Great Britain's 1960 Rome Olympic delegation of 253 athletes won only two gold medals, a decline from 1956, and became notable for later intersex allegations.
Key Facts
- Total competitors
- 253 (206 men, 47 women)
- Events entered
- 130 events across 17 sports
- Gold medals won
- 2 (down from 6 in 1956)
- Total medals
- 20
- Overall finishing position
- 12th
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Great Britain, represented by the British Olympic Association, sent a delegation to the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome following a disappointing decline from their 1956 performance of six gold medals. The team of 253 athletes competed across 17 sports in a period when British Olympic results were already under scrutiny.
At the Rome Games, 253 British athletes competed in 130 events across 17 sports. The team secured only two gold medals and twenty medals in total, finishing twelfth overall. Allegations arose during the games that some women in the British athletics team exhibited male characteristics, which the British team immediately dismissed.
Following the games, British professor Thomas Jeffcote published a report claiming two British female team members were intersex. Though neither was named, he stated one was a teenage 100-yard sprinter whose athletic ability declined rapidly after an operation in 1961. The episode raised early questions about sex verification in sport that would grow in international prominence in subsequent decades.
Result
at Rome, Italy