1956 Summer Olympics / Swimming - 100m Freestyle (Women)

sport	swim
competition	100 meters freestyle
gender	Women
place	Swimming and Diving Stadium , Melbourne
Attendees	35 swimmers from 16 nations
Competition phase	November 29 to December 1, 1956
Medals	Dawn Fraser ( AUS ) Lorraine Crapp (AUS) Faith Leech (AUS)

The competition over 100m freestyle women at the 1956 Summer Olympics in the Australian city of Melbourne was from November 30 to December 1 in Swimming and Diving Stadium discharged.

Participating Nations

A total of 35 swimmers from 16 nations took part in the competition.

Australia (3)  Belgium (1)  Germany (3)  France (3)

Israel (1)  Japan (3)  Canada (3)  Kenya (1)

Mexico (1)  New Zealand (2)  Philippines (1)  South African Union (3)

Sweden (2)  Hungary (3)  United States (3)  United Kingdom (2)

Records

Previous records

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

New records

The following records were set during the competition:

date	run	Surname	nation	time	OR	WR
Nov 29	Forward 1	Lorraine Crapp	Australia	1: 03.4 min	OR
Nov 29	Forward 5	Dawn Fraser	Australia	1: 02.4 min	OR
Dec 1	final	Dawn Fraser	Australia	1: 02.0 min	OR	WR

Prelims

There were five preliminary runs on November 29th. The 16 fastest swimmers of all heats qualified for the two semi-finals.

Forward 1

The Australian Lorraine Crapp set a new Olympic record: She improved the previous best time (1: 05.5 min) of the Hungarian Judit Temes by 2.1 s to 1: 03.4 min.

rank	Surname	nation	time
1	Lorraine Crapp	Australia	1: 03.4 min
2	Joan Rosazza	United States	1: 05.5 min
3	Helen Stewart	Canada	1: 07.1 min
4th	Jeanette Myburgh	South African Union	1: 07.1 min
5	Anita Hellström	Sweden	1: 08.5 min
6th	Irène Sweyd	Belgium	1: 08.9 min
7th	Winifred Griffin	New Zealand	1: 10.4 min
8th	Margaret Northrop	Kenya	1: 12.8 min

Forward 2

rank	Surname	nation	time
1	Nancy Simons	United States	1: 06.5 min
2	Katalin Szőke	Hungary	1: 08.0 min
3	Kati Jansen	Germany	1: 08.3 min
4th	Odile Vouaux	France	1: 08.6 min
5	Fearne Ewart	United Kingdom	1: 08.8 min
6th	Setsuko Shimada	Japan	1: 11.8 min

Forward 3

Valeria Gyenge (2)

rank	Surname	nation	time
1	Marrion Roe	New Zealand	1: 05.9 min
2	Valéria Gyenge	Hungary	1: 06.6 min
3	Birgit Klomp	Germany	1: 07.7 min
4th	Héda Frost	France	1: 08.8 min
5	Blanca Barrón	Mexico	1: 09.5 min
6th	Yoshiko Sato	Japan	1: 10.3 min
7th	Gertrude Lozada	Philippines	1: 13.7 min

Forward 4

Faith Leech (1)

rank	Surname	nation	time
1	Faith Leech	Australia	1: 04.9 min
2	Zsuzsa Ördög	Hungary	1: 06.5 min
3	Kate Jobson	Sweden	1: 07.3 min
4th	Susan Roberts	South African Union	1: 07.9 min
5	Christel Steffin	Germany	1: 08.1 min
6th	Hitomi Jinno	Japan	1: 08.8 min
7th	Gladys Priestley	Canada	1: 09.2 min

Forward 5

The Australian Dawn Fraser improved to by her teammate Lorraine Crapp established in the first lead Olympic record by one second at 1: 02.4 min.

rank	Surname	nation	time
1	Dawn Fraser	Australia	1: 02.4 min
2	Natalie Myburgh	South African Union	1: 05.1 min
3	Virginia Grant	Canada	1: 05.1 min
4th	Shelley man	United States	1: 05.4 min
5	Frances Hogben	United Kingdom	1: 08.5 min
6th	Ginette Jany-Sendral	France	1: 09.9 min
7th	Shoshana Rivner	Israel	1: 10.3 min

Semifinals

Two semi-finals took place on November 30th. The eight fastest swimmers qualified for the final.

Semi-final 1

rank	Surname	nation	time
1	Dawn Fraser	Australia	1: 03.0 min
2	Faith Leech	Australia	1: 05.2 min
3	Joan Rosazza	United States	1: 05.9 min
4th	Natalie Myburgh	South African Union	1: 06.0 min
5	Valéria Gyenge	Hungary	1: 06.4 min
6th	Zsuzsa Ördögh	Hungary	1: 06.9 min
7th	Helen Stewart	Canada	1: 06.9 min
8th	Birgit Klomp	Germany	1: 07.9 min

Semi-final 2

rank	Surname	nation	time
1	Lorraine Crapp	Australia	1: 03.1 min
2	Marrion Roe	New Zealand	1: 05.3 min
3	Virginia Grant	Canada	1: 05.5 min
4th	Shelley man	United States	1: 05.5 min
5	Nancy Simons	United States	1: 06.1 min
6th	Kate Jobson	Sweden	1: 06.1 min
7th	Susan Roberts	South African Union	1: 06.6 min
8th	Jeanette Myburgh	South African Union	1: 06.7 min

final

The final took place on December 1st. With a winning time of 1: 02.0 minutes, the Australian Dawn Fraser set a new world record and an Olympic record.

rank	Surname	nation	time
	Dawn Fraser	Australia	1: 02.0 min
	Lorraine Crapp	Australia	1: 02.4 min
	Faith Leech	Australia	1: 05.1 min
4th	Joan Rosazza	United States	1: 05.2 min
5	Virginia Grant	Canada	1: 05.4 min
6th	Shelley man	United States	1: 05.6 min
7th	Marrion Roe	New Zealand	1: 05.6 min
8th	Natalie Myburgh	South African Union	1: 05.8 min

Web links

• 1956 Summer Olympics / Swimming - 100 m freestyle in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )