Rowing at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Dates 23 – 27 November 1956
Medal Events 7

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.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Single Sculls, Men Olympic 23 – 27 November 1956 12 12
Double Sculls, Men Olympic 23 – 27 November 1956 16 8
Coxless Pairs, Men Olympic 23 – 27 November 1956 18 9
Coxed Pairs, Men Olympic 23 – 27 November 1956 24 8
Coxless Fours, Men Olympic 23 – 27 November 1956 48 12
Coxed Fours, Men Olympic 23 – 27 November 1956 50 10
Eights, Men Olympic 23 – 27 November 1956 90 10
242 (242/0) 25 (25/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Single Sculls, Men Vyacheslav IvanovURS Stuart MacKenzieAUS Jack Kelly, Jr.USA
Double Sculls, Men Soviet UnionURS United StatesUSA AustraliaAUS
Coxless Pairs, Men United StatesUSA Soviet UnionURS AustriaAUT
Coxed Pairs, Men United StatesUSA Unified Team of GermanyGER Soviet UnionURS
Coxless Fours, Men CanadaCAN United StatesUSA FranceFRA
Coxed Fours, Men ItalyITA SwedenSWE FinlandFIN
Eights, Men United StatesUSA CanadaCAN AustraliaAUS

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States USA 3 2 1 6
Soviet Union URS 2 1 1 4
Canada CAN 1 1 0 2
Italy ITA 1 0 0 1
Australia AUS 0 1 2 3
Germany GER 0 1 0 1
Sweden SWE 0 1 0 1
Austria AUT 0 0 1 1
Finland FIN 0 0 1 1
France FRA 0 0 1 1