The inaugural women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1968 Olympic Games took place between 21 and 22 October. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). 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 four lengths of the pool.
Results
Heats Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Debbie Meyer 2:13.1 2 Oľga Kozičová 2:16.1 3 Susan Williams 2:20.4 4 Heidi Reineck 2:21.4 5 Danièle Dorléans 2:21.7 6 Kirsten Strange-Campbell 2:30.5
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Lyn Bell 2:15.7 2 Claude Mandonnaud 2:15.8 3 Jenny Steinbeck 2:18.8 4 Helen Elliott 2:25.4 5 Novella Calligaris 2:26.3 6 Marcia Arriaga 2:27.0 7 Shen Bao-ni 2:34.0 8 Lorna Blake 2:43.8
Heat 3 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Jan Henne 2:13.8 2 Marion Lay 2:16.7 3 María Teresa Ramírez 2:17.5 4 Alexandra Jackson 2:19.2 5 Kristina Moir 2:23.1 6 Donatella Ferracuti 2:28.2 7 Hrafnhildur Guðmundsdóttir 2:28.5
Heat 4 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Gabriele Wetzko 2:14.7 2 Angela Coughlan 2:20.9 3 Maria Strumolo 2:23.3 4 Aloisia Bauer 2:24.5 5 Emilia Figueroa 2:27.4
Heat 5 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Jane Barkman 2:13.6 2 Marie-José Kersaudy 2:18.0 3 Elisabeth Berglund 2:19.7 4 Tamara Sosnova 2:23.5 5 Patricia Olano 2:25.1 6 Silvana Asturias 2:30.7 7 Lylian Castillo 2:34.1
Heat 6 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Mirjana Šegrt 2:15.7 2 Oei Liana 2:16.3 3 Julie McDonald 2:19.9 4 Consuelo Changanaqui 2:20.7 5 Rosario de Vivanco 2:22.2 6 Sally Davison 2:26.1
Final
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Debbie Meyer 2:10.5 OR Jan Henne 2:11.0 Jane Barkman 2:11.2 4 Gabriele Wetzko 2:12.3 5 Mirjana Šegrt 2:13.3 6 Claude Mandonnaud 2:14.9 7 Lyn Bell 2:15.1 8 Olga Kozičová 2:16.0
Key: OR = Olympic record
References