Featherweight (≤60 kilograms), Men

The defending champion was Georgian Soviet Rafael Chimishk’iani, who was World Champion in 1954 and 1955, and European Champion in 1956, but he was not chosen for the 1956 Soviet Olympic team. Despite his absence the battle again came down to a Soviet versus an American lifter. Yevgeny Minayev opened with a world record press of 115.0 kg to take a 7.5 kg lead over Ike Berger, but Berger tied the competition with a snatch of 107.5 kg. When Berger lifted 137.5 kg in the clean & jerk for a world record total of 352.5 kg, the gold medal was his. At Rome the two would return and resume their battle, with Minayev winning in 1960. Berger also competed at the 1964 Olympics, again winning a silver medal, that time behind Japan’s Yoshinobu Miyake. The bronze medal in Melbourne went to Poland’s Marian Zieliński, who would compete at four Olympics (1956-68), winning three bronze medals.