South Africa at the 1956 Summer Olympics explained

Noc:	RSA
Nocname:	South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee
Games:	Summer Olympics
Year:	1956
Location:	Melbourne/Stockholm
Competitors:	50 (44 men and 6 women)
Sports:	10
Rank:	33
Gold:	0
Silver:	0
Bronze:	4
Appearances:	auto
App Begin Year:	1904

The Union of South Africa competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. 50 competitors, 44 men and 6 women, took part in 50 events in 10 sports.^[1]

Medalists

Bronze

• Daniel Bekker - Boxing, Men's Heavyweight
• Henry Loubscher - Boxing, Men's Light Welterweight
• Alfred Swift - Cycling, Men's 1.000m Time Trial
• Moira Abernethy, Jeanette Myburgh, Natalie Myburgh and Susan Roberts - Swimming, Women's 4 × 100 m Freestyle Relay

Athletics

See main article: Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Men's 110m Hurdles

• Danie Burger

• Heat — 14.4s

• Semifinals — 15.0s (→ did not advance)

Men's Marathon

• Mercer Davis - 2:39:48 (→ 14th place)
• Jan Barnard - did not finish (→ no ranking)

Men's Discus Throw

• Fanie du Plessis

• Qualifying Heat — 50.69

• Final — 48.49 (→ 13th place)

Boxing

See main article: Boxing at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Cycling

See main article: Cycling at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Sprint

• Thomas Shardelow - 8th place

Time trial

• Alfred Swift - 1:11.6 (→ Bronze Medal)

Tandem

• Raymond Robinson
  Thomas Shardelow - 7th place

Team pursuit

• Alfred Swift
  Anne Jan Hettema
  Charles Jonker
  Robert Fowler - 4:39.4 (→ 4th place)

Individual road race

• Alfred Swift - did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Robert Fowler - did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Anne Jan Hettema - did not finish (→ no ranking)
• Charles Jonker - did not finish (→ no ranking)

Gymnastics

See main article: Gymnastics at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Modern pentathlon

See main article: Modern pentathlon at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Three male pentathletes represented South Africa in 1956.

Individual

• Okkie van Greunen
• Harry Schmidt
• Marthinus du Plessis

Team

• Okkie van Greunen
• Harry Schmidt
• Marthinus du Plessis

Sailing

See main article: Sailing at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Shooting

See main article: Shooting at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Two shooters represented South Africa in 1956.

50 m rifle, three positions

• Robin Lavine

50 m rifle, prone

• Johannes Human
• Robin Lavine

Swimming

See main article: Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Weightlifting

See main article: Weightlifting at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Wrestling

See main article: Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics.

External links

• Official Olympic Reports
• International Olympic Committee results database

Notes and References

1. Web site: South Africa at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417054602/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/countries/RSA/summer/1956/ . dead . 2020-04-17 . 2010-10-19 . sports-reference.com.