Bolivia at the 1956 Winter Olympics

The Bolivian Olympic Committee was recognized by the International Olympic Committee on 31 December 1935.[1] This was Bolivia's second appearance at an Olympics, after the 1936 Summer Olympics, and their first at a Winter Olympics.[2] As of 2018, Bolivia has never won an Olympic medal.[2] The 1956 Winter Olympics were held between 26 January and 5 February 1956; a total of 821 athletes represented 32 National Olympic Committees.[3] Bolivia's delegation consisted of a single alpine skier, René Farwig.[4] He was the flag bearer for the opening ceremony.[2] It would be 24 years before Bolivia participated in another Winter Olympics; they took part in the 1980 Lake Placid Games, though they made their third overall Olympic appearance just eight years later, at the 1964 Summer Olympics.[2]

René Farwig was 20 years old at the time of the Cortina d'Ampezzo Olympics, and was making his only Olympic appearance.[5][6] The men's giant slalom was held on 29 January, and Farwig finished the race in a time of 4 minutes and 15 seconds, placing him in a tie for 75th place out of 87 classified finishers; the gold medal was won by Toni Sailer of Austria in a time of 3 minutes and 0.1 seconds.[7] It was an Austrian sweep of the medal stand, with Anderl Molterer taking silver and Walter Schuster taking the bronze medal.[7] Two days later, as one of 89 competitors in the men's slalom, Farwig was disqualified during the first run for reasons unspecified in the official report of the Games.[8][9] In the slalom, Salier won another gold medal, while Chiharu Igaya of Japan took silver and Stig Sollander of Sweden won the bronze medal.[10]