•
Swedish sprint canoeist Gert Fredriksson won his sixth Olympic title. •
Fencer Aladár Gerevich of
Hungary won his sixth consecutive gold medal in the team
sabre event. • The
Japanese men's gymnastics team won the first of five successive golds (see
1976 Summer Olympics). • The
United States men's national basketball team—led by promising college players
Walt Bellamy,
Jerry Lucas,
Oscar Robertson and
Jerry West—captured its fifth straight Olympic gold medal. •
Danish sailor
Paul Elvstrøm won his fourth straight gold medal in the Finn class. Others to emulate his performance in an individual event are
Al Oerter,
Carl Lewis,
Michael Phelps,
Kaori Icho,
Mijaín López and, if the
Intercalated (Interspaced) Games of 1906 are included,
Ray Ewry. •
German Armin Hary won the
100 metres in an Olympic record time of 10.2 seconds. •
Wilma Rudolph, a former
polio patient, won three gold medals in sprint events on the track. She was acclaimed as "the fastest woman in the world". •
Jeff Farrell won two gold medals in swimming. He underwent an emergency
appendectomy six days before the Olympic Trials. of Ethiopia wins the
marathon barefooted •
Abebe Bikila of
Ethiopia won the
marathon barefooted to become the first
African and Ethiopian Olympic champion. • 18-year-old Cassius Clay, later known as
Muhammad Ali, won boxing's light-heavyweight gold medal. Ramon "Buddy" Carr was his coach. •
Herb Elliott of
Australia won the men's
1500 meters in one of the most dominating performances in Olympic history. •
Rafer Johnson defeated his rival, fellow
U.C.L.A. Bruin and friend
C.K. Yang in one of the greatest Decathlon events in Olympic history. •
Lance Larson of the United States was
controversially denied a 100 metres freestyle swimming gold, despite showing the best time. • 16-years-old phenom
Chris von Saltza won four medals in women's swimming, three of them gold. •
The future Constantine II, last King of
Greece (abdicated and ended hybrid monarchy, 1973) won his country a gold in sailing: dragon class. • The
Pakistani Men's
Field Hockey team broke a run of
Indian team victories since 1928, defeating India in the final and winning Pakistan's first Olympic gold medal. • Wrestlers
Shelby Wilson, and
Doug Blubaugh, who wrestled together growing up, won gold medals in their respective weight classes.
Lowlights •
Danish cyclist Knud Jensen collapsed during the 100km team race because of
heat stroke and later died in the hospital. It was suspected that he had been under the influence of
Roniacol, a blood circulation stimulant. The International Olympic Committee stated on its website that "drugs were implicated, although that was never proven." It was the second time (and as of 2024, the most recent) an athlete died in competition at the Olympics, after the death of
Portuguese marathon runner
Francisco Lázaro at the
1912 Summer Olympics.
Historical landmarks •
South Africa appeared in the Olympic arena for the last time under its
apartheid regime. It would not be allowed to return until 1992, by when
apartheid in sport was being abolished. •
Singapore competed for the first time under its own flag, which was to become its national flag after independence, as the British had granted it self-government a year earlier.
Tan Howe Liang won silver in the Weightlifting lightweight category, which was the first time (and the only time until 2008) that an athlete from Singapore won an Olympic medal.
Non-medal winners •
Finnish Vilho Ylönen, a
field shooter, shot a bullseye to a wrong target; in doing so, he dropped from second place to fourth. •
Peter Camejo, a 2004
American vice-presidential candidate for the
Green Party, competed in yachting for
Venezuela. • The future
Queen Sofía of Spain represented her native Greece in sailing events. ==Broadcasting==