MELBOURNE - Australia
Melbourne was the first city in the southern hemisphere to host the games. That was in 1956. At the time, that posed quite a few problems, including for the Olympic flame, which had to be taken by plane to Oceania. That was a first.The delegations themselves took three days to get to the capital of the state of Victoria. Only the horsemen and their mounts were spared the journey: Australian law banned horses from entering the country. The equestrian events were held in Stockholm.Another first was that the summer games took place in November and December, since the seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere. That was a problem for northern hemisphere sportsmen who were not used to competing at that time of the year.Several countries did not make the trip owing to the events in Hungary. Russian tanks had been sent into Budapest to put down an uprising. Some Middle Eastern countries refused to take part in protest against British, French and Israeli intervention in Egypt over Suez.It was because of this unhealthy political climate that, in a gesture of solidarity, the athletes decided to parade arm in arm, without their national flags. It was a breath of fresh air in a world that was rife with international tension.