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

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.

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 →

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
  Dawn Fraser   Australia 1:02.0 WR
  Lorraine Crapp   Australia 1:02.4
  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.