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

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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

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]

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
1st place, gold medalist(s) Betty Cuthbert  Australia 11.5
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Christa Stubnick  United Team of Germany 11.7
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 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.