The men's sprint or "scratch race" at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, was held from 3 to 6 December 1956.

Guglielmo Pesenti of Italy earned silver and Dick Ploog of Australia finished third for bronze.

His main competitor (the runner-up at the last two world championships), Jorge Batiz of Argentina, did not compete in Melbourne.

The trend in the Olympic sprint competition was toward expansion of a best-of-three match format (beginning in 1932 for the final, expanding in 1936 and 1948 to more rounds).

The Official Report says that the eight fastest losers went to the repechage, but this is a very odd advancement rule for the sprint competition in which time is generally not relevant.

The repechage finals were two heats of two cyclists, with the winners rejoining the round 1 victors in the quarterfinals while the losers were eliminated.

[3][2] The Official report lists only Godefroid and Shah-Rukh, but Cycling Magazine recorded Lê as third place in the first heat of the repechage.

[3][2] The Official Report shows only Shardelow and Mejía, but Cycling Magazine indicates that all losers of the first round went to the repechage.

[3][2] The Official Report lists only Argenton and Mitchell, but Cycling Magazine places Markus third in this heat.