1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 4 × 100 m (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	4 x 100 meter relay
gender	Women
Attendees	36 athletes from 9 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	1st December 1956
Medalists  OUT  GBR  United States

The women's 4 x 100 meter relay at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was played on December 1, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 36 athletes took part in nine seasons.

The Australian relay with Shirley Strickland de la Hunty , Norma Croker , Fleur Mellor and Betty Cuthbert secured the Olympic victory before the British relay ( Anne Pashley , Jean Scrivens , June Foulds , Heather Armitage ). The US season won the bronze medal in the cast of Mae Faggs , Margaret Matthews , Wilma Rudolph and Isabelle Daniels .

Swiss and Austrian relays did not take part. The German relay qualified for the finals and finished sixth and last.

Existing records

World record	45.1 s	Germany ( Erika Fisch , Christa Stubnick , Gisela Birkemeyer , Bärbel Mayer )	Dresden , GDR	September 30, 1956
Olympic record	45.9 s	USA ( Mae Faggs , Catherine Hardy , Barbara Jones , Janet Moreau )	Helsinki Final , Finland	July 27, 1952

Conducting the competition

The relays competed on December 1 for two preliminary runs. The three best seasons qualified for the final, which took place on the same day.

Note: The qualified relays are highlighted in light blue.

Time schedule

December 1, 3:30 p.m .: Preliminary runs
December 1, 4:50 p.m .: Final

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

Prelims

Date: December 1, 1956, from 3:30 p.m.

Forward 1

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Australia	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty Norma Croker Fleur Mellor Betty Cuthbert	44.9 s	45.00 s	WR
2	Germany	Maria Sander Christa Stubnick Gisela Birkemeyer Bärbel Mayer	44.9 s	45.07 s	WR
3	Italy	Letizia Bertoni Milena Greppi Giuseppina Leone Maria Musso	45.9 s	45.91 s
4th	France	Catherine Capdevielle Micheline Fluchot Simone Henry Angèle Picado	46.3 s	46.39 s
5	Canada	Eleanor Haslam Dorothy Kozak Diane Matheson Maureen Rever	46.6 s	46.79 s

Forward 2

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Great Britain	Anne Pashley Jean Scrivens June Foulds Heather Armitage	45.3 s	45.38 s
2	United States	Mae Faggs Margaret Matthews Wilma Rudolph Isabelle Daniels	45.4 s	45.52 s
3	Soviet Union	Vera Krepkina Galina Restschikowa Marija Itkina Irina Turowa	46.1 s	46.20 s
4th	Poland	Maria Kusion-Bibro Barbara Sobotta Genowefa Minicka Halina Herrmann	46.5 s	46.58 s

final

space	Season	occupation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Australia	Shirley Strickland de la Hunty Norma Croker Fleur Mellor Betty Cuthbert	44.5 s	44.65 s	WR
2	Great Britain	Anne Pashley Jean Scrivens June Foulds Heather Armitage	44.7 s	44.70 s
3	United States	Mae Faggs Margaret Matthews Wilma Rudolph Isabelle Daniels	44.9 s	45.04 s
4th	Soviet Union	Vera Krepkina Galina Restschikowa Marija Itkina Irina Turowa	45.6 s	45.81 s
5	Italy	Letizia Bertoni Milena Greppi Giuseppina Leone Maria Musso	45.7 s	45.90 s
6th	Germany	Maria Sander Christa Stubnick Gisela Birkemeyer Bärbel Mayer	47.2 s	47.29 s

Date: December 1, 1956, 4:50 p.m.

The Australians were big favorites. With Betty Cuthbert you had called the winner over 100 meters and 200 meters as the final runner. In addition, u. a. Shirley Strickland de la Hunty, winner of the 80 meter hurdles , and Norma Croker, bronze medalist over 100 meters, will be there. This team already set a world record in the preliminary round . In the same run-up, the German season could keep up surprisingly well and was only narrowly beaten at the same time, also with a world record. That's why they were expected to do a lot for the final.
But the final ran differently than many expected. The British were very strong and were even slightly ahead until their third substitution - June Fouls on Heather Armitage. The German relay was due to a miserable change from the medal race. On the home stretch, Betty Cuthbert was no longer able to hold onto Heather Armitage's final runner, which meant gold for Australia and silver for Great Britain, only two tenths of a second behind. Another two tenths back there was bronze for the USA. Australia improved the world record again, and the British relay team beat the world record from the preliminary round by 2/10 seconds.

The Australian relay won the first Olympic victory for their country 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. 162f

Web links

• SportsReference 4 × 100 m , accessed October 10, 2017
• Official report p. 352f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
• Relay 100m Final Melbourne 1956 Olympics Color Footage , published June 5, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed October 10, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 650 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 352, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 10, 2017
4. ↑ Official Report, p. 281