1956 Summer Olympics medal table

The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held from 22 November to 8 December in Melbourne, Australia, with the equestrian events being held from 10 to 17 June 1956 in Stockholm, Sweden, due to Australian quarantine regulations that required a six-month pre-shipment quarantine on horses. Medals awarded in these cities bore different designs. A total of 3,314 athletes representing 72 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated, which was a record for the most NOCs at a single Olympics at the time. This figure included first-time entrants Cambodia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Kenya, Liberia, Malaya, North Borneo, and Uganda. The games featured 151 events in 17 sports across 23 disciplines.

The 1956 Summer Games were the first to be held in the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania, and the first games to hold events in two different countries, continents, and seasons. Multiple boycotts were enacted by nine teams against the games, though five of them competed in the equestrian events. Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon boycotted the games in response to the Suez Crisis. Cambodia, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland boycotted the games in response to the Hungarian Uprising, when the Soviet Union invaded the country. China continued its boycott of the games, which began in 1952 and lasted until 1980, over the participation of Taiwan.

Athletes representing 38 NOCs received at least one medal, and 25 NOCs won at least one gold medal. The Soviet Union won the most gold medals and the most overall medals, with 37 and 98 respectively. Iran and Bulgaria won their first Olympic gold medals. The Bahamas, Iceland, and Pakistan won their first Olympic medals.

Gymnast Ágnes Keleti of Hungary was the most successful competitor of the games, winning four gold medals and two silver medals for a total of six medals. Gymnast Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union tied with Keleti for the most gold and overall medals for a competitor at the games, winning six medals with four gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal.

The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC conventional sorting in its published medal tables. The table uses the Olympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won. The number of silver medals is considered next, followed by the number of bronze medals. Two bronze medals were awarded in each boxing event to the losing semi-finalists, instead of the competitors fighting in a third place tiebreaker.

In the gymnastics events, there were eight ties for medals. Two gold medals and no silver medal were awarded in the men's vault and women's floor exercise due to a first-place tie in both events. No bronze medals were awarded in the men's floor exercise and women's balance beam due to a second-place tie in both events, with the former being a three-way tie and all second-place athletes awarded a silver medal. Two bronze medals were awarded in the men's parallel bars, men's rings, women's team portable apparatus, and women's vault due to third-place ties in these events. In athletics, two silver medals and no bronze medals were awarded in the women's high jump due to a second-place tie. Two bronze medals were awarded in the men's 400 metres due to a third-place tie.

  *   Host nation (Australia)

• All-time Olympic Games medal table
• 1988 Summer Paralympics medal table
• 1988 Winter Olympics medal table

• "Melbourne - Stockholm 1956". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.
• "1956 Summer Olympics medal table". Olympics.com. Retrieved 16 January 2025.