Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre freestyle


The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place September 1. 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 four lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Results

Heats

Heat 1
RankAthleteCountryTimeNotes
1Ann Marshall2:08.12OR, Q
2Karin Tülling2:09.01 Q
3Jutta Weber2:12.44
4Merrily Stratten2:12.44
5Heather Coombridge2:14.78
6Karen LeGresley2:16.34
7Belinda Phillips2:19.49

Heat 2
RankAthleteCountryTimeNotes
1Anke Rijnders2:09.09Q
2Helen Gray2:12.76
3Nadezhda Matyukhina2:13.60
4Françoise Monod2:15.30
5Olga de Angulo2:17.34
6Silvia Borgini2:23.11

Heat 3
RankAthleteCountryTimeNotes
1Keena Rothhammer2:07.48OR, Q
2Hansje Bunschoten2:08.58 Q
3Tatyana Zolotnitskaya2:13.12
4Yelena Timoshenko2:14.06
5Diana Sutherland2:16.00
6Ileana Morales2:18.84

Heat 4
RankAthleteCountryTimeNotes
1Shane Gould2:07.95Q
2Deborah Palmer2:10.29
3Uta Schütz2:12.84
4Mary Beth Rondeau2:13.52
5Susan Edmondson2:13.54
6Lucy Burle2:18.57
7Marcia Arriaga2:18.93

Heat 5
RankAthleteCountryTimeNotes
1Andrea Eife2:07.95OR, Q
2Shirley Babashoff2:08.48 Q
3Gudrun Wegner2:09.49
4Angela Steinbach2:10.59
5Lesley Allardice2:13.43
6Roselina Angel2:18.62
7Hsu Yue-yun2:20.17

Final

RankAthleteCountryTimeNotes
Shane Gould2:03.56WR
Shirley Babashoff2:04.33
Keena Rothhammer2:04.92
4Ann Marshall2:05.45
5Andrea Eife2:06.27
6Hansje Bunschoten2:08.40
7Anke Rijnders2:09.41
8Karin Tülling2:11.70

Key: WR = World record