The 17th Summer Olympics were held in Rome in 1960 from 25 August to 11 September. Four years earlier, the Italian province of Cortina d'Ampezzo had already hosted the Winter Olympic Games, but the summer was held for the first time, so the Italians were greeted with great enthusiasm.
The 1960 Summer Olympics were attended by 5338 athletes from 83 countries. The Olympic flame was lit by 18-year-old runner Giancarlo Paris, who was selected as the winner of the cross, held among young Italian athletes. President of Italy Giovanni Gronchi made a speech at the opening ceremony of the Games.
According to the results of the XVII Summer Olympic Games, the USSR national team took first place in the number of awards in the team classification. Athletes from the Soviet Union won 43 gold, 29 silver and 31 bronze medals. The second place went to the Olympians from the USA - 34 gold medals, 21 silver medals and 16 bronze medals. The hosts of the Olympics climbed to the third step, having won 13 gold, 10 silver and 13
bronze awards, which was the undoubted success of the Italian athletes.
At the Olympics in Rome, Soviet athletes performed very well, having won 15 out of 16 medals in artistic gymnastics. Gymnast Larisa Latynina received 6 awards - three gold, two silver and one bronze.
Weightlifters representing the Soviet Union performed just fine. Yuri Vlasov was named the best sportsman of the year. During the competition, he set Olympic records in all three movements for heavyweight athletes. In clean and jerk and all-around, the records set by him were also world records.
The rower Vyacheslav Ivanov repeated his Melbourne success, winning the gold medal on a solo. Our other rowers have also been successful. Oleg Golovanov and Valentin Boreiko from Leningrad were the first to finish the distance in double row rowing. Muscovite Antonina Seredina won two gold medals in kayaking. Canoeists from Belarus Leonid Geishtor and Sergey Makarenko won the 1000m race.
The best in track and field athletics among women were: Lyudmila Shevtsova (Dnepropetrovsk) - in the 800-meter race; Irina Press (Leningrad) - 80 meters hurdles; Vera Krepkina (Kiev) - long jump; Tamara Press - shot put; Nina Ponomareva - discus throwing; Elvira Ozolina - javelin throw. Without exception, all Soviet athletes who won the Olympics set new Olympic records.
The closing ceremony of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome was held in the presence of 90,000 spectators who greeted the flag-bearers with the flags of the countries participating in the event. Farewell speeches, a military band, a solemn march, the slow extinction of the Olympic flame - this is how the Olympics in Rome went down in history.
