Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 100 metre backstroke

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

World record	Ulrike Richter (GDR)	1:05.39	Utrecht, Netherlands	18 August 1973
Competition record	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
5 September	Heat 1	Andrea Gyarmati	Hungary	1:06.09	CR
5 September	Heat 4	Ulrike Richter	East Germany	1:06.08	CR
5 September	Final	Ulrike Richter	East Germany	1:05.42	CR

24 swimmers participated in 4 heats, qualified swimmers are listed:^[1]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	-	Ulrike Richter	East Germany	1:06.086	Q, CR
2	1	-	Andrea Gyarmati	Hungary	1:06.099	Q, CR
3	3	-	Melissa Belote	United States	1:06.231	Q
4	2	-	Wendy Cook	Canada	1:06.275	Q
5	4	-	Enith Brigitha	Netherlands	1:06.996	Q
6	4	-	Linda Stimpson	United States	1:07.250	Q
7	1	-	Josien Elzerman	Netherlands	1:07.519	Q
8	3	-	Christine Herbst	East Germany	1:07.981	Q
9	2	-	Sylvie Le Noach	France	1:07.986
10	2	-	Linda Young	Australia	1:08.010
11	1	-	Angelika Grieser	West Germany	1:08.468
12	3	-	Donna-Marie Gurr	Canada	1:08.640
13	4	-	Diana Olsson	Sweden	1:08.745
14	1	-	Antonella Roncelli	Italy	1:08.945
15	1	-	Sue Lewis	Australia	1:09.541
16	4	-	P. Torrisi	Italy	1:10.165
17	3	-	F. Chaunin	Belgium	1:10.902
18	3	-	E. Kobielska	Poland	1:11.758
19	2	-	H. Jaqueti	Spain	1:12.431
20	1	-	D. McSwain	Puerto Rico	1:12.432
21	2	-	I. Golovanova	Soviet Union	1:12.585
22	2	-	B. Fernandes	Brazil	1:13.109
23	4	-	María Mock	Puerto Rico	1:17.270
24	2	-	R. Okan	Turkey	1:17.723

The results of the final are below.

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	-	Ulrike Richter	East Germany	1:05.427
	-	Melissa Belote	United States	1:06.112
	-	Wendy Cook	Canada	1:06.271
4	-	Andrea Gyarmati	Hungary	1:06.549
5	-	Enith Brigitha	Netherlands	1:06.550
6	-	Christine Herbst	East Germany	1:07.465
7	-	Linda Stimpson	United States	1:07.698
8	-	Josien Elzerman	Netherlands	1:07.900