Swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre freestyle

The women's 100 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics programme.^[1] It was the fifth appearance of the event, which was established in 1912. The competition was held on Saturday 6 August 1932 and on Monday 8 August 1932.

Women's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the X Olympiad
Date	6–8 August
Competitors	20 from 10 nations
Medalists
Helene Madison  United States Willy den Ouden  Netherlands Eleanor Saville  United States
← 1928 1936 →

Twenty swimmers from ten nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1932 Summer Olympics.

World Record	1:06.6	Helene Madison	Boston (USA)	20 April 1931
Olympic Record	1:11.0	Albina Osipowich	Amsterdam (NED)	11 August 1928

In the heats the Olympic record was broken in the second heat by Joyce Cooper with 1:09.0, in the third heat by Helene Madison with 1:08.9 and in the fourth heat Eleanor Saville with 1:08.5. In the first semi-final Willy den Ouden bettered the Olympic record with 1:07.6 and in the final Madison again set a new Olympic record with 1:06.8.

Results

Heats

Saturday 6 August 1932: The fastest two in each heat and the fastest third-placed from across the heats advanced to the final.

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Corrie Laddé (NED)	1:12.1	Q
2	Yvonne Godard (FRA)	1:12.2	Q
3	Valerie Davies (GBR)	1:12.7
4	Hatsuho Matsuzawa (JPN)	1:17.1
5	Marjorie Linton (CAN)	1:19.9

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Joyce Cooper (GBR)	1:09.0	Q OR
2	Josephine McKim (USA)	1:09.3	Q
3	Frances Bult (AUS)	1:11.4	q
4	Maria Vierdag (NED)	1:13.3
5	Irene Mullen (CAN)	1:15.2

Heat 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Helene Madison (USA)	1:08.9	Q OR
2	Jenny Maakal (RSA)	1:11.0	Q
3	Lilli Andersen (DEN)	1:11.6
4	Edna Hughes (GBR)	1:15.1
5	Kazue Kojima (JPN)	1:16.2

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Eleanor Saville (USA)	1:08.5	Q OR
2	Willy den Ouden (NED)	1:09.2	Q
3	Yukie Arata (JPN)	1:16.1
4	Irene Pirie (CAN)	1:16.3
5	Maria Lenk (BRA)	1:25.8

Semifinals

Sunday 7 August 1932: The fastest three in each semi-final advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Willy den Ouden (NED)	1:07.6	Q OR
2	Eleanor Saville (USA)	1:08.8	Q
3	Josephine McKim (USA)	1:08.8	Q
4	Joyce Cooper (GBR)	1:09.2
5	Yvonne Godard (FRA)	1:14.1

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Helene Madison (USA)	1:09.9	Q
2	Frances Bult (AUS)	1:10.2	Q
3	Jenny Maakal (RSA)	1:10.6	Q
4	Corrie Laddé (NED)	1:11.8

Final

Monday 8 August 1932:

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Helene Madison (USA)	1:06.8 OR
2	Willy den Ouden (NED)	1:07.8
3	Eleanor Saville (USA)	1:08.2
4	Josephine McKim (USA)	1:09.3
5	Frances Bult (AUS)	1:09.9
6	Jenny Maakal (RSA)	1:10.8