The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between September 2 and 3. 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 sixteen lengths of the pool.
Results
Heats Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Novella Calligaris 9:02.96 2 Andrea Eife 9:22.88 3 Barbara Schwarzfeldt 9:24.89 4 María Teresa Ramírez 9:25.09 5 Françoise Monod 9:50.73 6 Hsu Yue-yun 10:08.49 7 Eleni Avlonitou 10:10.88
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Keena Rothhammer 8:59.69 2 Hansje Bunschoten 9:21.13 3 Uta Schütz 9:22.93 4 Olga de Angulo 9:43.27 5 Helga Wagner 9:44.17 6 Olga Petrusyova 10:04.96 7 Silvia Borgini 10:09.19
Heat 3 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Ann Simmons 9:11.94 2 Narelle Moras 9:17.95 3 Roselina Angee 9:38.08 4 June Green 9:39.91 5 Laura Vaca 9:50.10 6 Belinda Phillips 9:53.99 7 Avis Willington 10:10.91
Heat 4 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Shane Gould 9:10.84 2 Gudrun Wegner 9:11.32 3 Karin Tülling 9:25.73 4 Federica Stabilini 9:27.84 5 Mary Beth Rondeau 9:43.31 6 Antonella Valentini 9:49.07 7 Patricia López 10:06.39
Heat 5 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Jo Harshbarger 9:14.46 2 Karen Moras 9:25.11 3 Jaynie Parkhouse 9:34.65 4 Karen LeGresley 9:37.13 5 Brenda Holmes 9:39.44 6 Susan Jones 9:47.35 7 Kirsten Knudsen 10:02.56 8 Aisling O'Leary 10:18.05
Final Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Keena Rothhammer 8:53.68 WR Shane Gould 8:56.39 Novella Calligaris 8:57.46 4 Ann Simmons 8:57.62 5 Gudrun Wegner 8:58.89 6 Jo Harshbarger 9:01.21 7 Hansje Bunschoten 9:16.69 8 Narelle Moras 9:19.06
Key: WR = World record
References