# 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. 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.

## Records

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
### Heats

| 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

| 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

| 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