Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metres

The women's 100 metres competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia was held at the Olympic Stadium on November 29–30.

Women's 100 metres at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Venue	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Date	November 24th (heats & semifinals) November 26th (final)
Competitors	34 from 18 nations
Winning time	11.5
Medalists
Betty Cuthbert  Australia Christa Stubnick  United Team of Germany Marlene Mathews-Willard  Australia

Video on YouTube Official Video @16:22

In the final, Betty Cuthbert clearly beat her teammate Marlene Mathews-Willard out of the blocks, with Heather Armitage and Isabelle Daniels out quickly in close contention. Christa Stubnick had a burst of acceleration to quickly draw even with Daniels as Armitage was unable to hold her speed. Cuthbert expanded upon her slight advantage to pull away to a clear win. Stubnick was able to separate slightly from Daniels with Mathews-Willard steadily gaining from the back. Mathews-Willard caught Daniels and almost nipped Stubnick, clearly the fastest moving athlete at the finish.

Competition format

The women's 100 metres competition started with six heats, where the fastest two from each heat qualified to one of the two semifinals groups. The three fastest runners from each semifinals group advanced to the final.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Shirley Strickland (AUS)	11.3	Warsaw, Poland	August 4, 1955
Olympic record	Helen Stephens (USA)	11.5	Berlin, Germany	August 4, 1936

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	11.8	Q
2	Vira Kalashnykova-Krepkina	Soviet Union	11.9	Q
3	Mae Faggs	United States	12.2
4	Micheline Fluchot	France	12.4
5	Janet Jesudason	Singapore	13.2
—	Mary Rao	India	DNF

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	11.5	Q, OR
2	Galina Rezchikova	Soviet Union	11.8	Q
3	Lucinda Williams	United States	12.0
4	Maria Kusion-Bibro	Poland	12.2
5	Maureen Rever	Canada	12.2
6	Franca Peggion	Italy	12.4
7	Mary Klass	Singapore	12.6

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	11.4	Q, OR
2	Isabelle Daniels	United States	11.6	Q
3	Anne Pashley	Great Britain	11.7
4	Barbara Janiszewska	Poland	12.2
5	Maria Musso	Italy	12.2
6	Diane Matheson	Canada	12.4

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	11.5	Q
2	Gisela Birkemeyer	United Team of Germany	11.7	Q
3	Shirley Strickland	Australia	11.7
4	Eleanor Haslam	Canada	11.8
5	Halina Górecka	Poland	12.2
6	Maeve Kyle	Ireland	12.3

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Galina Popova	Soviet Union	11.6	Q
2	Catherine Capdevielle	France	11.7	Q
3	Inge Fuhrmann	United Team of Germany	12.2
4	Annie Choong	Malaya	12.5

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Christa Stubnick	United Team of Germany	11.7	Q
2	June Foulds	Great Britain	11.9	Q
3	Margaret Stuart	New Zealand	12.3
4	Elaine Winter	South Africa	12.5
5	Claudette Masdammer	Guyana	12.7

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Christa Stubnick	United Team of Germany	11.9	Q
2	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	12.0	Q
3	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	12.1	Q
4	June Foulds	Great Britain	12.1
5	Galina Popova	Soviet Union	12.2
6	Catherine Capdevielle	France	12.4

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	11.6	Q
2	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	11.6	Q
3	Isabelle Daniels	United States	11.7	Q
4	Gisela Birkemeyer	United Team of Germany	11.9
5	Vira Kalashnykova-Krepkina	Soviet Union	11.9
6	Galina Reshchikova	Soviet Union	12.1

Final

Left-right: Isabelle Daniels, Giuseppina Leone, Betty Cuthbert, Marlene Mathews, Heather Armitage, Christa Stubnick

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	11.5
	Christa Stubnick	United Team of Germany	11.7
	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	11.7
4	Isabelle Daniels	United States	11.8
5	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	11.9
6	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	12.0