During the races the sails got wet in addition to being under stress and the shape deteriorated. Having the sails repaired by a professional sailmaker gave the two competitors an advantage. However the jury dismissed the protest and thus Charles Currey won the silver medal.

In 1956 Olympics were assigned to Melbourne, Australia. The IYRU decided that the 6-Meter class had become too expensive for many countries to afford and so authorised a new formula class of 5.5 meters for the Olympics. The old 8-Meter class was completely eliminated and a 'Sharpie' class, a 12 m2 formula boat was used. The Dragon, Star and Monotype were the other events. The Finn had proved to be such a great competitive boat in the 1952 Olympics that it was retained as the Monotype for the 1956 Olympics. The Finns mustered twenty-two entries and again Elvstrom slaughtered the opposition, this time with five wins in his score - a fantastic feat! Going into the last race it looked as though the American John Marvin, who had never raced a Finn before, might topple the clever and the outstanding Belgian Andre Nelis since they were level on points at 2nd. But Nelis pulled out all the stops and kept Marvin covered whilst notching up a second place himself.

At the other end of the scale the battle between the enormous and perpetually grinning Burmese weight-lifter Maung Maung Lwin and the equally enormous Fijian reserve helmsman to keep off bottom place kept everyone just as much on tenterhooks. The first question the shore party asked was always "Who won?" but they did not mean Elvstrom! For the record - Burma triumphed. The weather was comparatively kind with the exception of the first race, in winds up to Force 7 gusts, and the fourth when the wind reached 55 m.p.h. The Finns fortunately did not have to face this latter test since they started last and were postponed. The other classes were under way before the wind really got going.