1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 200 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	200 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	27 athletes from 12 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 29, 1956 (preliminary / semi-finals) November 30, 1956 (final)
Medalists Betty Cuthbert ( AUS )   Christa Stubnick ( GER )   Marlene Mathews ( AUS )

The women's 200-meter run at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was held on November 29 and 30, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 27 athletes took part.

The placements in the medal ranks were exactly the same as in the 100-meter run four days earlier. The Australian Betty Cuthbert became Olympic champion . The German Christa Stubnick prevented an Australian double victory with her silver medal. The Australian Marlene Mathews won bronze .

In addition to Christa Stubnick, Gisela Birkemeyer and Inge Fuhrmann also competed for Germany. While Fuhrmann was eliminated in their preliminary run, Birkemeyer reached the final like Stubnick and was sixth there. Swiss and Austrian athletes did not take part.

Existing records

World record	23.2 s	Betty Cuthbert ( Australia )	Sydney , Australia	September 16, 1956
Olympic record	23.4 s	Marjorie Jackson ( Australia )	Helsinki semi-finals , Finland	July 26, 1952

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in six heats on November 29th. The two best runners in each case qualified for the semi-finals on the same day. From the semi-finals, the three first placed reached the final on November 30th.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

November 29th, 3:20 p.m .: preliminary runs

November 29, 5:50 p.m .: semi-finals

November 30th, 5.15pm: Final

Note: All times are local Melbourne time (UTC + 10)

Prelims

Betty Cuthbert (AUS) won the gold medal in the final.

Date: November 29, 1956, from 3:20 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	23.5 s	23.60 s
2	Mae Faggs	United States	24.9 s	24.99 s
3	Diane Matheson	Canada	25.7 s	25.86 s
4th	Mary Class	Singapore	26.3 s	26.37 s
5	Maeve Kyle	Ireland	26.4 s	26.57 s

Forward 2

Wilma Rudolph (USA) dropped out in the preliminary run

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Marija Itkina	Soviet Union	24.1 s	24.31 s
2	Gisela Birkemeyer	Germany	24.4 s	24.53 s
3	Wilma Rudolph	United States	24.6 s	24.83 s
4th	Genowefa Minicka	Poland	25.0 s	25.19 s

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Christa Stubnick	Germany	24.5 s	24.58 s
2	Norma Croker	Australia	24.9 s	25.10 s
3	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	25.6 s	25.77 s
4th	Meredith Ellis	United States	26.3 s	26.46 s

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	June Foulds	Great Britain	23.8 s	24.00 s
2	Vera Yugova	Soviet Union	24.9 s	25.13 s
3	Letizia Bertoni	Italy	25.2 s	25.33 s
4th	Claudette Masdammer	British Guiana	25.4 s	25.73 s

Forward 5

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	24.8 s	24.87 s
2	Barbara Sobotta	Poland	24.8 s	24.99 s
3	Simone Henry	France	25.0 s	25.13 s
4th	Eleanor Haslam	Canada	25.3 s	25.27 s
5	Olga Koscheleva	Soviet Union	25.3 s	25.48 s

Forward 6

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Marlene Mathews	Australia	24.0 s	24.16 s
2	Jean Scrivens	Great Britain	24.3 s	24.27 s
3	Inge Fuhrmann	Germany	24.7 s	25.05 s
4th	Micheline Fluchot	France	24.9 s	25.12 s
5	Maureen Rever	Canada	26.1 s	26.17 s

Semifinals

Date: November 29, 1956, from 5:50 p.m.

Run 1

The Polish Barbara Sobotta was eliminated in the semi-finals.

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	23.6 s	23.75 s
2	Christa Stubnick	Germany	23.9 s	24.17 s
3	Norma Croker	Australia	24.3 s	24.41 s
4th	Marija Itkina	Soviet Union	24.3 s	24.42 s
5	Jean Scrivens	Great Britain	24.4 s	24.66 s
6th	Barbara Sobotta	Poland	25.2 s	25.12 s

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	June Foulds	Great Britain	24.2 s	24.36 s
2	Marlene Mathews	Australia	24.3 s	24.42 s
3	Gisela Birkemeyer	Germany	24.3 s	24.48 s
4th	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	24.7 s	24.78 s
5	Mae Faggs	United States	24.8 s	25.06 s
6th	Vera Yugova	Soviet Union	24.9 s	25.12 s

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	23.4 s	23.55 s	ORe
2	Christa Stubnick	Germany	23.7 s	23.89 s
3	Marlene Mathews	Australia	23.8 s	24.10 s
4th	Norma Croker	Australia	24.0 s	24.22 s
5	June Foulds	Great Britain	24.3 s	24.30 s
6th	Gisela Birkemeyer	Germany	24.3 s	24.68 s

Date: November 30, 1956, 5:15 p.m.

Three Australians met two Germans and one British in the final. On the home straight, the runners had to struggle with a headwind that prevented even better times. The Australian world record holder Betty Cuthbert, Olympic champion already over 100 meters , came out of the curve with a clear lead, which she defended to the finish. So she won the second of three gold medals at these Olympic Games. Otherwise, the medal distribution looked the same as over 100 meters: Christa Stubnick from Germany came second, the Australian Marlene Mathews came third.

Christa Stubnick won the first German medal in this discipline.

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 155f

Web links

• SportsReference 200 m , accessed October 10, 2017
• Official report p. 348f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
• Betty Cuthbert - 1956 Melbourne Olympics , range 0:18 min - 0:49 min, published August 8, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed October 10, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009 page 640 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
3. ^ Official report p. 348, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
4. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 349, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
5. ↑ SportsReference (Eng.)