Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metres

Women's 100 metres at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Venue	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Date	November 24th (heats & semifinals) November 26th (final)
Competitors	37 from 18 nations
Winning time	11.5
Medalists
Betty Cuthbert  Australia Christa Stubnick  Germany Marlene Mathews-Willard  Australia

Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Decathlon		men

The women's 100 metres competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia was held at the Olympic Stadium on November 29–30.

Competition format

The women's 100m competition started with six heats, where the fastest two from each heat qualified to one of the two semifinals groups. The three fastest runners from each semifinals group advanced to the final.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Shirley Strickland (AUS)	11.3	Warsaw, Poland	August 4, 1955
Olympic record	Helen Stephens (USA)	11.5	Berlin, Germany	August 4, 1936

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	11.8 Q
2	Vira Kalashnykova-Krepkina	Soviet Union	11.9 Q
3	Mae Faggs	United States	12.2
4	Micheline Fluchot	France	12.4
5	Janet Jesudason	Singapore	13.2
6	Mary Rao	India	DNF

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	11.5 Q OR
2	Galina Reshchikova	Soviet Union	11.8 Q
3	Lucinda Williams	United States	12.0
4	Maria Kusion-Bibro	Poland	12.2
5	Maureen Rever	23x15px Canada	12.2
6	Franca Peggion	Italy	12.4
7	Mary Klass	Singapore	12.6

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	11.4 Q OR
2	Isabelle Daniels	United States	11.6 Q
3	Anne Pashley	Great Britain	11.7
4	Barbara Janiszewska	Poland	12.2
5	Maria Musso	Italy	12.2
6	Diane Matheson	23x15px Canada	12.4

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	11.5 Q
2	Gisela Birkemeyer	Germany	11.7 Q
3	Shirley Strickland	Australia	11.7
4	Eleanor Haslam	23x15px Canada	11.8
5	Halina Górecka	Poland	12.2
6	Maeve Kyle	Ireland	12.3

Heat 5

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Galina Popova	Soviet Union	11.6 Q
2	Catherine Capdevielle	France	11.7 Q
3	Inge Fuhrmann	Germany	12.2
4	Annie Choong	Malaysia	12.5

Heat 6

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Christa Stubnick	Germany	11.7 Q
2	June Foulds	Great Britain	11.9 Q
3	Margaret Stuart	New Zealand	12.3
4	Elaine Winter	23x15px South Africa	12.5
5	Claudette Masdammer	Guyana	12.7

Semifinals

Group 1

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Christa Stubnick	Germany	11.9 Q
2	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	12.0 Q
3	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	12.1 Q
4	June Foulds	Australia	12.1
5	Galina Popova	Soviet Union	12.2
6	Catherine Capdevielle	France	12.4

Group 2

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	11.6 Q
2	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	11.6 Q
3	Isabelle Daniels	United States	11.7 Q
4	Gisela Birkemeyer	Germany	11.9
5	Vira Kalashnykova-Krepkina	Soviet Union	11.9
6	Galina Reshchikova	Soviet Union	12.1

Final

File:Women 100m final 1956 Olympics.jpg

Left-right: Isabelle Daniels, Giuseppina Leone, Betty Cuthbert, Marlene Mathews, Heather Armitage, Christa Stubnick

Rank	Name	Country	Result
	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	11.5
	Christa Stubnick	Germany	11.7
	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	11.7
4	Isabelle Daniels	United States	11.8
5	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	11.9
6	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	12.0