1960 Summer Olympics

The Games of the XVII Olympiad were held in 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had been awarded the organisation of the 1908 Summer Olympics, but had to decline and pass the honours to London. This time, the city beat out Lausanne, Detroit, Budapest, Brussels, Mexico City and Tokyo for the rights to the Games.

Highlights

• Danish sailer Paul Elvstrøm wins his fourth straight gold medal in the Finn class, the first athlete to achieve this feat in an individual event. The only other two to have emulated his performance are Al Oerter and Carl Lewis.
• Constantine II, King of Greece, won his country a Gold in sailing Dragon Class.
• Fencer Aladar Gerevich of Hungary won his sixth consecutive gold medal in the team sabre event (1932-1936, 1948-1960).
• Wilma Rudolph, a former polio patient, wins three gold medals in the sprint events on the track.
• Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia wins the marathon bare-footed to become the first black African Olympic Champion.
• Cassius Clay, later better known as Muhammad Ali, wins boxing's light-heavyweight gold medal.
• Japanese man's gymnastics team starts its five successive winning from here to 1976, Montreal.
• South Africa appears in the Olympic arena for the last time under the apartheid regime. They would not be allowed to return until 1992, after the abandonment of apartheid and during the transition to a black-majority government.
• Swedish canoer Gert Fredriksson wins his sixth Olympic title.
• Danish cyclist Knut Jensen collapsed during his race under the influence of amphetamines and later died in the hospital. It was the second time an athlete died in competition at the Olympics, after the death of Portuguese marathon runner Francisco Lazaro at the 1912 Summer Olympics.