The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between August 28 and 29. 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 two lengths of the pool.

Results

Heats

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Gabriele Wetzko 1:00.40 Q 2 Tatyana Zolotnitskaya 1:01.24 Q 3 Claude Mandonnaud 1:01.34 Q 4 Guylaine Berger 1:01.54 5 Judit Turóczy 1:01.57 6 Sharon Booth 1:02.07 7 Kirsten Strange-Campbell 1:03.83 8 Susana Saxlund 1:04.91

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Enith Brigitha 1:00.02 Q 2 Anke Rijnders 1:00.76 Q 3 Judy Wright 1:01.97 4 Chantal Schertz 1:02.82 5 Edit Kovács 1:03.00 6 Lucy Burle 1:03.12 7 Marcia Arriaga 1:03.66 8 Ileana Morales 1:04.13

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Magdolna Patóh 59.47 Q, OR 2 Sandy Neilson 59.51 Q 3 Hansje Bunschoten 1:00.82 Q 4 Eva Andersson 1:01.88 5 Susan Edmondson 1:02.29 6 Françoise Monod 1:02.43 7 Heather Coombridge 1:02.95 8 Hsu Yue-yun 1:04.77

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Shirley Babashoff 59.51 Q 2 Wendy Cook 1:01.20 Q 3 Mary Beth Rondeau 1:01.46 4 Leanne Francis 1:01.90 5 Lesley Allardice 1:02.07 6 Inger Andersson 1:03.40 7 Diane Walker 1:04.44

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Jutta Weber 59.72 Q 2 Jenny Kemp 1:00.42 Q 3 Sylvia Eichner 1:00.64 Q 4 Angela Steinbach 1:01.66 5 Nadezhda Matyukhina 1:02.14 6 Margrit Thomet 1:02.33 7 Laura Podestà 1:02.88

Heat 6 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Shane Gould 59.44 Q, OR 2 Andrea Eife 59.73 Q 3 Heidi Reineck 1:00.39 Q 4 Grethe Mathiesen 1:01.47 5 Yelena Timoshenko 1:01.68 6 Shigeko Kawanishi 1:02.13 7 Khriska Peycheva 1:03.43 8 Virginia Anchestegui 1:04.99

Semifinals

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Shirley Babashoff 59.05 Q, OR 2 Magdolna Patóh 59.64 Q 3 Heidi Reineck 59.66 Q 4 Andrea Eife 59.71 Q 5 Jenny Kemp 59.93 6 Anke Rijnders 1:00.84 7 Wendy Cook 1:01.26 8 Claude Mandonnaud 1:01.88

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Shane Gould 59.20 Q 2 Sandy Neilson 59.41 Q 3 Gabriele Wetzko 59.46 Q 4 Enith Brigitha 59:75 Q 5 Jutta Weber 59:90 6 Sylvia Eichner 1:00.73 7 Hansje Bunschoten 1:00.79 8 Tatyana Zolotnitskaya 1:01.12

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Sandy Neilson 58.59 OR Shirley Babashoff 59.02 Shane Gould 59.06 4 Gabriele Wetzko 59.21 5 Heidi Reineck 59.73 6 Andrea Eife 59.91 7 Magdolna Patóh 1:00.02 8 Enith Brigitha 1:00.09

Key: OR = Olympic record

References