Featherweight (≤57 kilograms), Men

A strong division brought together two returning champions from the Helsinki Games in bantamweight Pentti Hämäläinen (Finland) and featherweight Ján Zachara (Czechoslovakia) with the European champion Tommy Nicholls of Great Britain and South Africa’s British Empire Games gold medalist Len Leisching. There was no place however for the talented American Harry Smith as he failed to make the weight limit.

An all European semi-final line-up saw Nicholls outpoint Hämäläinen to extract revenge for a defeat at the 1952 Games and book a place in the final against Vladimir Safronov of the Soviet Union. Safronov was a late substitute for Aleksandr Zasukhin who was forced to withdraw with an injury one week before the Games began. Since Nicholls had won the European title by defeating Zasukhin he was considered the favourite to win Olympic gold but in a close fight that was decided when the Soviet scored the only knockdown of the final, Safronov claimed the title. He was the first of 14 Soviet Olympic boxing champions between 1952 and 1988.