Swimming at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
Venue	Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Date	11 October (heats) 12 October (final)
Competitors	27 from 15 nations
Winning time	2:46.4 (OR)
Medalists
Galina Prozumenshchikova  Soviet Union Claudia Kolb  United States Svetlana Babanina  Soviet Union

Swimming at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m		women
200 m	men
Breaststroke
200 m	men	women
Butterfly
100 m		women
200 m	men
Individual medley
400 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m	men	women
4×200 m	men
Medley relay
4×100 m	men	women

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1964 Summer Olympics, took place on October 11–12, at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the ninth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 27 competitors from 15 nations participated in the event.^[1] Soviet Union's Galina Prozumenshchikova and Svetlana Babanina won their country's first ever medals in this event, with a gold and bronze medal respectively. Claudia Kolb's silver medal was the United States' second ever medal in this event, after Agnes Geraghty's silver in the inaugural event in 1924. In the heats, Australian Christine Barnetson was disqualified for an incorrect breaststroke, and Hungarian Márta Egerváry withdrew from the competition.^[2]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:

World record	Galina Prozumenshchikova (URS)	2:45.4 s	Berlin, East Germany	17 May 1964
Olympic record	Anita Lonsbrough (GBR)	2:49.5 s	Rome, Italy	27 August 1960

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
11 October	Heat 2	Bärbel Grimmer	United Team of Germany	2:48.6	OR
11 October	Heat 3	Svetlana Babanina	Soviet Union	2:48.3	OR
12 October	Final	Galina Prozumenshchikova	Soviet Union	2:46.4	OR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane[3]	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	1	Svetlana Babanina	Soviet Union	2:48.3	Q, OR[4]
2	2	4	Bärbel Grimmer	United Team of Germany	2:48.6	Q, OR[4]
3	3	7	Stella Mitchell	Great Britain	2:48.8	Q
4	2	1	Galina Prozumenshchikova	Soviet Union	2:49.0	Q
5	3	6	Claudia Kolb	United States	2:49.7	Q
6	3	3	Ursula Küper	United Team of Germany	2:50.1	Q
7	4	2	Jill Slattery	Great Britain	2:50.2	Q
8	1	1	Klenie Bimolt	Netherlands	2:50.7	Q
9	1	7	Marguerite Ruygrok	Australia	2:53.1
10	1	6	Wiltrud Urselmann	United Team of Germany	2:53.2
11	4	1	Vivien Haddon	New Zealand	2:53.4
12	4	3	Truus Looijs	Netherlands	2:54.5
13	2	7	Jacqueline Enfield	Great Britain	2:54.9
14	1	4	Tammy Hazleton	United States	2:55.0
15	2	5	Gretta Kok	Netherlands	2:55.4
16	3	5	Isabel Castañe	Spain	2:55.7
17	1	3	Noriko Yamamoto	Japan	2:57.0
18	4	6	Sandra Nitta	United States	2:58.4
19	4	5	Christl Filippovits	Austria	2:59.2
20	3	4	Linda McGill	Australia	2:59.4
21	4	7	Yoshiko Morizane	Japan	2:59.9
22	2	6	Susana Peper	Argentina	3:00.0
23	1	5	Zsuzsa Kovács	Hungary	3:06.7
24	3	2	Marny Jolly	Malaysia	3:11.0
25	1	2	Margaret Harding	Puerto Rico	3:16.0
26	4	4	Li Hin Yu	Hong Kong	3:22.2
27	2	3	Christine Barnetson	Australia	—	DSQ[5]

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	6	Galina Prozumenshchikova	Soviet Union	2:46.4	OR[6]
	2	Claudia Kolb	United States	2:47.6
	4	Svetlana Babanina	Soviet Union	2:48.6
4	3	Stella Mitchell	Great Britain	2:49.0
5	1	Jill Slattery	Great Britain	2:49.6
6	5	Bärbel Grimmer	United Team of Germany	2:51.0
7	8	Klenie Bimolt	Netherlands	2:51.3
8	7	Ursula Küper	United Team of Germany	2:53.9

Sources

• "The Games of the XVIII Olympiad Tokyo 1964: The Official Report of the Organising Committee" (PDF). Volume Two, Part 2. Organizing Committee of the Games of the XVIII Olympiad Tokyo. 1964. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
• "Swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 2 July 2012.

References