Czechoslovakia at the 1956 Summer Olympics
# Czechoslovakia at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Czechoslovakia competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. 63 competitors, 51 men and 12 women, took part in 54 events in 10 sports.

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 was 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 Christmas Day in the 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.

## Medalists

| Medal | Name | Sport | Event |
| - | - | - | - |
| Gold | Olga Fikotová | Athletics | Women's discus throw |
| Silver | Otakar Hořínek | Shooting | Men's 50 m rifle 3 positions |
| Silver | Eva Bosáková | Gymnastics | Women's balance beam |
| Silver | Ladislav Fouček | Cycling | Men's 1000 m time trial |
| Silver | Ladislav Fouček Václav Machek | Cycling | Men's tandem |
| Bronze | Jiří Skobla | Athletics | Men's shot put |

## Athletics

Men's Marathon

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

## Cycling

### Sprint

* Ladislav Fouček — 6th place

### Time trial

* Ladislav Fouček — 1:11.4 (→ Silver Medal)

### Tandem

* Ladislav Fouček Václav Machek — Silver Medal

### Team pursuit

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

### 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)

## Modern pentathlon

One male pentathlete represented Czechoslovakia in 1956.

### Individual

* Vladimír Černý

## Rowing

Czechoslovakia had eleven male rowers participate in two out of seven rowing events in 1956.

### Men's double sculls

* Albert Krajmer
* František Reich

### Men's eight

* Josef Věntus
* Eduard Antoch
* Ctibor Reiskup
* Jan Švéda
* Josef Švec
* Zdeněk Žára
* Jan Jindra
* Stanislav Lusk
* Miroslav Koranda (cox)

## Shooting

Four shooters represented Czechoslovakia in 1956.

### 50 m pistol

* František Maxa

### 50 m rifle, three positions

* Otakar Hořínek

### 50 m rifle, prone

* Otakar Hořínek

### Trap

* František Čapek
* Igor Treybal
