Rowing at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Rowing at the 1956 Summer Olympics took place in the artificial Lake Wendouree in the province of Victoria, near a suburb of the same name. The name of the suburb comes from a local indigenous word “wendaaree”, which means “go away”, which was allegedly given as a response to European settlers when they inquired about the name of the region. The 1956 program remained that same as it had been since 1924 and would continue to be until 1976, when it was expanded to include women and the men’s quadruple sculls. The United States was able to stave off enough challenges from the Soviet Union to come out on top of the medal table with six, three of which were gold. The USSR was the only other nation with more than one golden rowing moment, having won the single and double sculls. Mexico, meanwhile, made its debut in Olympic rowing by sending Jorge Roesler to compete in the single sculls, although he came last in the heats and failed to complete the repêchage.