Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics

The Melbourne Olympics were the first Games held in the Southern Hemisphere and were held at the end of November, and finished in December. Athletics was conducted at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The stars of the Games were both sprinters. Bobby Joe Morrow won the 100, 200, and anchored the 4x100 relay for the United States. But receiving most of the acclaim was his female counterpart, Betty Cuthbert, of the host nation, who duplicated his feat in winning three gold medals. Vladimir Kuts of the USSR won the first gold medal for a male athlete from that nation, doubling in the 5 and 10K. On the field Al Oerter won the first of four consecutive gold medals in the discus throw. His teammate, Hal Connolly, won the hammer throw in a highly anticipated battle against Soviet Mikhail Krivonosov, who placed second. During the 1956 Olympics, Connolly also met Czech discus thrower Olga Fikotová, and they began a romance that ended with them marrying later in 1957. Emil Zátopek served as best man at the wedding in Praha.