Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metres

Women's 200 metres at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Venue	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Date	November 29–30
Competitors	27 from 12 nations
Winning time	23.4
Medalists
Betty Cuthbert   Australia   Christa Stubnick   United Team of Germany   Marlene Mathews-Willard   Australia

Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men
800 m		men
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Decathlon		men

The women's 200 metres competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia was held at the Olympic Stadium on November 29–30.

Competition format

The women's 200m 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

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Betty Cuthbert (AUS)	23.2	Sydney, Australia	September 16, 1956
Olympic record	Marjorie Jackson (AUS)	23.4	Helsinki, Finland	July 26, 1952

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	23.5 Q
2	Mae Faggs	United States	24.9 Q
3	Diane Matheson	Canada	25.7
4	Mary Klass	Singapore	26.3
5	Maeve Kyle	Ireland	26.4

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Mariya Itkina	Soviet Union	23.5 Q
2	Gisela Birkemeyer	United Team of Germany	24.4 Q
3	Wilma Rudolph	United States	24.6
4	Genowefa Minicka	Poland	25.0

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Christa Stubnick	United Team of Germany	24.5 Q
2	Norma Croker	Australia	24.9 Q
3	Giuseppina Leone	Italy	25.6
4	Meredith Ellis	United States	26.3

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	June Foulds	Great Britain	23.8 Q
2	Vera Yugova	Soviet Union	24.9 Q
3	Letizia Bertoni	Italy	25.2
4	Claudette Masdammer	British Guiana	25.4

Heat 5

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	24.8 Q
2	Barbara Janiszewska	Poland	24.8 Q
3	Simone Henry	France	25.0
4	Olga Kosheleva	Soviet Union	25.3

Heat 6

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	24.0 Q
2	Jean Scrivens	Great Britain	24.3 Q
3	Inge Fuhrmann	United Team of Germany	24.7
4	Micheline Fluchot	France	24.9
5	Maureen Rever	Canada	26.1

Semifinals

Group 1

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	23.6 Q
2	Christa Stubnick	United Team of Germany	23.9 Q
3	Norma Croker	Australia	24.3 Q
4	Maria Itkina	Soviet Union	24.3
5	Jean Scrivens	Great Britain	24.4
6	Barbara Janiszewska	Poland	25.2

Group 2

Rank	Name	Country	Result
1	June Foulds	Great Britain	24.2 Q
2	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	24.3 Q
3	Gisela Birkemeyer	United Team of Germany	24.3 Q
4	Heather Armitage	Great Britain	24.7
5	Mae Faggs	United States	24.8
6	Vera Yugova	Soviet Union	24.9

Final

Rank	Name	Country	Result
01 !	Betty Cuthbert	Australia	23.4
02 !	Christa Stubnick	United Team of Germany	23.7
03 !	Marlene Mathews-Willard	Australia	23.8
4	Norma Croker	Australia	24.0
5	June Foulds	Great Britain	24.3
6	Gisela Birkemeyer	United Team of Germany	24.3

References

• Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games: Women's 200 metres. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2016-05-02.