Italy is getting excited about the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina this February and so are we here at Dream of Italy. You can read all of our Olympics coverage here and be sure to get your Limited-Edition Collectible Dream of Italy Olympic Trading Pin (purchase or receive as a free bonus with membership). This isn’t the first time Italy has been center stage for Olympics, nor it is the first time the world’s Olympic eyes are on Cortina. I asked my friend Mike Nelson to help us take a look back at the 1956 Games.
It is called La regina delle Dolomiti, “The Queen of the Dolomites,” this UNESCO World Heritage site near the Boite River in Italy’s Veneto region. Come next February, Cortina d’Ampezzo will host the Winter Olympic Games for the second time in 2026, seven decades after its first effort that has since resulted in this comune of less than 6,000 fulltime residents becoming a world-renowned ski resort.
It wasn’t easy. Taking place barely a decade after the devastation of World War II, the X Olympic Winter Games, held January 26 to February 5, 1956, had to overcome limited financing, a lack of readymade competition venues, and little or no housing for athletes, officials and spectators.
Following is some of what made the 1956 Winter Olympics especially memorable:
Il visionario
The placement of the Winter Games in Italy had long been advocated by Count Alberto Bonacossa, an accomplished alpine skier, national figure skating and tennis champion, magazine editor and member of the International Olympic Committee. Cortina d’Ampezzo, in fact, was awarded the 1944 Winter Games, but they were cancelled by World War II.
Count Bonacossa’s diplomatic skills — working with a diversity of governmental and athletic institutions, bureaucracies and individuals from the tumultuous 1920s through ’40s — exceeded his athletic prowess. In 1949, his dream was realized when Cortina was awarded the 1956 Games, but he died in 1953 three years before the Games took place.
Il locale
Most events at the Cortina Games took place within a compact area of town, and athletes were housed in local homes or hotels rather than an Olympic village that hotel owners feared would displace them after the Games. Because of a lack of snowfall, the Italian military trucked in thousands of tons of snow to ensure that the skiing events could take place.
The site of the opening ceremonies, Stadio Olimpico di Ghiaccio on the banks of the Boite River, will be used for curling events at the 2026 Winter Games.
L’inizio
The Games were declared open January 26, 1956 by President Giovanni Gronchi of Italy. The Italian government had contributed 460 million lire to help finance the Games; the rest came from funds contributed or generated by the Italian Olympic Committee, such as through local football betting pools and corporate sponsorships (Fiat was the official car, Olivetti the official typewriter).
The final torch-bearer at the opening ceremonies was Italian speed skater Guido Caroli, who tripped on a television wire as he carried the flame around the rink at Stadio Olimpico di Ghiaccio. He got up, saluted President Gronchi, continued skating, and eventually lit the cauldron that burned throughout the Games’ 11 days.
L’innovazzioni
The 1956 Winter Games were the first Winter Games broadcast on live television (though not in the United States), the first to include the Soviet Union (whose 16 medals and 7 golds led all nations), and the first in which the Olympic Oath taken on behalf of all athletes was sworn by a female, Italian Alpine skier Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo.
L’ultima volta
The 1956 Winter Games were the last Winter Games in which speed skating was held outdoors on natural ice, at the northern end of Lake Misurina. It was also the last time figure skating was held outdoors, at Stadio Olimpico di Ghiaccio.
Gli americani
Americans dominated figure skating, with Hayes Jenkins, Ronnie Roberston and David Jenkins finishing 1-2-3 in men’s, and Tenley Albright and Carol Heiss 1-2 in women’s. Albright’s gold medal, the first by an American woman in figure skating, came less than two weeks after she severely cut her ankle while falling in practice. Her father, a surgeon, patched the injury and allowed Albright to compete; she later became a surgeon herself.
Il re della collina
Austria’s Anton (Toni) Sailer became the first man in Olympic history to sweep the Alpine skiing events. His downhill victory was assisted by a last-minute boot strap donation from Hansl Senger, the manager of the Italian team, after Sailer’s own strap had broken just minutes before his scheduled run.
La squadra di casa
The home team? All of Italy’s three medals at the Cortina Games came in bobsled: gold and silver in two-man, and silver in four-man. The driver for both silver medal teams was Eugenio Monti who 12 years later, at age 40, won both gold medals at the Winter Games in Grenoble, France. Cortina’s bobsled (or bobsleigh) course to be used in 2026 is named for Monti.
L’ascesa delle donna
Of the then-record 818 athletes competing in 24 events at the 1956 Games, 16% were women. It’s anticipated that of the several thousand athletes competing in 118 events at the 2026 Games, 47% will be women. — Mike Nelson