Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle
The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place between December 5 and 7. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated. Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl 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
Results
Heats
;Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Valéria Gyenge | | 5:14.2 | |
| 2 | Héda Frost | | 5:14.4 | |
| 3 | Karin Larsson | | 5:18.3 | |
| 4 | Beth Whittall | | 5:21.7 | |
| 5 | Winifred Griffin | | 5:31.0 | |
| 6 | Gertrudes Lozada | | 5:34.2 | |
;Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Marley Shriver | | 5:07.6 | |
| 2 | Sandra Morgan | | 5:07.8 | |
| 3 | Ingrid Künzel | | 5:20.8 | |
| 4 | Gladys Priestley | | 5:27.5 | |
| 5 | Anita Hellström | | 5:29.2 | |
| 6 | Viviane Gouverneur | | 5:29.7 | |
;Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Dawn Fraser | | 5:02.5 | |
| 2 | Sylvia Ruuska | | 5:10.3 | |
| 3 | Ripszima Székely | | 5:10.5 | |
| 4 | Susan Roberts | | 5:16.8 | |
| 5 | Colette Thomas | | 5:23.9 | |
| 6 | Birgitta Wängberg | | 5:27.0 | |
| 7 | Eiko Wada | | 5:27.2 | |
;Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Lorraine Crapp | | 5:00.2 | |
| 2 | Susan Gray | | 5:16.7 | |
| 3 | Natalie Myburgh | | 5:16.8 | |
| 4 | Marrion Roe | | 5:18.5 | |
| 5 | Margaret Girvan | | 5:23.6 | |
| 6 | Gilda Aranda | | 5:24.2 | |
| 7 | Yukiko Otaka | | 5:28.7 | |
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Lorraine Crapp | | 4:54.6 | OR |
| Dawn Fraser | | 5:02.5 | |
| Sylvia Ruuska | | 5:07.1 | |
| 4 | Marley Shriver | | 5:12.9 | |
| 5 | Ripszima Székely | | 5:14.2 | |
| 6 | Sandra Morgan | | 5:14.3 | |
| 7 | Héda Frost | | 5:15.4 | |
| 8 | Valéria Gyenge | | 5:21.0 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record
