Swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre backstroke

The women's 100 metre backstroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics programme. It was the third appearance of the event, which was established in 1924. The competition was held on Tuesday August 9, 1932, and on Thursday August 11, 1932.

Twelve swimmers from seven nations competed.

Medalists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Eleanor Holm  United States	Bonnie Mealing  Australia	Valerie Davies  Great Britain

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1932 Summer Olympics.

World Record	1:18.2	Eleanor Holm	Jones Beach (USA)	July 16, 1932
Olympic Record	1:21.6	Marie Braun	Amsterdam (NED)	August 9, 1928

In the first semi-final Eleanor Holm set a new Olympic record with 1:18.3 minutes.

Results

Semifinals

Tuesday August 9, 1932: The fastest two in each semi-final and the fastest third-placed from across the semi-finals advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Eleanor Holm (USA)	1:18.3	QQ OR
2	Bonnie Mealing (AUS)	1:21.6	QQ
3	Phyllis Harding (GBR)	1:22.6	qq
4	Puck Oversloot (NED)	1:23.5
5	Misao Yokota (JPN)	1:25.1

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Valerie Davies (GBR)	1:22.0	QQ
2	Joan McSheehy (USA)	1:22.5	QQ
3	Ruth Kerr (CAN)	1:28.2
4	Maria Lenk (BRA)

Semifinal 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Marie Braun (NED)	1:23.8	QQ
2	Joyce Cooper (GBR)	1:25.0	QQ
3	Marjorie Linton (CAN)	1:29.1

Final

Thursday August 11, 1932: Marie Braun was not able to compete in the final. She had to stay in hospital due to blood poisoning after an infection caused by a mosquito bite.

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Eleanor Holm (USA)	1:19.4
2	Bonnie Mealing (AUS)	1:21.3
3	Valerie Davies (GBR)	1:22.5
4	Phyllis Harding (GBR)	1:22.6
5	Joan McSheehy (USA)	1:23.2
6	Joyce Cooper (GBR)	1:23.4

External links

• Olympic Report
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 19 October 2008.