The women's 400 metre freestyle 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 between December 5 and 7. 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 swimming

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...

, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use 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...

 or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	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...		4:54.6	OR
	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....		5:02.5
	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...		5:07.1
4	Marley Shriver		5:12.9
5	Ripszima Székely		5:14.2
6	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...		5:14.3
7	Héda Frost		5:15.4
8	Valéria Gyenge Valéria Gyenge Valéria Gyenge is a Hungarian Olympic swimming champion who competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, where she received a gold medal in 400 m freestyle....		5:21.0

Key: OR = Olympic record