The , officially known as the '''Games of the XVII Olympiad''', were held in
1960 in
Rome ,
Italy . Rome had been awarded the organisation of the
1908 Summer Olympics , but, after the 1906 eruption of
Mount Vesuvius , had to decline and pass the honours to
London . In
1955 , the city beat out
Lausanne ,
Detroit ,
Budapest ,
Brussels ,
Mexico City and
Tokyo for the rights to the Games.
- Representatives of the USSR won 15 of 16 possible medals in women's gymnastics
- Danish sailer Paul Elvstrøm won his fourth straight gold medal in the Finn class, the first athlete to achieve this feat in an individual event. The only other two to have emulated his performance are Al Oerter and Carl Lewis .
- Finnish Vilho Ylönen, a field shooter, shot a bullseye to a wrong target and was dropped from the second place to fourth.
- The Future Constantine II , King of Greece , won his country a gold in sailing Dragon Class.
- Fencer Aladar Gerevich of Hungary won his sixth consecutive gold medal in the team Sabre event (1932-1936, 1948-1960).
- Wilma Rudolph , a former Polio patient, won three gold medals in sprint events on the track.
- Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia won the Marathon bare-footed to become the first black Africa n Olympic champion.
- Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali , won boxing's light-heavyweight gold medal.
- The Japanese men's gymnastics team won the first of five successive golds, the last of which was won in 1976 , in Montreal .
- South Africa appeared in the Olympic arena for the last time under the Apartheid regime. They would not be allowed to return until 1992 , after the abandonment of apartheid and during the transition to majority rule.
- Swedish Canoer Gert Fredriksson won his sixth Olympic title.
- Danish Cyclist Knut Jensen collapsed during his race under the influence of Amphetamine s and later died in the hospital. It was the second time an athlete died in competition at the Olympics, after the death of Portuguese marathon runner Francisco Lazaro at the 1912 Summer Olympics .
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
(''Host nation in .'')
