1956 Winter Olympics medal table

Map displaying countries that won medals during 1956 Winter Olympics

World map showing the medal achievements of each country during the 1956 Winter Olympics
Legend:
Template:Legend2 represents countries that won at least one gold medal.
Template:Legend2 represents countries that won at least one silver medal but no gold medals.
Template:Legend2 represents countries that won at least one bronze medal but no gold or silver medals.
Template:Legend2 represents countries that did not win any medals.
Template:Legend2 represents entities that did not participate in the 1956 Winter Olympics.

The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games, was an international multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from 26 January to 5 February 1956. A total of 821 athletes representing 32 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated. The games featured 24 events in 4 sports across 8 disciplines.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Overall, athletes from 13 nations received at least one medal, and 9 of them won at least one gold medal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At their first Winter Olympics, athletes from the Soviet Union won the most gold medals, with 7, and the most overall medals, with 16. Athletes from Austria came second in the medal table with 4 gold medals and 11 medals overall, while athletes from Finland came third with 3 gold medals and 7 medals overall.<ref name=CBC>Template:Cite web</ref> Teams from Poland<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Japan won their nations' first Winter Olympic medals.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Alpine skier Toni Sailer of Austria won the most gold medals for an individual at the Games. He won the three gold medals available in the men's alpine skiing events and became the first person to do so.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Cross-country skier Sixten Jernberg of Sweden won the most overall medals for an individual at the Games, winning four medals with one gold, two silvers, and one bronze.<ref name=CBC /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Medal table

The medal table is based on information provided by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is consistent with IOC conventional sorting in its published medal tables. The table uses the Olympic medal table sorting method. By default, the table is ordered by the number of gold medals the athletes from a nation have won. The number of silver medals is taken into consideration next and then the number of bronze medals.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In speed skating, two gold medals (and no silver) were awarded to Yevgeny Grishin and Yuri Mikhaylov for a first-place tie in the men's 1500 metres event.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>