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Czechoslovakia at the 1956 Summer Olympics
IOC code	TCH
NOC	Czechoslovak Olympic Committee
in Melbourne/Stockholm
Competitors	63 (51 men and 12 women) in 10 sports
Flag bearer	Zdeněk Růžička
Medals Ranked 18th	Gold 1 Silver 4 Bronze 1 Total 6
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992
Other related appearances
Bohemia (1900–1912)  Czech Republic (1994–)  Slovakia (1994–)

Czechoslovakia competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. 63 competitors, 51 men and 12 women, took part in 54 events in 10 sports.

Czech athlete Olga Fikotová won a gold medal in women's discus. She also started a famous love affair with American athlete Harold Vincent Connolly here.

The team was warned that their flight back to Czechoslovakia was in a danger of a terrorists' attack. All sportsmen had to undergo a long journey by a Soviet ship Gruzia from Melbourne to Vladivostok, Soviet Union and then by Trans-Siberian Railway to Moscow and by plane to Prague, Czechoslovakia. The whole journey took 31 days. The part of the journey from Melbourne to Moscow, Czechoslovakian sportsmen had to share a ship and train with Soviet sportsmen also returning home via this route. The coexistence was not idyllic and Czechoslovakians described it later as very humiliating. The Olympic team spent Christmas Day in the Pacific and New Year's Eve in Siberia. The team experienced high temperatures during voyage across equator and later freezing weather with -50 °C in Siberia.

It is very probable that the reason for the warning was only fictional and a long journey home was only a political decision made by Czechoslovak and Soviet communists. It was never justified.

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event
Gold	Olga Fikotová	Athletics	Women's discus throw
Silver	Otakar Hořínek	Shooting	Men's 50 m rifle 3 positions
Silver	Eva Bosáková	Gymnastics	Women's balance beam
Silver	Ladislav Fouček	Cycling	Men's 1000 m time trial
Silver	Ladislav Fouček Václav Machek	Cycling	Men's tandem
Bronze	Jiří Skobla	Athletics	Men's shot put

Athletics

Men's Marathon

• Emil Zátopek — 2:29:34 (→ 6th place)
• Pavel Kantorek — 2:52:05 (→ 27th place)

Boxing

Canoeing

Cycling

Sprint

• Ladislav Fouček — 6th place

Time trial

• Ladislav Fouček — 1:11.4 (→ Silver Medal)

Tandem

• Ladislav Fouček
  Václav Machek — Silver Medal

Team pursuit

• František Jursa
  Jaroslav Cihlár
  Jirí Nouza
  Jirí Opavský — 7th place

Individual road race

• František Jursa — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Jaroslav Cihlár — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Jirí Nouza — did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Jirí Opavský — did not finish (→ no ranking)

Gymnastics

Modern pentathlon

One male pentathlete represented Czechoslovakia in 1956.

Individual

• Vladimír Černý

Rowing

Czechoslovakia had eleven male rowers participate in two out of seven rowing events in 1956.

Men's double sculls

• Albert Krajmer
• František Reich

Men's eight

• Josef Věntus
• Eduard Antoch
• Ctibor Reiskup
• Jan Švéda
• Josef Švec
• Zdeněk Žára
• Jan Jindra
• Stanislav Lusk
• Miroslav Koranda (cox)

Shooting

Four shooters represented Czechoslovakia in 1956.

50 m pistol

• František Maxa

50 m rifle, three positions

• Otakar Hořínek

50 m rifle, prone

• Otakar Hořínek

Trap

• František Čapek
• Igor Treybal

Swimming

Weightlifting

References

1. "Czechoslovakia at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17. Retrieved 2012-07-21.
2. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Czechoslovakia Rowing at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2018.

External links

• Official Olympic Reports
• International Olympic Committee results database
• Czech Olympic report (in Czech)

• Nations at the 1956 Summer Olympics
• Czechoslovakia at the Summer Olympics by year
• 1956 in Czechoslovak sport