Boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics

Dates 25 August – 5 September 1960
Medal Events 10

Although many Rome events were held in ancient arenas, the 1960 boxing competition was held at the Palazzo dello Sport, a new stadium constructed for the Rome Olympics in the Piazza Apollodoro. There was no change to the 1960 Olympic boxing program, with the same 10 classes that had been contested at Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956. The scoring system in 1960 was also slightly new, as there were now five judges instead of three as at previous Olympics.

The host team Italians won three titles, highlighted by the welterweight titlist, Nino Benvenuti, later a professional world champion, and the most heralded crown, the heavyweight gold medal, won by Franco De Piccoli. The United States’s boxers also won three gold medals.

But the biggest news of the 1960 Olympic boxing tournament came in the light-heavyweight division (≤ 81 kg), which was won by a young 18-year-old American with the wonderfully Ancient Roman name of Cassius Marcellus Clay. By 1964, as he grew into his 187 cm (6-3) body, Clay had moved up to the heavyweight class and would win the world heavyweight professional title in a bout against Sonny Liston. He would soon thereafter take the Muslim name of Muhammad Ali and become one of the most famous athletes of the 20th century.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Flyweight (≤51 kilograms), Men Olympic 25 August – 5 September 1960 33 33
Bantamweight (≤54 kilograms), Men Olympic 25 August – 5 September 1960 32 32
Featherweight (≤57 kilograms), Men Olympic 26 August – 5 September 1960 31 31
Lightweight (≤60 kilograms), Men Olympic 25 August – 5 September 1960 34 34
Light-Welterweight (≤63.5 kilograms), Men Olympic 25 August – 5 September 1960 34 34
Welterweight (≤67 kilograms), Men Olympic 25 August – 5 September 1960 33 33
Light-Middleweight (≤71 kilograms), Men Olympic 25 August – 5 September 1960 23 23
Middleweight (≤75 kilograms), Men Olympic 26 August – 5 September 1960 25 25
Light-Heavyweight (≤81 kilograms), Men Olympic 26 August – 5 September 1960 19 19
Heavyweight (>81 kilograms), Men Olympic 25 August – 5 September 1960 17 17
281 (281/0) 54 (54/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Flyweight, Men Gyula TörökHUN Sergey SivkoURS Kiyoshi Tanabe
Abdel Moneim El-Gindy
JPN
UAR
Bantamweight, Men Oleg GrigoryevURS Primo ZampariniITA Ollie Taylor
Brunon Bendig
AUS
POL
Featherweight, Men Francesco MussoITA Jerzy AdamskiPOL Jorma Limmonen
William Meyers
FIN
RSA
Lightweight, Men Kazimierz PaździorPOL Sandro LopopoloITA Abel Laudonio
Dick McTaggart
ARG
GBR
Light-Welterweight, Men Bohumil NěmečekTCH Ike QuarteyGHA Marian Kasprzyk
Quincey Daniels
POL
USA
Welterweight, Men Nino BenvenutiITA Yury RadonyakURS Jim Lloyd
Lech Drogosz
GBR
POL
Light-Middleweight, Men Wilbert McClureUSA Carmelo BossiITA Billy Fisher
Boris Lagutin
GBR
URS
Middleweight, Men Eddie CrookUSA Tadeusz WalasekPOL Ion Monea
Yevgeny Feofanov
ROU
URS
Light-Heavyweight, Men Cassius ClayUSA Zbigniew PietrzykowskiPOL Tony Madigan
Giulio Saraudi
AUS
ITA
Heavyweight, Men Franco De PiccoliITA Daan BekkerRSA Günter Siegmund
Josef Němec
GER
TCH

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Italy ITA 3 3 1 7
United States USA 3 0 1 4
Poland POL 1 3 3 7
Soviet Union URS 1 2 2 5
Czechoslovakia TCH 1 0 1 2
Hungary HUN 1 0 0 1
South Africa RSA 0 1 1 2
Ghana GHA 0 1 0 1
Great Britain GBR 0 0 3 3
Australia AUS 0 0 2 2
Argentina ARG 0 0 1 1
Finland FIN 0 0 1 1
Germany GER 0 0 1 1
Japan JPN 0 0 1 1
Romania ROU 0 0 1 1
United Arab Republic UAR 0 0 1 1