A high-profile event in the history of the modern Olympic movement took place at the VII Winter Games in 1956. Then, for the first time, athletes from the USSR took part in the Olympiads, who then for forty years remained in the first roles in these sports performances. A small Italian resort town in the Dolomites became the arena of this momentous event.
Cortina d'Ampezzo had previously tried twice to get the Winter Olympics, and she was even given such a right, but the games scheduled for 1944 did not take place due to the war. Justice was restored in the spring of 1949 in Rome - at the regular session of the IOC, 31 votes were cast for the Italian city, while the two American and Canadian applicants collected only 10 votes.
At that time, Cortina d'Ampezzo was a very small town with a population of 6, 5 thousand inhabitants. Its modest infrastructure and lack of sports facilities were the main problems that the organizing committee had to solve. The city did not have an ice stadium or speed skating tracks, and the ski and bobsleigh tracks did not meet the IOC requirements. The problems were solved thanks to government support and the widespread involvement of corporate sponsors, which at that time was a non-standard solution. The government financed the construction of new roads, rail lifts, improved telephone networks, and water and energy supply to the city. Olivetti provided office equipment for journalists, and FIAT even designed a new car for the Olympics.
All Olympic competitions were held at eight sports facilities specially built or reconstructed for the VII Winter Olympics. All of them, with the exception of the speed skating rink, were located at a distance of several tens of minutes of walking from each other. Skaters competed on Lake Misurina, 13 kilometers from the city. It is noteworthy that at this Olympiad there was no "Olympic village" - the athletes were accommodated in hotels and even in the families of the townspeople.
The competition began on January 26, 1956, and ended on February 5 and brought indisputable success to the USSR Olympians - they won 16 awards, 7 of which were gold. The second in the unofficial medal standings were the Austrians with 11 awards (gold - 4). It is curious that a quarter of a century later, three Olympic venues were used in the filming of the film For Your Eyes Only about the brilliant Briton James Bond and the insidious Russian General Gogol.
