The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships took place between 28 July – 29 July. The heats and semifinals were held on 28 July. The final was held on 29 July.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

	Name	Nationality	Time	Location	Date
World record	Jodie Henry Jodie Henry Jodie Clare Henry OAM is an Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medalist and former world-record holder.-Swimming career:Jodie Henry began swimming competitively at the relatively late age of 14....	Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	53.52	Athens Athens Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...	18 August 2004
Championship record	Le Jingyi	China China Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...	54.01	Rome Rome Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...	5 September 1994

No new world or competition records were set during this competition.

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Jodie Henry Jodie Henry Jodie Clare Henry OAM is an Australian swimmer, Olympic gold medalist and former world-record holder.-Swimming career:Jodie Henry began swimming competitively at the relatively late age of 14....		54.18
	Malia Metella Malia Metella Malia Metella is a French Olympic freestyle swimmer from French Guiana. She swam for France at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, winning a silver medal in 2004 in the women's 50 free....		54.74
	Natalie Coughlin Natalie Coughlin Natalie Anne Coughlin is an American swimmer and eleven-time Olympic medallist.At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Coughlin became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympics and the first woman ever to win a 100 m backstroke gold in two consecutive...		54.74
4	Amanda Weir Amanda Weir Amanda Weir is an American swimmer.At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Weir swam the third leg in the US team for the Women's 4×100 m freestyle relay. Leading after her leg of the relay, the US team finished second to the Australians, setting an American Record with their finishing time...		54.77
5	Marleen Veldhuis Marleen Veldhuis Magdalena Johanna Maria Veldhuis is a professional swimmer from the Netherlands. She is world record holder in 4 events . Veldhuis has won 6 world championships gold medals and 20 European championships gold medals...		54.90
6	Alice Mills Alice Mills Alice Mary Mills OAM is an Australian sprint freestyle, butterfly and individual medley swimmer who represented Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning two relay gold medals....		54.92
7	Nery-Mantey Niangkouara		54.93
8	Daniela Gotz Daniela Götz Daniela Götz is a German swimmer.Götz represented Germany in the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. She won bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in 4×100 metre medley relay. An the 2008 Olympics she cometed in 4×100 metre freestyle relay....		55.27