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Sixty years since the Melbourne Olympic Games

Published Tue 22 Nov 2016

At 19-years-of-age, promising young distance runner Ron Clarke stood before 105,000 people at Melbourne Cricket Ground, as the world’s attention turned to our shores.

With the Olympic Torch in his right-hand, he stood aloft at the eastern end of the emerald-green stadium ready to officially begin the Games of the XVI Olympiad.

Under brilliant sunshine, teams from 67 nations watched Clarke as he lit the Olympic flame to the sound of mighty applause.

Down on the track the teams broke ranks and stood in a semi-circle around the rostrum as John Landy held the Australian flag and raised his right hand and read the Olympic Oath on behave of all competing athletes.

For Australia, the Games were not only an occasion of the greatest national significance but the eagerly embraced opportunity to welcome the world’s finest amateur athletes and a concourse of visitors all over the world.

Clarke, the world junior mile record holder, later revealed in a press conference that he had suffered burns stretching from his hand to his shoulder and required medical assistance to bandage his forearm.

Earlier in the day, the burner had been turned up during the torch relay and was at a higher level than his trial.

After the ceremony, Clarke, his girlfriend Helen and parents headed off home by train, surely aware of the significant role he had just played in Australian sporting history.

Prices for tickets to the opening ceremony varied from £ 3/4/-,most expensive, down to the cheapest of £ -/9/-. That is equal to $6.40 to 90 cents. Taking into 60 years of inflation those prices today would be $100 down to $14.

Over the course of the next eight days, 720 athletes from 61 countries participated in the athletics on the MCG, a feature which would not be seen for another 50 years, when Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth Games.

Athletics Australia will be sharing highlights of the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games on our social media over the next fortnight.

 

Melbourne 1956 Opening Ceremony Melbourne footage (AOC vision)