The women's 4×100 metre freestyle relay event at the 1956 Olympic Games

1956 Summer Olympics

The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...

 took place on December 4 and 6. This swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 event used freestyle

Freestyle swimming

Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...

 as a relay, with swimmers typically using the front crawl

Front crawl

The front crawl, forward crawl, or freestyle is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is nearly universally used during a freestyle swimming competition, hence the synonymously used term "freestyle". It is one of two...

. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each of the four swimmers completed two lengths of the pool. The first swimmer had to touch the wall before the second could leave the starting block; timing of the starts was thus important.

Medalists

Dawn Fraser Dawn Fraser Dawn Fraser AO, MBE is an Australian champion swimmer. She is one of only two swimmers to win the same Olympic event three times – in her case the 100 meters freestyle.... Faith Leech Faith Leech Faith Yvonne Leech is a former Australian freestyle swimmer who won gold in the 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay and bronze in the 100 m freestyle at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.A tall and lean swimmer known for her elegant technique, Leech started swimming as a... Sandra Morgan Sandra Morgan Sandra Anne Morgan is a former Australian freestyle swimmer, who won gold in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. At the age of 14 years and 6 months, she became the youngest Australian to win an Olympic gold medal, a record that still stands... Lorraine Crapp Lorraine Crapp Lorraine Crapp is a former Olympic swimming champion representing Australia. She competed in two Olympic Games — the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 1960 Summer Olympics. She won two Olympic gold medals in 1956...

Sylvia Ruuska Sylvia Ruuska Sylvia Elina Ruuska is a retired medley and freestyle swimmer from the United States, who won two Olympic medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia when she was aged fourteen. She captured silver with the women's relay team in the 4x100 m freestyle and bronze in the individual 400... Shelley Mann Shelley Mann Shelley Isabel Mann is a former butterfly swimmer from the United States. At the 1956 Summer Olympics she won the gold medal in the 100 m butterfly competition and was a member of the relay team that won the silver medal for the 100 m freestyle.Mann caught polio aged six and took up swimming to... Nancy Simons Nancy Simons Nancy Joan Simons-Peterson is a former American swimmer. She represented the United States as an eighteen-year-old at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, where she won a silver medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay with Sylvia Ruuska, Shelley Mann, and Joan Alderson-Rosazza... Joan Alderson-Rosazza Joan Alderson-Rosazza Joan Ann Alderson-Rosazza was an American swimmer. Alderson-Rosazza won a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and a silver medal in the same event four years later in Melbourne....

Natalie Myburgh Susan Roberts Moira Abernethy Jeanette Myburgh

Heats

Heat 1
Heat 2