In 1956 Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina set off a career that would win her 18 medals, the most ever for an Olympian. Her Olympic exploits by an additional 26 world and European championship medals, 15 of them gold. A one-time aspiring ballerina, her trademark graceful style remains a sharp contrast to today's "power" gymnasts.

Two Australian women dominated women's sprinting in 1956 - one a farmer's daughter, the other a teenager from Sydney. Betty Cuthbert, an 18-year-old from Sydney, won the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m. In Tokyo, eight years later, she added the 400m gold to her collection to become the only athlete ever to earn gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints. Shirley Strickland, from a western Australian farm family and already a veteran of two Olympic games and five medals, won the 80m hurdles and 4x100m. She become the only woman ever to win seven running medals. After the Olympics Strickland traded athletic competion in for academia and became a math professor. Cuthbert has been suffering in recent years from multiple sclerosis.

Gymnast Agnes Keleti, her mother, and sister were among the fortunate group of Jews saved by the brave Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg during the Holocaust. Tragically, her father and the rest of her family was killed during the Nazi occupation of her native Hungary. After World War II, Keleti continued training and won four gymnastics medals at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki. In Melbourne, at the age of 35, Keleti was at the peak of her career. She won four gold and two silver medals. In 1956 the Soviet Union took over Hungary and Keleti elected to stay in Australia after the Games. She later immigrated to Israel where she currently resides.