Basketball at the 1956 Summer Olympics was the fourth appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. Fifteen nations, an unusually low number for the basketball tournament, competed in the event, with 174 participants. A total number of 56 games of basketball were played.
The teams were divided into four pools, with four teams in three of the pools and only three in the fourth. Every team played against each other team in its pool once. The top two teams from each pool advanced to the quarterfinals, where again they were split into pools of four. Teams again played every other team in their pool, with the top two in each advancing to the semifinal and the bottom two entering a pool for 5th through 8th places. Eliminated teams also played in consolation matches with the same structure as the quarterfinals and finals, but for 9th through 15th places.
The games were held at the Royal Exhibition Building.
Qualified Teams
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| width="20px" bgcolor="#FFD700" | || Outright qualifier, World Champion
|-
| width="20px" bgcolor="#C0C0C0" | || Outright qualifier, World Runner-up
|-
| width="20px" bgcolor="#CD7F32" | || Outright qualifier, World Bronze medalists
|-
| width="20px" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | ||Host nation
|}
{| class="wikitable collapsible autocollapse" width=850 style="font-size:90%"
! colspan= 5| Teams Participating by Region
|-
!Americas
!Europe
!Asia
!Africa
!Oceania
|-
|bgcolor="#FFD700"|
|
|bgcolor="#CD7F32"|
|bgcolor="#D3D3D3" rowspan="6" style="text-align:center"|No team participated
|bgcolor="#ccffcc"|
|-
|
|
|
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center"|—
|-
|bgcolor="#C0C0C0"|
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center"|—
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center"|—
|
|-
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Number of Berths Allocated for the Tournament
|-
!Region
!Automatic
!From the <br /> previous <br /> World Cup
!Berth as <br /> Host nation
!Total
|-
| align="left" |Europe
| align="center" |4
| bgcolor="#D3D3D3" align="center" |N/A
| rowspan="3" bgcolor="#D3D3D3" align="center" |N/A
!4
|-
|Americas
| align="center" |2
| align="center" |2
!4
|-
|Asia
| align="center" |5
| align="center" |1
!6
|-
|Africa
| colspan="3" bgcolor="#D3D3D3" align="center" |No team participated
!0
|-
|Oceania
| colspan="2" bgcolor="#D3D3D3" align="center" |N/A
| align="center" |1
!1
|-
!TOTAL
!11
!3
!1
!15
|}
Medalists
{| class="wikitable"
! style="background-color:gold;"| Gold:
! style="background-color:silver;"| Silver:
! style="background-color:#CC9966;"| Bronze:
|-valign=top
| <br>Carl Cain<br>Bill Hougland<br>K.C. Jones<br>Bill Russell<br>James Walsh<br>William Evans<br>Burdette Haldorsson<br>Ronald Tomsic<br>Dick Boushka<br>Gilbert Ford<br>Robert Jeangerard<br>Charles Darling
| <br>Valdis Muižnieks<br>Maigonis Valdmanis<br>Vladimir Torban<br>Stasys Stonkus<br>Kazys Petkevičius<br>Arkadi Bochkarev<br>Jānis Krūmiņš<br>Mikhail Semyonov<br>Algirdas Lauritenas<br>Yuri Ozerov<br>Viktor Zubkov<br>Mikhail Studenetsky
| <br>Carlos Blixen<br>Ramiro Cortés<br>Héctor Costa<br>Nelson Chelle<br>Nelson Demarco<br>Héctor García Otero<br>Carlos González<br>Sergio Matto<br>Oscar Moglia<br>Raúl Mera<br>Ariel Olascoaga<br>Milton Scaron
|}
Participating nations
For the team rosters see: Basketball at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's team rosters.
Preliminary round
Group A
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<section begin=A1 /><section end=A1 />
<section begin=A2 /><section end=A2 />
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<section begin=A6 /><section end=A6 />
Group B
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<section begin=B1 /><section end=B1 />
<section begin=B2 /><section end=B2 />
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<section begin=B3 /><section end=B3 />
<section begin=B4 /><section end=B4 />
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<section begin=B5 /><section end=B5 />
<section begin=B6 /><section end=B6 />
Group C
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<section begin=C1 /><section end=C1 />
<section begin=C2 /><section end=C2 />
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<section begin=C3 /><section end=C3 />
<section begin=C4 /><section end=C4 />
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<section begin=C5 /><section end=C5 />
<section begin=C6 /><section end=C6 />
Group D
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<section begin=D1 /><section end=D1 />
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<section begin=D2 /><section end=D2 />
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<section begin=D3 /><section end=D3 />
Classification 9–15
Group 1
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<section begin=CC11 /><section end=CC11 />
<section begin=CC12 /><section end=CC12 />
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<section begin=CC13 /><section end=CC13 />
<section begin=CC14 /><section end=CC14 />
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<section begin=CC15 /><section end=CC15 />
<section begin=CC16 /><section end=CC16 />
Group 2
<section begin=StandingsC2 /><section end=StandingsC2 />
<section begin=CC21 /><section end=CC21 />
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<section begin=CC22 /><section end=CC22 />
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<section begin=CC23 /><section end=CC23 />
Classification 13–15
- Thailand was named as the final placers of the games because of their loss to the Koreans.
Classification 9–12
Quarterfinals
Group A
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<section begin=QA1 /><section end=QA1 />
<section begin=QA2 /><section end=QA2 />
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<section begin=QA3 /><section end=QA3 />
<section begin=QA4 /><section end=QA4 />
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<section begin=QA5 /><section end=QA5 />
<section begin=QA6 /><section end=QA6 />
Group B
<section begin=StandingsQB /><section end=StandingsQB />
<section begin=QB1 /><section end=QB1 />
<section begin=QB2 /><section end=QB2 />
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<section begin=QB3 /><section end=QB3 />
<section begin=QB4 /><section end=QB4 />
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<section begin=QB5 /><section end=QB5 />
<section begin=QB6 /><section end=QB6 />
Classification 5–8
Classification Semifinals
<section begin=CSF1 /><section end=CSF1 />
<section begin=CSF2 /><section end=CSF2 />
Seventh-place match
Fifth-place match
Final round
Semifinals
<section begin=SF1 /><section end=SF1 />
<section begin=SF2 /><section end=SF2 />
Bronze-medal match
Final
Awards
Final rankings
{|class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|-
!width=40|Pos
!width=180|Team
!width=60|Record
|-bgcolor="gold"
| ||align=left| ||8−0
|-bgcolor="silver"
| ||align=left| ||5−3
|-bgcolor=#C96
| ||align=left| ||6−2
|-bgcolor=
| 4th ||align=left| ||5−3
|-bgcolor=
| 5th ||align=left| ||5−3
|-bgcolor=
| 6th ||align=left| ||3−4
|-bgcolor=
| 7th ||align=left| ||4−4
|-bgcolor=
| 8th ||align=left| ||2–5
|-bgcolor=
| 9th ||align=left| ||5–2
|-bgcolor=
| 10th ||align=left| ||3–4
|-bgcolor=
| 11th ||align=left| ||5−3
|-bgcolor=
| 12th ||align=left| ||2–5
|-bgcolor=
| 13th ||align=left| ||2–5
|-bgcolor=
| 14th ||align=left| ||1–6
|-bgcolor=
| 15th ||align=left| ||0–7
|}
References
- Official Olympic Report