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

The women's 100 metres competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia was held at the Olympic Stadium on November 29–30.[1]

Women's 100 metres
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
VenueMelbourne Cricket Ground
DateNovember 24th (heats & semifinals)
November 26th (final)
Competitors34 from 18 nations
Winning time11.5
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Betty Cuthbert  Australia
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Christa Stubnick  United Team of Germany
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Marlene Mathews-Willard  Australia
← 1952
1960 →
Video on YouTube Official Video @16:22

In the final, Betty Cuthbert clearly beat her teammate Marlene Mathews-Willard out of the blocks, with Heather Armitage and Isabelle Daniels out quickly in close contention. Christa Stubnick had a burst of acceleration to quickly draw even with Daniels as Armitage was unable to hold her speed. Cuthbert expanded upon her slight advantage to pull away to a clear win. Stubnick was able to separate slightly from Daniels with Mathews-Willard steadily gaining from the back. Mathews-Willard caught Daniels and almost nipped Stubnick, clearly the fastest moving athlete at the finish.

Competition format

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The women's 100 metres 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

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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

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Heats

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Heat 1

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
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
Mary Rao   India DNF

Heat 2

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

Heat 3

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
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   Canada 12.4

Heat 4

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Heather Armitage   Great Britain 11.5 Q
2 Gisela Birkemeyer   United Team of Germany 11.7 Q
3 Shirley Strickland   Australia 11.7
4 Eleanor Haslam   Canada 11.8
5 Halina Górecka   Poland 12.2
6 Maeve Kyle   Ireland 12.3

Heat 5

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Galina Popova   Soviet Union 11.6 Q
2 Catherine Capdevielle   France 11.7 Q
3 Inge Fuhrmann   United Team of Germany 12.2
4 Annie Choong   Malaya 12.5

Heat 6

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Christa Stubnick   United Team of Germany 11.7 Q
2 June Foulds   Great Britain 11.9 Q
3 Margaret Stuart   New Zealand 12.3
4 Elaine Winter   South Africa 12.5
5 Claudette Masdammer   Guyana 12.7

Semifinals

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Semifinal 1

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
1 Christa Stubnick   United Team of Germany 11.9 Q
2 Betty Cuthbert   Australia 12.0 Q
3 Giuseppina Leone   Italy 12.1 Q
4 June Foulds   Great Britain 12.1
5 Galina Popova   Soviet Union 12.2
6 Catherine Capdevielle   France 12.4

Semifinal 2

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
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   United Team of Germany 11.9
5 Vira Kalashnykova-Krepkina   Soviet Union 11.9
6 Galina Reshchikova   Soviet Union 12.1

Final

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Left-right: Isabelle Daniels, Giuseppina Leone, Betty Cuthbert, Marlene Mathews, Heather Armitage, Christa Stubnick
Rank Athlete Country Time
  Betty Cuthbert   Australia 11.5
  Christa Stubnick   United Team of 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

References

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  1. ^ "Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Women's 100 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 June 2017.