The women's 200 metres competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia was held at the Olympic Stadium on November 29–30. The winning margin was 0.3 seconds.

Summary At home, Australia got three athletes into the final, led by already 100 metres champion Betty Cuthbert. Running in lane 5, with 100 metres silver medalist Christa Stubnick to her outside in lane 6, Cuthbert took an early lead making up the stagger on Stubnick more than 20 metres before the end of the turn. By the time they were all on the straightaway, she had a meter lead on Stubnick with no competition coming from the inside. She widened it to three metres by the finish. The race for bronze was more competitive as the other semi-final winner, June Foulds had opened up a metre lead over the other two Australians through the turn, but both were gaining. 50 metres out, Norma Croker caught Foulds marginally ahead, but Marlene Mathews-Willard continued to gain, opening up a meter on her compatriot by the finish, to take bronze. It was the same finish order as the 100 metres.

Competition format The women's 200 metres 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 record23.2Sydney, AustraliaSeptember 16, 1956Olympic record23.4Helsinki, FinlandJuly 26, 1952

Results

Heats Heat 1 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Betty Cuthbert 23.5 23.60 Q 2 Mae Faggs 24.9 24.99 Q 3 Diane Matheson 25.7 25.86 4 Mary Klass 26.3 26.37 5 Maeve Kyle 26.4 26.57

Heat 2 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Mariya Itkina 24.1 24.31 Q 2 Gisela Birkemeyer 24.4 24.53 Q 3 Wilma Rudolph 24.6 24.83 4 Genowefa Minicka 25.0 25.19 — Annie Choong –

Heat 3 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Christa Stubnick 24.5 24.58 Q 2 Norma Croker 24.9 25.10 Q 3 Giuseppina Leone 25.6 25.77 4 Meredith Ellis 26.3 26.46 — Catherine Capdevielle –

Heat 4 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 June Foulds 23.8 24.00 Q 2 Vera Yugova 24.9 25.13 Q 3 Letizia Bertoni 25.2 25.33 4 Claudette Masdammer 25.4 25.73 — Maria Kusion –

Heat 5 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Heather Armitage 24.8 24.87 Q 2 Barbara Janiszewska 24.8 24.99 Q 3 Simone Henry 25.0 25.13 4 Eleanor Haslam 25.3 25.27 5 Olga Kosheleva 25.3 25.48

Heat 6 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Marlene Mathews-Willard 24.0 24.16 Q 2 Jean Scrivens 24.3 24.27 Q 3 Inge Fuhrmann 24.7 25.05 4 Micheline Fluchot 24.9 25.12 5 Maureen Rever 26.1 26.17

Semifinals Group 1 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 Betty Cuthbert 23.6 23.75 Q 2 Christa Stubnick 23.9 24.17 Q 3 Norma Croker 24.3 24.41 Q 4 Maria Itkina 24.3 24.42 5 Jean Scrivens 24.4 24.66 6 Barbara Janiszewska 25.2 25.12

Group 2 Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes 1 June Foulds 24.2 24.36 Q 2 Marlene Mathews-Willard 24.3 24.42 Q 3 Gisela Birkemeyer 24.3 24.48 Q 4 Heather Armitage 24.7 24.78 5 Mae Faggs 24.8 25.06 6 Vera Yugova 24.9 25.12

Final Rank Name Country Time (hand) Time (automatic) Notes Betty Cuthbert 23.4 23.55 Christa Stubnick 23.7 23.89 Marlene Mathews-Willard 23.8 24.10 4 Norma Croker 24.0 24.22 5 June Foulds 24.3 24.30 6 Gisela Birkemeyer 24.3 24.68

References