Editing 1956 Summer Olympics (section)

==Participation and boycotts==
[[File:1956 Summer Olympics (Melbourne) boycotting countries (blue).png|thumb|350px|Countries that boycotted the 1956 Games are shaded blue]]
Egypt, Iraq, Cambodia and Lebanon announced that they would not participate in the Olympics in response to the [[Suez Crisis]] when Egypt was invaded by Israel, the United Kingdom, and France.

The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Liechtenstein boycotted the event in protest of the [[Soviet Union]]'s crushing of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Revolution]].

The [[China|People's Republic of China]] chose to boycott the event because the [[Taiwan|Republic of China]] had been allowed to compete.

Athletes from both [[East Germany|East]] and [[West Germany|West]] Germany competed together as a [[United Team of Germany|combined team]] (a display of unity that was repeated in [[1960 Summer Olympics|1960]] and [[1964 Summer Olympics|1964]], but was then discontinued).

Although the number of countries participating (67) was almost the same as in 1952 (69), the number of athletes competing dropped sharply, from 4,925 to 3,342. (This figure does not include the 158 athletes from 29 countries who took part in the Stockholm equestrian competition.)