Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre freestyle
The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place from November 29 to December 1. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated. 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.Records
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 |
| November 29 | Heat 1 | Lorraine Crapp | | 1:03.4 | OR | |
| November 29 | Heat 5 | Dawn Fraser | | 1:02.4 | OR | |
| December 1 | Final | Dawn Fraser | | 1:02.0 | OR | WR |
Results
Heats
Semifinals
Final
Key: WR = World record
