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

Women's 100 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
VenueSwimming and Diving Stadium
Date29 November (heats)
30 November (semifinals)
1 December (final)
Competitors35 from 16 nations
Winning time1:02.0 (WR)
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Dawn Fraser  Australia
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Lorraine Crapp  Australia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Faith Leech  Australia
← 1952
1960 →

The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place from 29 November to 1 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

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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
29 November Heat 1 Lorraine Crapp  Australia 1:03.4 OR
29 November Heat 5 Dawn Fraser  Australia 1:02.4 OR
1 December Final Dawn Fraser  Australia 1:02.0 OR WR

Results

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Heats

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Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes
1 5 Dawn Fraser  Australia 1:02.4 Q, OR
2 1 Lorraine Crapp  Australia 1:03.4 Q, OR
3 4 Faith Leech  Australia 1:04.9 Q
4 5 Natalie Myburgh  South Africa 1:05.1 Q
5 5 Virginia Grant  Canada 1:05.1 Q
6 5 Shelley Mann  United States 1:05.4 Q
7 1 Joan Rosazza  United States 1:05.5 Q
8 3 Marrion Roe  New Zealand 1:05.9 Q
9 4 Zsuzsa Ördög  Hungary 1:06.5 Q
9 2 Nancy Simons  United States 1:06.5 Q
11 3 Valéria Gyenge  Hungary 1:06.6 Q
12 1 Helen Stewart  Canada 1:07.1 Q
13 1 Jeanette Myburgh  South Africa 1:07.1 Q
14 4 Kate Jobson  Sweden 1:07.3 Q
15 3 Birgit Klomp  United Team of Germany 1:07.7 Q
16 4 Susan Roberts  South Africa 1:07.9 Q
17 2 Katalin Szőke  Hungary 1:08.0
18 4 Christel Steffin  United Team of Germany 1:08.1
19 2 Kati Jansen  United Team of Germany 1:08.3
20 1 Anita Hellström  Sweden 1:08.5
20 5 Frances Hogben  Great Britain 1:08.5
22 2 Odile Vouaux  France 1:08.6
23 2 Fearne Ewart  Great Britain 1:08.8
23 3 Héda Frost  France 1:08.8
23 4 Hitomi Jinno  Japan 1:08.8
26 1 Irène Sweyd  Belgium 1:08.9
27 4 Gladys Priestley  Canada 1:09.2
28 3 Blanca Barrón  Mexico 1:09.5
29 5 Ginette Jany-Sendral  France 1:09.9
30 3 Yoshiko Sato  Japan 1:10.3
30 5 Shoshana Rivner  Israel 1:10.3
32 1 Winifred Griffin  New Zealand 1:10.4
33 2 Setsuko Shimada  Japan 1:11.8
34 1 Margaret Northrop  Kenya 1:12.8
35 3 Gertrudez Lozada  Philippines 1:13.7

Semifinals

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Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes
1 1 Dawn Fraser  Australia 1:03.0 Q
2 2 Lorraine Crapp  Australia 1:03.1 Q
3 1 Faith Leech  Australia 1:05.2 Q
4 2 Marrion Roe  New Zealand 1:05.3 Q
5 2 Virginia Grant  Canada 1:05.5 Q
6 2 Shelley Mann  United States 1:05.5 Q
7 1 Joan Rosazza  United States 1:05.9 Q
8 1 Natalie Myburgh  South Africa 1:06.0 Q
9 2 Nancy Simons  United States 1:06.1
10 2 Kate Jobson  Sweden 1:06.1
11 1 Valéria Gyenge  Hungary 1:06.4
12 2 Susan Roberts  South Africa 1:06.6
13 2 Jeanette Myburgh  South Africa 1:06.7
14 1 Zsuzsa Ördögh  Hungary 1:06.9
15 1 Helen Stewart  Canada 1:06..9
16 1 Birgit Klomp  United Team of Germany 1:07.9

Final

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Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Dawn Fraser  Australia 1:02.0 WR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Lorraine Crapp  Australia 1:02.4
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Faith Leech  Australia 1:05.1
4 Joan Rosazza  United States 1:05.2
5 Virginia Grant  Canada 1:05.4
6 Shelley Mann  United States 1:05.6
7 Marrion Roe  New Zealand 1:05.6
8 Natalie Myburgh  South Africa 1:05.8

Key: WR = World record

References

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  1. ^ "Swimming at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Women's 100 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 22 April 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2016.