Athletics at the 1960 Summer Olympics

At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, 34 events in athletics were contested, 24 by men and 10 by women. There were a total number of 1016 participating athletes from 73 countries.

Athletics at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
Host stadium (shown in 2024)
Venue	Stadio Olimpico
Dates	August 31–September 8
Competitors	1,016 from 73 nations

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Armin Hary  United Team of Germany	10.2 (=OR)	Dave Sime  United States	10.2 (=OR)	Peter Radford  Great Britain	10.3
200 metres	Livio Berruti  Italy	20.5 (=WR)	Lester Carney  United States	20.6	Abdoulaye Seye  France	20.7
400 metres	Otis Davis  United States	44.9 (WR)	Carl Kaufmann  United Team of Germany	44.9 (WR)	Malcolm Spence  South Africa	45.5
800 metres	Peter Snell  New Zealand	1:46.3 (OR)	Roger Moens  Belgium	1:46.5	George Kerr  British West Indies	1:47.1
1500 metres	Herb Elliott  Australia	3:35.6 (WR)	Michel Jazy  France	3:38.4	István Rózsavölgyi  Hungary	3:39.2
5000 metres	Murray Halberg  New Zealand	13:43.4	Hans Grodotzki  United Team of Germany	13:44.6	Kazimierz Zimny  Poland	13:44.8
10,000 metres	Pyotr Bolotnikov  Soviet Union	28:32.2 (OR)	Hans Grodotzki  United Team of Germany	28:37.0	Dave Power  Australia	28:38.2
110 metres hurdles	Lee Calhoun  United States	13.8	Willie May  United States	13.8	Hayes Jones  United States	14.0
400 metres hurdles	Glenn Davis  United States	49.3 (OR)	Clifton Cushman  United States	49.6	Dick Howard  United States	49.7
3000 metres steeplechase	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak  Poland	8:34.2 (OR)	Nikolay Sokolov  Soviet Union	8:36.4	Semyon Rzhishchin  Soviet Union	8:42.2
4 × 100 metres relay	United Team of Germany (EUA) Bernd Cullmann Armin Hary Walter Mahlendorf Martin Lauer	39.5 (=WR)	Soviet Union (URS) Gusman Kosanov Leonid Bartenyev Yuriy Konovalov Edvin Ozolin	40.1	Great Britain (GBR) Peter Radford David Jones David Segal Nick Whitehead	40.2
4 × 400 metres relay	United States (USA) Jack Yerman Earl Young Glenn Davis Otis Davis	3:02.2 (WR)	United Team of Germany (EUA) Hans-Joachim Reske Manfred Kinder Johannes Kaiser Carl Kaufmann	3:02.7	British West Indies (BWI) Malcolm Spence Jim Wedderburn Keith Gardner George Kerr	3:04.0
Marathon	Abebe Bikila  Ethiopia	2:15:16.2 (WB)	Rhadi Ben Abdesselam  Morocco	2:15:41.6	Barry Magee  New Zealand	2:17:18.2
20 kilometres walk	Volodymyr Holubnychy  Soviet Union	1:34:07.2	Noel Freeman  Australia	1:34:16.4	Stan Vickers  Great Britain	1:34.56.4
50 kilometres walk	Don Thompson  Great Britain	4:25:30.0 (OR)	John Ljunggren  Sweden	4:25:47.0	Abdon Pamich  Italy	4:27:55.4
High jump	Robert Shavlakadze  Soviet Union	2.16 m (OR)	Valeriy Brumel  Soviet Union	2.16 m (OR)	John Thomas  United States	2.14 m
Pole vault	Don Bragg  United States	4.70 m (OR)	Ron Morris  United States	4.60 m	Eeles Landström  Finland	4.55 m
Long jump	Ralph Boston  United States	8.12 m (OR)	Bo Roberson  United States	8.11 m	Igor Ter-Ovanesyan  Soviet Union	8.04 m
Triple jump	Józef Szmidt  Poland	16.81 m (OR)	Vladimir Goryaev  Soviet Union	16.63 m	Vitold Kreyer  Soviet Union	16.43 m
Shot put	Bill Nieder  United States	19.68 m (OR)	Parry O'Brien  United States	19.11 m	Dallas Long  United States	19.01 m
Discus throw	Al Oerter  United States	59.18 m (OR)	Rink Babka  United States	58.02 m	Dick Cochran  United States	57.16 m
Hammer throw	Vasily Rudenkov  Soviet Union	67.10 m (OR)	Gyula Zsivótzky  Hungary	65.79 m	Tadeusz Rut  Poland	65.64 m
Javelin throw	Viktor Tsybulenko  Soviet Union	84.64 m	Walter Krüger  United Team of Germany	79.36 m	Gergely Kulcsár  Hungary	78.57 m
Decathlon	Rafer Johnson  United States	8392 (OR)	Yang Chuan-kwang  Formosa	8334	Vasili Kuznetsov  Soviet Union	7809

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Wilma Rudolph  United States	11.0	Dorothy Hyman  Great Britain	11.3	Giuseppina Leone  Italy	11.3
200 metres	Wilma Rudolph  United States	24.0	Jutta Heine  United Team of Germany	24.4	Dorothy Hyman  Great Britain	24.7
800 metres	Lyudmila Shevtsova  Soviet Union	2:04.3 (=WR)	Brenda Jones  Australia	2:04.4	Ursula Donath  United Team of Germany	2:05.6
80 metres hurdles	Irina Press  Soviet Union	10.8	Carole Quinton  Great Britain	10.9	Gisela Birkemeyer  United Team of Germany	11.0
4 × 100 metres relay	United States (USA) Martha Hudson Lucinda Williams Barbara Jones Wilma Rudolph	44.5	United Team of Germany (EUA) Martha Langbein Anni Biechl Brunhilde Hendrix Jutta Heine	44.8	Poland (POL) Teresa Wieczorek Barbara Janiszewska Celina Jesionowska Halina Richter	45.0
High jump	Iolanda Balaș  Romania	1.85 m (OR)	Jarosława Jóźwiakowska  Poland	1.71 m	none awarded as there was a tie for silver
			Dorothy Shirley  Great Britain
Long jump	Vera Krepkina  Soviet Union	6.37 m (OR)	Elżbieta Krzesińska  Poland	6.27 m	Hildrun Claus  United Team of Germany	6.21 m
Shot put	Tamara Press  Soviet Union	17.32 m (OR)	Johanna Lüttge  United Team of Germany	16.61 m	Earlene Brown  United States	16.42 m
Discus throw	Nina Ponomaryova  Soviet Union	55.10 m (OR)	Tamara Press  Soviet Union	52.59 m	Lia Manoliu  Romania	52.36 m
Javelin throw	Elvīra Ozoliņa  Soviet Union	55.98 m (OR)	Dana Zátopková  Czechoslovakia	53.78 m	Birutė Kalėdienė  Soviet Union	53.45 m

Medal table

3000 m steeplechase final. Sokolov (#570, URS) is in the lead, chased by Roelants (#242, BEL), Rzhishchin (#568, URS) and Konov (URS). Jones (#420, USA) is on the left

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	12	8	6	26
2	Soviet Union (URS)	11	5	5	21
3	United Team of Germany (EUA)	2	8	3	13
4	Poland (POL)	2	2	3	7
5	New Zealand (NZL)	2	0	1	3
6	Great Britain (GBR)	1	3	4	8
7	Australia (AUS)	1	2	1	4
8	Italy (ITA)	1	0	2	3
9	Romania (ROU)	1	0	1	2
10	Ethiopia (ETH)	1	0	0	1
11	Hungary (HUN)	0	1	2	3
12	France (FRA)	0	1	1	2
13	Belgium (BEL)	0	1	0	1
	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	1	0	1
	Formosa (ROC)	0	1	0	1
	Morocco (MAR)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
18	British West Indies (BWI)	0	0	2	2
19	Finland (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	South Africa (RSA)	0	0	1	1
Totals (20 entries)		34	35	33	102

Participating nations

•  Afghanistan (6)
•  Argentina (4)
•  Australia (28)
•  Austria (10)
•  Bahamas (3)
•  Belgium (12)
•  Brazil (5)
•  British West Indies (8)
•  Bulgaria (9)
•  Burma (1)
•  Canada (16)
•  Ceylon (1)
•  Chile (4)
•  Cuba (3)
•  Czechoslovakia (28)
•  Denmark (9)
•  Egypt (2)
•  Ethiopia (6)
•  Fiji (2)
•  Finland (26)
•  Formosa (6)
•  France (36)
•  United Team of Germany (91)
•  Ghana (7)
•  Great Britain (62)
•  Greece (19)
•  Guyana (4)
•  Hungary (27)
•  Iceland (7)
•  India (12)
•  Indonesia (1)
•  Iran (1)
•  Iraq (11)
•  Ireland (9)
•  Israel (8)
•  Italy (47)
•  Japan (20)
•  Kenya (5)
•  South Korea (6)
•  Lebanon (1)
•  Liberia (4)
•  Liechtenstein (2)
•  Luxembourg (6)
•  Malaya (3)
•  Mexico (5)
•  Morocco (8)
•  Netherlands (11)
•  New Zealand (14)
•  Nigeria (8)
•  Norway (11)
•  Pakistan (12)
•  Panama (4)
•  Philippines (7)
•  Poland (52)
•  Portugal (5)
•  Puerto Rico (8)
•  Rhodesia (3)
•  Romania (9)
•  Somalia (1)
•  South Africa (7)
•  Soviet Union (83)
•  Spain (13)
•  Sudan (2)
•  Suriname (1)
•  Sweden (28)
•  Switzerland (22)
•  Thailand (8)
•  Tunisia (11)
•  Turkey (14)
•  Uganda (4)
•  United States (81)
•  Uruguay (1)
•  Venezuela (8)
•  Yugoslavia (22)

Records broken

During the 1960 Summer Olympic Games, 28 new Olympic records and 4 new world records were set in the athletics events.

Men's Olympic and world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result	OR	WR
100 metres	August 31	Final	Armin Hary	United Team of Germany	10.2 s	OR
200 metres	September 3	Semi-Final	Livio Berruti	Italy	20.5 s	OR
400 metres	September 6	Final	Otis Davis	United States	44.9 s	OR	WR
800 metres	September 2	Final	Peter Snell	New Zealand	1:46.3	OR
1500 metres	September 6	Final	Herb Elliott	Australia	3:35.6	OR	WR
10,000 metres	September 8	Final	Pyotr Bolotnikov	Soviet Union	28:32.2	OR
4 × 400 metres relay	September 8	Final	Jack Yerman Earl Young Glenn Davis Otis Davis	United States	3:02.2	OR	WR
400 metres hurdles	September 2	Final	Glenn Davis	United States	49.3 s	OR
3000 metres steeplechase	September 3	Final	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak	Poland	8:34.2	OR
Marathon	September 10	Final	Abebe Bikila	Ethiopia	2:15:16.2	OR
50 km walk	September 7	Final	Don Thompson	Great Britain	4:25:30.0	OR
High jump	September 3	Final	Robert Shavlakadze Valeriy Brumel	Soviet Union	2.16 m	OR
Long jump	September 2	Final	Ralph Boston	United States	8.12 m	OR
Triple jump	September 6	Final	Józef Szmidt	Poland	16.81 m	OR
Pole vault	September 7	Final	Don Bragg	United States	4.70 m	OR
Shot put	August 31	Final	Bill Nieder	United States	19.68 m	OR
Hammer throw	September 3	Final	Vasily Rudenkov	Soviet Union	67.10 m	OR
Decathlon	September 6	Final	Rafer Johnson	United States	8,392 points	OR

Women's Olympic and world records

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Result	OR	WR
100 metres	September 2	Semi-Final	Wilma Rudolph	United States	11.3 s	OR
200 metres	September 3	First Round	Wilma Rudolph	United States	23.2 s	OR
800 metres	September 7	Final	Lyudmila Shevtsova	Soviet Union	2:04.03	OR
80 metres hurdles	August 31	Semi-Final	Irina Press	Soviet Union	10.6 s	OR
4 × 100 metres relay	September 7	First Round	Martha Hudson Lucinda Williams Barbara Jones Wilma Rudolph	United States	44.4 s	OR	WR
High jump	September 8	Final	Iolanda Balaş	Romania	1.85 m	OR
Long jump	August 31	Final	Vera Krepkina	Soviet Union	6.37 m	OR
Discus throw	September 5	Final	Nina Romashkova	Soviet Union	55.10 m	OR
Shot put	September 2	Final	Tamara Press	Soviet Union	17.32 m	OR
Javelin throw	September 1	Final	Elvīra Ozoliņa	Soviet Union	55.98 m	OR

References

• International Olympic Committee results database
• Athletics Australia