These Photos Show What Cortina’s First Winter Olympics Looked Like 70 Years Ago – europenews.uk

Sunday, February 8

These Photos Show What Cortina’s First Winter Olympics Looked Like 70 Years Ago

The 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo were a far cry from the gigantic global sporting spectacle the Italian mountain town will co-host alongside Milan in 2026.

Archive photographs from Cortina 1956 capture a far smaller, more intimate Games, with just 825 athletes from 32 countries — a stark contrast to the 3,500 athletes from 93 countries who will compete seven decades later.

See the images here:

Canada’s Lucile Wheeler finishing in sixth place in the women’s giant slalom.

Canada’s Lucile Wheeler finishing in sixth place in the women’s giant slalom.

Britain’s two-man bobsleigh team greeting passengers in a Bentley on the eve of the Games’ opening ceremony.

Austrian figure skaters Sissy Schwarz and Kurt Oppelt won the pairs title.

Ossi Reichert, right, is congratulated by her mother after winning the ladies’ giant slalom race.

The “Italia” ski jump at the 1956 Games.

Germany’s four-man bobsleigh team during a training run.

Austrian skier Toni Sailer, center, his sister Rosl, right, and a soldier, left, following his victory in the men’s downhill competition.

Ossi Reichert, pictured center, along with Putzi Frandl, right and Thea Hochleitner, left, taking first, second and third place in the giant slalom race.

Austria’s Tony Sailer winning his second gold in the slalom.

Rome darkroom staffer Carlo Pelliccia dries negatives in a bathroom where film for five Associated Press photographers was being processed during the 1956 Winter Olympics.

Austria’s Toni Sailer is carried on the shoulders of fans after winning the men’s giant slalom.

Holland’s Gerardus Maarse in the 500-meter speed skating.

Bobsledder Jim Bickford, from Saranac Lake, New York, carries the U.S. flag as he leads teammates in the opening ceremony.

Germany’s Ossi Reichert wins the women’s giant slalom.

Italian Alpine skier Giuliana Chenal-Minuzzo reads the Olympic oath at the opening ceremony.

Russia’s Ljubov Kozyreva winning the women’s 10-kilometer cross-country ski.

Spectators entering the ice stadium before the opening ceremony.

In front of 13,000 people and 1,200 competitors, Italian skater Guido Caroli falls while carrying the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony of the 1956 Winter Olympics.

American figure skater Tenley Albright practices along the ice prior to competing in Cortina d’Ampezzo.

American figure skaters Carol Ann Ormaca, left, and Robin Greiner get in some last-minute training.

U.S. figure skater Carol Heiss cuts up the ice.

Array of national banners hung in front of the Olympics HQ.

Italian athlete Giuseppe Dordone arrives with the Olympic flame at Ciampino Airport in Rome.

Swiss skier Madeleine Berthod.

Soviet athletes parade through the streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The lighting of a torch from the Olympic flame.

U.S. bronze medal-winning figure skater David Jenkins.

Goal scene from an ice hockey match between the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria.

Russia’s Yevgeny Grishin winning the 500-meter speed skating.

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