go on to dominate the Olympics for the next four decades. The Soviets viewed the Olympics as international battlefield, where they can achieve their political goals by winning medals, thus proving their system's superiority. The Soviet authorities also significantly bent the amateur rules, that were in place at the time, by providing state-funding to their athletes who trained full-time and, unlike American self-financed amateurs, were de facto professionals. That would start a significant controversy, that will result in the amateur rules being abolished, though only in the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, meaning that the Soviets benefited from those rules throughout their Olympic history. The United States still topped the medal count at these games, winning 40 gold and 76 total medals, 22 gold and 5 total medals more than the Soviets who finished second. American athletes won 31 medals in track and field, their most successful sport. US basketball team won its third consecutive gold, twice defeating the Soviets in the process, American boxers won all five finals they entered, and American weightlifters edged their Soviet rivals 4 to 3 in terms of gold medals, with the two nations sweeping all seven events in the sport. Melbourne hosted the Olympics in 1956. There were calls for the expulsion of the Soviet Union following their invasion of Hungary, but the International Olympic Committee decided not to pursue any action. As a result, some nations boycotted the games in protest of the Soviets' presence, and the Hungarians themselves became engaged in a violent brawl with their Soviet counterparts in a water polo game, an event that was instantly called Blood in the Water. The US performance at the games was relatively successful, though it was getting harder and harder to compete with the Soviet machine. As a result, the Americans earned 32 gold and 78 total medals (second place in the medal standings), 5 gold and 24 total medals less than the first-placed Soviets. The US contingent was particularly successful in track and field, where American athletes amassed 31 medals. On the other hand, the US won only 2 golds in swimming, being unable to stop the Australian domination of the swimming events at these games. In weightlifting, the Americans and Soviets once again won all seven events, once again with a 4 to 3 ratio in favor of the US team. In boxing, the Soviets won 3