The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations. Instead, those events were held five months earlier in Stockholm, Sweden, marking the second time that events of the same Olympics were held in different countries. (At the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, one sailing event had been held in Dutch waters because of water quality). The 1956 Games were the first to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as the first to be held outside Europe and North America.

Melbourne was selected as the host city over bids from Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and six American cities on 28 April 1949, at the 43rd IOC Session in Rome, Italy.

Many members of the IOC were sceptical about Melbourne as an appropriate site. Its location in the Southern Hemisphere was a major concern, since the reversal of seasons would mean the Games were held during the northern winter. This was thought likely to inconvenience athletes from the Northern Hemisphere who were accustomed to resting during their winter.

The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that started in 1904. The Winter Olympics were also created due to the success of the summer Olympics.

The olympics have increased from a 42-event competition with fewer than 250 male athletes to a 300-event sporting celebration with over 10,000 competitors from 205 nations. Organizers for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing expected approximately 10,500 athletes to take part in the 302 events on the program for the games.

The United States has hosted four Summer Olympics Games, more than any other nation. The United Kingdom will have hosted three Summer Olympics Games when they return to the British capital in 2012, all of them have been (and will be) in London, making it the first city to hold the Summer Olympic Games three times. Australia, France, Germany and Greece have all hosted the Summer Olympic Games twice. Other countries that have hosted the summer Olympics are Belgium, China, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the Soviet Union and Sweden. In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro will host the first Summer Games in South America. Four cities have hosted two Summer Olympic Games: Los Angeles, London, Paris and Athens. Stockholm, Sweden, has hosted events at two Summer Olympic Games, having hosted the games in 1912 and the equestrian events at the 1956 Summer Olympics—which they are usually listed as jointly hosting. Events at the summer Olympics have also been held in Hong Kong and the Netherlands (both represented by their own NOCs), with the equestrian events at the 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Hong Kong and two sailing races at the 1920 Summer Olympics being held in the Netherlands.

Milkha Singh (born 8 October 1935) also known as Milky Singh is an Indian athlete, who represented India in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He is nicknamed The Flying Sikh.

He is also the father of the professional golfer Jeev Milkha Singh.

Milkha Singh represented India in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where his inexperience showed. Thereafter, he won gold medals in both the 200m and 400m events at the 1958 Asian Games, clocking 21.6 seconds and 47 seconds respectively. He progressed to win a gold medal in the 400m competition at the 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games, with a time of 46.16 seconds. This latter achievement made him the first gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games from independent India.

Subsequently, he competed in Pakistan and his successes there earned him the nickname of The Flying Sikh.

At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he finished second in all of his 400m races prior to the final,improving his time on each occasion. In the final event he set off strongly to the fore but was overhauled by the field and finished in fourth place, this being a decision that required a photo-finish. His time was 45.6 seconds and his finishing position was not bettered by an Indian track athlete until the 1984 Olympics, when P.T. Usha missed out on the 400 m hurdles bronze medal by 1/100th of a second.

Elżbieta Krzesińska née Duńska (born November 11, 1934 in Warsaw) is a retired track and field athlete from Poland, who competed in the long jump. She competed for her native country at the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia where she won the gold medal in the Women's Long Jump. She returned to the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome but failed to defend her title, finishing second behind Soviet Vera Krepkina.

She won the Polish championships in Long Jump (1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1959, 1962, 1963), 80m Hurdles (1957), and Pentathlon (1953, 1962). Duńska-Krzesińska participated in three Olympic Games. In 1952, she took 12th place in long jump at the 15th Olympic Games in Helsinki. In 1956, she won gold medal at the 16th Olympic Games in Melbourne. In 1960, she won silver medal, behind Vera Krepkina, at the 17th Olympic Games in Rome.

In 1954, she took 3rd, behind Jean Desforges, and Aleksandra Chudina, at the 5th European Championships in Athletics in Bern. In 1954, she won both in long jump and pentathlon at World Student Games in Budapest. In August 1956, she broke the world record in long jump (6.35) in Budapest, and equal in November 1956 in the Melbourne Olympics. In 1959, she won at the 1st Universiade in Turin. In 1962, she took 2nd, behind Tatyana Shchelkanova, at the 7th European Championships in Athletics in Belgrade.

Leonid Vasilevich Spirin (Russian: Леонид Васильевич Спирин, 21 June 1932 – 23 February 1982) was a Russian athlete who competed for the Soviet Union.

He competed for the USSR in the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia in the 20 kilometer walk where he won the gold medal.

Spirin was awarded th Order of the Badge of Honor (1957).