Alpine skiing at the 1956 Winter Olympics

At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, the six alpine skiing events were held from Friday, 27 January to Friday, 3 February.

Alpine skiing at the VII Olympic Winter Games
Venue	Tofana and Faloria (men's GS) Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Dates	27 January – 3 February 1956
No. of events	6
Competitors	183 from 29 nations

Toni Sailer of Austria won all three men's events to become the first alpine ski racer to win three gold medals in a single Olympics. The feat has been repeated once, by Jean-Claude Killy in 1968.

The races were held at the adjacent Tofana, except for the men's giant slalom, which was held at Monte Faloria. The men's downhill was the final event.

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Downhill	Toni Sailer  Austria	2:52.2	Raymond Fellay  Switzerland	2:55.7	Anderl Molterer  Austria	2:56.2
Giant Slalom	Toni Sailer  Austria	3:00.1	Anderl Molterer  Austria	3:06.3	Walter Schuster  Austria	3:07.2
Slalom	Toni Sailer  Austria	3:14.7	Chiharu Igaya  Japan	3:18.7	Stig Sollander  Sweden	3:20.2

Source:

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Downhill	Madeleine Berthod  Switzerland	1:40.7	Frieda Dänzer  Switzerland	1:45.4	Lucille Wheeler  Canada	1:45.9
Giant Slalom	Ossi Reichert  United Team of Germany	1:56.5	Putzi Frandl  Austria	1:57.8	Thea Hochleitner  Austria	1:58.2
Slalom	Renée Colliard  Switzerland	1:52.3	Regina Schöpf  Austria	1:55.4	Yevgeniya Sidorova  Soviet Union	1:56.7

Source:

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Austria	3	3	3	9
2	Switzerland	2	2	0	4
3	United Team of Germany	1	0	0	1
4	Japan	0	1	0	1
5	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Soviet Union	0	0	1	1
	Sweden	0	0	1	1
Totals (7 entries)		6	6	6	18

Course information

Date	Race	Start Elevation	Finish Elevation	Vertical Drop	Course Length	Average Gradient
Fri  3-Feb	Downhill - men	2,282 m (7,487 ft)	1,380 m (4,528 ft)	902 m (2,959 ft)	3.461 km (2.151 mi)	26.1%
Wed  1-Feb	Downhill - women	2,114 m (6,936 ft)	1,612 m (5,289 ft)	502 m (1,647 ft)	1.552 km (0.964 mi)	32.3%
Sun 29-Jan	Giant Slalom - men	2,336 m (7,664 ft)	1,713 m (5,620 ft)	623 m (2,044 ft)	2.660 km (1.653 mi)	23.4%
Fri 27-Jan	Giant Slalom - women	2,020 m (6,627 ft)	1,612 m (5,289 ft)	408 m (1,339 ft)	1.366 km (0.849 mi)	29.9%
Tue 31-Jan	Slalom - men	1,748 m (5,735 ft)	1,497 m (4,911 ft)	251 m (823 ft)	0.617 km (0.383 mi)	40.7%
Mon 30-Jan	Slalom - women	1,673 m (5,489 ft)	1,498 m (4,915 ft)	175 m (574 ft)	0.456 km (0.283 mi)	38.4%

Source:

World championships

From 1948 through 1980, the alpine skiing events at the Winter Olympics also served as the World Championships, held every two years. With the addition of the giant slalom, the combined event was dropped for 1950 and 1952, but returned as a World Championship event in 1954 as a "paper race" which used the results from the three events. During the Olympics from 1956 through 1980, World Championship medals were awarded by the FIS for the combined event. The combined returned as a separate event at the World Championships in 1982 and at the Olympics in 1988.

Combined

Men's Combined

Medal	Athlete	Points	DH	GS	SL
	Toni Sailer (AUT)	0.00
	Charles Bozon (FRA)	12.65	8	5	7
	Stig Sollander (SWE)	16.92	10	16
4	Raymond Fellay (SUI)	18.39		27	11
5	Asle Sjåstad (NOR)	27.25	14	22	18
6	Gino Burrini (ITA)	30.43	6	10	27

• Downhill: 3 February, Giant Slalom: 29 January, Slalom: 31 January

Women's Combined

Medal	Athlete	Points	DH	GS	SL
	Madeleine Berthod (SUI)	9.85		4	17
	Frieda Dänzer (SUI)	11.19		11	10
	Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo (ITA)	12.31	4	13	4
4	Dorothea Hochleitner (AUT)	12.79	7		12
5	Borghild Niskin (NOR)	13.80	9	7	11
	Josefine Frandl (AUT)	13.80	13		5

• Downhill: 1 February, Giant Slalom: 27 January, Slalom: 30 January

External links

• International Olympic Committee results database
• FIS-Ski.com – results – 1956 Olympics – Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
• FIS-Ski.com – results – 1956 World Championships – Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy