Ivy League Sports - Ivies in Athens 2004

The Ivy League's Complete History of the Olympic Games

1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Games
819 Athletes, 32 Countries, 24 Events

The USSR made its Olympic debut at the 1956 Winter Games, but it showed no firstyear jitters. It had a dominant showing of 16 medals in only 24 events. The United States only managed to win seven, two bronze medals, three silver medals, and two gold medals. American Ivy League competitors had a hand in four out of those seven medals. Japan, which won one medal in 1956, can attribute its success to an Ivy Leaguer as well.

The Dartmouth Outing Club was, once again, well represented at the Winter Olympics. Chiharu 'Chick' Igaya (Dartmouth, 1957), with several NCAA skiing championships to his name, placed second in only the third running of the slalom alpine skiing event, requiring skiers to weave through a series of blue and red 'gates.' This silver medal was the first Winter Olympic medal in Japan's history. Igaya would return to the 1960 games, and eventually become a member of the IOC, which he still is today. Five others from Hanover joined Igaya: William L. Beck (1953), Thomas A. Corcoran (1954), J. Brooks Dodge (1951), Ralph E. Miller (1955), and Charles N. Tremblay (1952).

Beck, in his last Olympics, was unable to match his fifthplace finish in the downhill skiing event four years earlier at St. Moritz as he did not place. Corocoran was a slalom skier, he placed 14th and 19th in the giant slalom and slalom, respectively. But Corcoran would do much better in 1960. Dodge, on the other hand, was on the heels of Igaya in the 1956 slalom race, he finished 1.6 seconds away from the thirdplace finisher. He would later be known as one of the 50 Greatest New Hampshire Sports Figures according to Sports Illustrated. Miller took part in three events, Tremblay, a crosscountry skier, in one.

In other events, Charles Thomas Butler (Brown, 1955) was part of the U.S. fourman bobsled team that won the bronze medal at Cortina. The U.S. would win their next fourman bobsled medal 46 years later, at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, where they won both silver and bronze.

On the ice, the U.S. men's ice hockey team compiled a 52 record en route to the silver medal. With the arrival of the USSR, 1956 was the first year in Olympic ice hockey history that Canada did not win the gold or silver medals. Bill Cleary (Harvard, 1956) was on the team, and would return for the United States' first gold medalwinning team four years later at the Squaw Valley games. Cleary is also known for coaching the Crimson for many years, as well as serving as Athletic Director for Harvard.

Harvard also swept the figure skating gold medals, and earned both US gold medals from 1956 in the process. Hayes A. Jenkins (Harvard, 1959) won the men's figure skating gold, his younger brother won the bronze. Tenley Albright (Harvard, 1953) followed up her 1952 secondplace performance with a gold in the women's competition, despite suffering a serious ankle injury only two weeks before. Her father, a surgeon, fixed her ankle. Albright eventually earned firstplace votes from all but one of the judges.

Name	School	Sport
Charles Thomas Butler	Brown University	Men's Bobsled
William L. Beck	Dartmouth College	Men's Alpine Skiing
Thomas A. Corcoran	Dartmouth College	Men's Alpine Skiing
J. Brooks Dodge	Dartmouth College	Men's Alpine Skiing
Chiharu 'Chick' Igaya	Dartmouth College	Men's Alpine Skiing
Ralph E. Miller	Dartmouth College	Men's Alpine Skiing
Charles N. Tremblay	Dartmouth College	Men's Nordic Skiing
Tenley Albright	Harvard University	Women's Figure Skating
William J. Cleary, Jr.	Harvard University	Men's Ice Hockey
Hayes A. Jenkins	Harvard University	Men's Figure Skating

© 2004-2023 Council of Ivy Group Presidents. All rights reserved. Official Olympic Posters appear with permission and are the property of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The image of the Acropolis was courtesy of the collection of Kevin T. Glowacki and Nancy L. Klein.