Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay
The women's 4×100 metre freestyle relay event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place on 4 and 6 December. This swimming event used freestyle as a relay, with swimmers typically using the front crawl. 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
Results
Heats
;Heat One| Place | Swimmers | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4:26.8 | ||
| 2 | 4:27.3 | ||
| 3 | 4:27.5 | ||
| 4 | 4:34.6 | ||
| 5 | 4:36.6 |
;Heat Two
| Place | Swimmers | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4:25.0 | ||
| 2 | 4:28.1 | ||
| 3 | 4:29.3 | ||
| 4 | 4:30.1 | ||
| 5 | 4:35.8 |
Final
| Place | Nation | Swimmers | Time | Notes |
| Dawn Fraser Faith Leech Sandra Morgan Lorraine Crapp | 4:17.1 | |||
| Sylvia Ruuska Shelley Mann Nancy Simons Joan Rosazza | 4:19.2 | |||
| Natalie Myburgh Susan Roberts Moira Abernethy Jeanette Myburgh | 4:25.7 | |||
| 4 | Ingrid Künzel Hertha Haase Kati Jansen Birgit Klomp | 4:26.1 | ||
| 5 | Helen Stewart Gladys Priestley Sara Barber Virginia Grant | 4:28.3 | ||
| 6 | Anita Hellström Birgitta Wängberg Karin Larsson Kate Jobson | 4:30.0 | ||
| 7 | Mária Littomeritzky Katalin Szőke Judit Temes Valéria Gyenge | 4:31.1 | ||
| 8 | Frances Hogben Judy Grinham Margaret Girvan Fearne Ewart | 4:35.8 |