The men's 56 kg weightlifting competitions at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne took place on 23 November at the Royal Exhibition Building.

If two or more weightlifters finished with the same total, the competitors' body weights were used as the tie-breaker (lighter athlete wins).

[1] Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

As weigh-in time approached, Vinci was one and a half pounds overweight.

Fortunately, a severe last-minute haircut did the trick, and Vinci went on to win the gold medal.