Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre freestyle
The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 20 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 20 July | Final A | Le Jingyi | | 54.50 | |
Results
Heats
Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Le Jingyi | | 54.90 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | 3 | Angel Martino | | 55.44 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | Sandra Völker | | 55.55 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 5 | Franziska van Almsick | | 55.80 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | Karin Brienesse | | 55.81 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 5 | Amy Van Dyken | | 55.94 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 6 | Mette Jacobsen | | 56.06 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 2 | Sarah Ryan | | 56.07 | Q |
| 9 | 6 | 4 | Shan Ying | | 56.10 | q |
| 10 | 6 | 1 | Leah Martindale | | 56.13 | q, NR |
| 11 | 6 | 2 | Martina Moravcová | | 56.20 | q |
| 12 | 4 | 6 | Luminița Dobrescu | | 56.27 | q |
| 13 | 5 | 2 | Natalya Meshcheryakova | | 56.33 | q |
| 14 | 5 | 3 | Karen Pickering | | 56.40 | q |
| 15 | 6 | 7 | Linda Olofsson | | 56.56 | q |
| 16 | 4 | 3 | Sue Rolph | | 56.62 | q |
| 17 | 4 | 7 | Shannon Shakespeare | | 56.63 | |
| 18 | 6 | 8 | Vibeke Johansen | | 56.88 | |
| 19 | 5 | 1 | Rania Elwani | | 56.89 | NR |
| 20 | 4 | 8 | Solenne Figuès | | 56.90 | |
| 21 | 5 | 7 | Claudia Franco | | 57.00 | |
| 22 | 3 | 6 | Minna Salmela | | 57.15 | |
| 23 | 3 | 2 | Gabrielle Rose | | 57.16 | |
| 24 | 3 | 4 | Cecilia Vianini | | 57.17 | |
| 25 | 4 | 2 | Sumika Minamoto | | 57.25 | |
| 26 | 2 | 1 | Siobhan Cropper | | 57.30 | NR |
| 27 | 2 | 2 | Judith Draxler | | 57.34 | NR |
| 28 | 3 | 7 | Metka Sparavec | | 57.66 | |
| 29 | 5 | 8 | Alison Fitch | | 57.71 | |
| 30 | 1 | 3 | Anna Nyíri | | 57.82 | |
| 31 | 2 | 4 | Antonia Machaira | | 57.92 | |
| 32 | 3 | 1 | Monica Dahl | | 57.95 | |
| 33 | 3 | 3 | Helene Muller | | 57.98 | |
| 34 | 2 | 3 | Kristýna Kyněrová | | 58.03 | |
| 35 | 3 | 8 | Lee Bo-eun | | 58.27 | |
| 36 | 2 | 7 | Sandrine Paquier | | 58.38 | |
| 37 | 4 | 1 | Dita Želvienė | | 58.57 | |
| 38 | 1 | 5 | Teresa Moodie | | 58.59 | |
| 39 | 2 | 8 | Sviatlana Zhidko | | 58.64 | |
| 40 | 2 | 5 | Tsai Shu-min | | 58.65 | |
| 41 | 3 | 5 | Joscelin Yeo | | 58.87 | |
| 42 | 2 | 6 | Yevgeniya Yermakova | | 59.12 | |
| 43 | 1 | 4 | Valeria Álvarez | | 59.26 | |
| 44 | 1 | 7 | Viktoriya Polyayeva | | 59.40 | |
| 45 | 1 | 2 | Gabrijela Ujčić | | 59.92 | |
| 46 | 1 | 6 | Duška Radan | | 1:00.34 | |
| 47 | 1 | 1 | Caroline Pickering | | 1:00.51 | |
| 48 | 1 | 8 | Gail Rizzo | | 1:02.19 | |
Finals
Final B
Final A
