Featherweight (≤60 kilograms), Men

At Melbourne in 1956 American Ike Berger defeated Soviet Yevgeny Minayev for the gold medal. Berger also won the 1958 World Championships, after Minayev had won in 1957. The 1959 World Champion was Poland’s Marian Zieliński, who had won the bronze medal in Melbourne, but he moved up to the lightweight class in Rome, leaving the battle between Berger and Minayev. Minayev reversed the tables on Berger, leading in all three lifts, and equalling Berger’s world record total of 372.5 kg, winning over Berger by 10 kg.

Bronze went to Italian Sebastiano Mannironni, who had won 10 silver or bronze medals in World and European competition from 1953-60. He finally made it to the top step of the podium in 1961 with a win at the Europeans. Minayev won the 1962 Europeans but he had many troubles with the Soviet coaches and was never again sent to an international competition, retiring in 1966. Berger returned to the Olympics in 1964 and again won a featherweight silver medal, this time behind Japan’s Yoshinobu Miyake, who was the bantamweight silver medalist in Rome.