freestyle, in 200m
freestyle and in 400m freestyle where he also established a new world record over
his own previous one.
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