Czechoslovakia at the 1956 Summer Olympics

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Czechoslovakia at the Olympic Games

Flag of Czechoslovakia
IOC code   TCH
At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne/Stockholm
Competitors 63
Medals
Rank: 18		 Gold
1		 Silver
4		 Bronze
1		 Total
6
Olympic history (summary)
Summer Games
1920 • 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992
Winter Games
1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992
Other related appearances
Bohemia Bohemia (1900–1912)
Czech Republic Czech Republic (1994–)
Slovakia Slovakia (1994–)

Czechoslovakia competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

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 is 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 a Christmas day in 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.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Medals

[edit] Image:Med 1.png Gold

[edit] Image:Med 2.png Silver

[edit] Image:Med 3.png Bronze

[edit] Results by event

[edit] Athletics

Men's Marathon

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

[edit] Cycling

Men's 1.000m Scratch Sprint

  • Ladislav Fouček — 6th place

Men's 1.000m Time Trial

  • Ladislav Fouček — 1:11.4 (→ Image:Med 2.png Silver Medal)

Men's 2.000m Tandem

  • Ladislav Fouček
    Václav Machek — Image:Med 2.png Silver Medal

Men's 4.000m Team Pursuit

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

Men's 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)

[edit] References

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