The Olympic Games held in Melbourne in 1956 were a watershed in more ways than one. The Games were awarded to the Australians by a single vote from Buenos Aires in Argentina, and it marked the first time the Games were held in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Games were held against a backdrop of invasions: the Soviets in Hungary, and the French and British in the Suez Canal. In the Asian political arena, China did not participate in the Games as a sign of protest over the participation of the island of Formosa, today known as Taiwan. The Germans sent a combined team, and continued to do so until the 1964 Games in Tokyo; the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961.
With the advent of colour television, the profile of the Games grew, and the media hyped it up eagerly: the first day saw many papers highlighting not individual sporting achievements; the ‘free press’ curiously summarised the opening day’s with headlines similar in meaning to ‘USSR 43 USA 35’. I wonder if Baron Pierre de Coubertin had intended the upsurge of media interest in sporting achievements when he launched the Modern Olympic Movement in 1894.
To be fair to the esteemed Frenchman, the evolution of the modern Games turned crucially in Melbourne. With constant media attention, particularly from television, athletes such as Poland’s Elzbieta Dunska-Krzesinska, rose to the occasion despite being obviously affected by the incessant glare of motion cameras, to win a gold medal, equalling the world record in the process. On the track, Bobby Joe Morrow emulated Jesse Owens’ 1936 feat of three gold medals in sprint events, while his compatriots were similarly inspired, perhaps by the Melbournian sun, to achieve success on the tracks. American dominance continued the field events, with Al Oerter winning the first of his four consecutive gold medals in the discus.
The women’s track events belonged to Australia’s Golden Girls, Betty Cuthbert, Marlene Matthews, Shirley Strickland, Norma Croker, and Fleur Mellor. They captured the public imagination in the sprint events, winning four gold medals among them. The swimming team also did superbly, with the women earning 3 gold medals, and the men, led by Murray Rose, swept five golds.
The 50-kilometre walk fascinated Norman Reed, who emigrated to New Zealand from Great Britain prior to the Games. He gratefully accepted the opportunity to compete, and repaid his new-found country with a gold medal. The great Emil Zatopek finally conceded the marathon title he had won four years ago to Algerian-born Frenchman Alain Mimoun. Agnes Keleti, the Hungarian Jew, won four gold medals in gymnastics at the young age of thirty-five, a feat that would perhaps be unparalleled until year 2056. Her compatriot Laszlo Papp won a third consecutive gold medal in boxing, and became the first athlete from a Communist country to turn professional. Hungary’s water polo team fought off all opponents, including the Soviet team, to win a gold medal.
Indeed it can be said that the Melbourne Games were a cauldron of stories on and off the field – or pool, or indeed ring – of sport. A veritable melting pot of politics, sporting breakthroughs, and indeed romance. Olga Fikotova, the Czech discus gold medallist, and Harold Vincent Connolly, the American winner of the hammer event, would meet, fall in love, marry in communist Czechoslovakia – with the express permission of the Czech President, and eventually settle in the US.
Perhaps one final story would serve to illustrate just how much of a watershed the Melbourne Games were at the time. John Ian Wing, a seventeen year old Australian of Chinese descent, wrote a letter to the Melbourne Olympic Organising Committee. He proposed that all participating nations march together during the closing ceremony as
one family, as opposed to marching under separate national flags. ‘During the march there will be only one nation, what more could anybody want if the whole world could be made as one nation…’. Wise words from one so tender in years. This ‘new tradition’, if you will, continues through this day.
During periods of high tension and uncertainty, it is nothing short of amazing how common sense can overcome the illusory power that institutions, governments, social conventions, and prejudices, aim to project. Looking back at the openness created by the ordinary citizen forty-eight years ago, it is perhaps ludicrous to allow oneself to be distracted by the powers-that-be when they discuss protectionism and the closing of borders. If anything, the Australian government is allowing more, not fewer, people from foreign countries to settle and gain residency, despite what may be portrayed in the popular press and television. Indeed globalisation, having taken root with the invention of the steam engine and the airplane, and nurtured ever since the end of the Second World War, is not only here to stay; its growth will continue despite attempts to stem or prune it. Australian and other nations would do well to appreciate that attempts to reverse such a trends may prove counter-productive and ultimately futile.
