Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre freestyle

Women's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Venue	Swimming and Diving Stadium
Date	29 November (heats) 30 November (semifinals) 1 December (final)
Competitors	35 from 16 nations
Winning time	1:02.0 (WR)
Medalists
Dawn Fraser   Australia   Lorraine Crapp   Australia   Faith Leech   Australia

Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men		women
400 m	men		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men		women
Breaststroke
200 m	men		women
Butterfly
100 m			women
200 m	men
Freestyle relay
4×100 m			women
4×200 m	men

The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place from November 29 to December 1. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:

World record	Lorraine Crapp (AUS)	1:02.4 s	Melbourne, Australia	25 October 1956
Olympic record	Judit Temes (HUN)	1:05.5 s	Helsinki, Finland	26 July 1952

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
November 29	Heat 1	Lorraine Crapp	Australia	1:03.4	OR
November 29	Heat 5	Dawn Fraser	Australia	1:02.4	OR
December 1	Final	Dawn Fraser	Australia	1:02.0	OR	WR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Fraser, DawnDawn Fraser	Australia	1:02.4	Q, OR
2	1	Crapp, LorraineLorraine Crapp	Australia	1:03.4	Q, OR
3	4	Leech, FaithFaith Leech	Australia	1:04.9	Q
4	5	Myburgh, NatalieNatalie Myburgh	South Africa	1:05.1	Q
5	5	Grant, VirginiaVirginia Grant	Canada	1:05.1	Q
6	5	Mann, ShelleyShelley Mann	United States	1:05.4	Q
7	1	Rosazza, JoanJoan Rosazza	United States	1:05.5	Q
8	3	Roe, MarrionMarrion Roe	New Zealand	1:05.9	Q
9	4	OrdoghZsuzsa Ördögh	Hungary	1:06.5	Q
9	2	Simons, NancyNancy Simons	United States	1:06.5	Q
11	3	Gyenge, ValériaValéria Gyenge	Hungary	1:06.6	Q
12	1	Stewart, HelenHelen Stewart	Canada	1:07.1	Q
13	1	Myburgh, JeanetteJeanette Myburgh	South Africa	1:07.1	Q
14	4	Jobson, KateKate Jobson	Sweden	1:07.3	Q
15	3	Klomp, BirgitBirgit Klomp	Germany	1:07.7	Q
16	4	Roberts, SusanSusan Roberts	South Africa	1:07.9	Q
17	2	Szőke, KatalinKatalin Szőke	Hungary	1:08.0
18	4	Steffin, ChristelChristel Steffin	Germany	1:08.1
19	2	Jansen, KatiKati Jansen	Germany	1:08.3
20	1	Hellström, AnitaAnita Hellström	Sweden	1:08.5
20	5	Hogben, FrancesFrances Hogben	Great Britain	1:08.5
22	2	Vouaux, OdileOdile Vouaux	France	1:08.6
23	2	Ewart, FearneFearne Ewart	Great Britain	1:08.8
23	3	Frost, HédaHéda Frost	France	1:08.8
23	4	Jinno, HitomiHitomi Jinno	Japan	1:08.8
26	1	Sweyd, IrèneIrène Sweyd	Belgium	1:08.9
27	4	Priestley, GladysGladys Priestley	Canada	1:09.2
28	3	Barrón, BlancaBlanca Barrón	Mexico	1:09.5
29	5	Jany-Sendral, GinetteGinette Jany-Sendral	France	1:09.9
30	3	Sato, YoshikoYoshiko Sato	Japan	1:10.3
30	5	Rivner, ShoshanaShoshana Rivner	Israel	1:10.3
32	1	Griffin, WinifredWinifred Griffin	New Zealand	1:10.4
33	2	Shimada, SetsukoSetsuko Shimada	Japan	1:11.8
34	1	Northrop, MargaretMargaret Northrop	Kenya	1:12.8
35	3	Lozada, GertrudezGertrudez Lozada	Philippines	1:13.7

Semifinals

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Fraser, DawnDawn Fraser	Australia	1:03.0	Q
2	2	Crapp, LorraineLorraine Crapp	Australia	1:03.1	Q
3	1	Leech, FaithFaith Leech	Australia	1:05.2	Q
4	2	Roe, MarrionMarrion Roe	New Zealand	1:05.3	Q
5	2	Grant, VirginiaVirginia Grant	Canada	1:05.5	Q
6	2	Mann, ShelleyShelley Mann	United States	1:05.5	Q
7	1	Rosazza, JoanJoan Rosazza	United States	1:05.9	Q
8	1	Myburgh, NatalieNatalie Myburgh	South Africa	1:06.0	Q
9	2	Simons, NancyNancy Simons	United States	1:06.1
10	2	Jobson, KateKate Jobson	Sweden	1:06.1
11	1	Gyenge, ValériaValéria Gyenge	Hungary	1:06.4
12	2	Roberts, SusanSusan Roberts	South Africa	1:06.6
13	2	Myburgh, JeanetteJeanette Myburgh	South Africa	1:06.7
14	1	OrdoghZsuzsa Ördögh	Hungary	1:06.9
15	1	Stewart, HelenHelen Stewart	Canada	1:06..9
16	1	Klomp, BirgitBirgit Klomp	Germany	1:07.9

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Fraser, DawnDawn Fraser	Australia	1:02.0	WR
	Crapp, LorraineLorraine Crapp	Australia	1:02.4
	Leech, FaithFaith Leech	Australia	1:05.1
4	Rosazza, JoanJoan Rosazza	South Africa	1:05.2
5	Grant, VirginiaVirginia Grant	Canada	1:05.4
6	Mann, ShelleyShelley Mann	United States	1:05.6
7	Roe, MarrionMarrion Roe	New Zealand	1:05.6
8	Myburgh, NatalieNatalie Myburgh	South Africa	1:05.8

Key: WR = World record

References

• "Swimming at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Women's 100 metres Freestyle". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 29 October 2009.