| Event: | Women's 100 metre freestyle |
| Games: | 1956 Summer |
| Venue: | Swimming and Diving Stadium |
| Date: | 29 November (heats) 30 November (semifinals) 1 December (final) |
| Competitors: | 35 |
| Nations: | 16 |
| Win Value: | 1:02.0 (WR) |
| Gold: | Dawn Fraser |
| Goldnoc: | AUS |
| Silver: | Lorraine Crapp |
| Silvernoc: | AUS |
| Bronze: | Faith Leech |
| Bronzenoc: | AUS |
| Prev: | 1952 |
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.
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | OR | WR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 November | Heat 1 | 1:03.4 | OR | ||||
| 29 November | Heat 5 | 1:02.4 | OR | ||||
| 1 December | Final | 1:02.0 | OR | WR |
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 1:02.4 | Q, OR | |||
| 2 | 1 | 1:03.4 | Q, OR | |||
| 3 | 4 | 1:04.9 | Q | |||
| 4 | 5 | 1:05.1 | Q | |||
| 5 | 5 | 1:05.1 | Q | |||
| 6 | 5 | 1:05.4 | Q | |||
| 7 | 1 | 1:05.5 | Q | |||
| 8 | 3 | 1:05.9 | Q | |||
| 9 | 4 | 1:06.5 | Q | |||
| 9 | 2 | 1:06.5 | Q | |||
| 11 | 3 | 1:06.6 | Q | |||
| 12 | 1 | 1:07.1 | Q | |||
| 13 | 1 | 1:07.1 | Q | |||
| 14 | 4 | 1:07.3 | Q | |||
| 15 | 3 | 1:07.7 | Q | |||
| 16 | 4 | 1:07.9 | Q | |||
| 17 | 2 | 1:08.0 | ||||
| 18 | 4 | 1:08.1 | ||||
| 19 | 2 | 1:08.3 | ||||
| 20 | 1 | 1:08.5 | ||||
| 20 | 5 | 1:08.5 | ||||
| 22 | 2 | 1:08.6 | ||||
| 23 | 2 | 1:08.8 | ||||
| 23 | 3 | 1:08.8 | ||||
| 23 | 4 | 1:08.8 | ||||
| 26 | 1 | 1:08.9 | ||||
| 27 | 4 | 1:09.2 | ||||
| 28 | 3 | 1:09.5 | ||||
| 29 | 5 | 1:09.9 | ||||
| 30 | 3 | 1:10.3 | ||||
| 30 | 5 | 1:10.3 | ||||
| 32 | 1 | 1:10.4 | ||||
| 33 | 2 | 1:11.8 | ||||
| 34 | 1 | 1:12.8 | ||||
| 35 | 3 | 1:13.7 |
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1:03.0 | Q | |||
| 2 | 2 | 1:03.1 | Q | |||
| 3 | 1 | 1:05.2 | Q | |||
| 4 | 2 | 1:05.3 | Q | |||
| 5 | 2 | 1:05.5 | Q | |||
| 6 | 2 | 1:05.5 | Q | |||
| 7 | 1 | 1:05.9 | Q | |||
| 8 | 1 | 1:06.0 | Q | |||
| 9 | 2 | 1:06.1 | ||||
| 10 | 2 | 1:06.1 | ||||
| 11 | 1 | 1:06.4 | ||||
| 12 | 2 | 1:06.6 | ||||
| 13 | 2 | 1:06.7 | ||||
| 14 | 1 | 1:06.9 | ||||
| 15 | 1 | 1:06..9 | ||||
| 16 | 1 | 1:07.9 |
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:02.0 | WR | ||||
| 1:02.4 | |||||
| 1:05.1 | |||||
| 4 | 1:05.2 | ||||
| 5 | 1:05.4 | ||||
| 6 | 1:05.6 | ||||
| 7 | 1:05.6 | ||||
| 8 | 1:05.8 |
Key: WR = World record