Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre freestyle

Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Breaststroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Butterfly
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Individual medley
200 m	men	women
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 400 metre freestyle event at the 1968 Olympic Games took place between 19 and 20 October.^[1] 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 eight lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Gold	Debbie Meyer  United States
Silver	Linda Gustavson  United States
Bronze	Karen Moras  Australia

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	María Teresa Ramírez	Mexico	4:43.9
2	Gabriele Wetzko	East Germany	4:49.8
3	Laura Vaca	Mexico	4:53.3
4	Helen Elliott	Philippines	4:59.9
5	Shen Bao-ni	Chinese Taipei	5:41.8

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Debbie Meyer	United States	4:35.0
2	Norma Amezcua	Mexico	5:00.5
3	Dominique Mollier	France	5:00.5
4	Sheila Clayton	Great Britain	5:08.0

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Pam Kruse	United States	4:45.2
2	Marjatta Hara	Finland	4:53.0
3	Olga de Angulo	Colombia	5:08.6
4	Sally Davison	Great Britain	5:11.2
5	Lylian Castillo	Uruguay	5:30.2
6	Lorna Blake	Puerto Rico	5:54.7

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Linda Gustavson	United States	4:41.4
2	Marie-José Kersaudy	France	4:57.3
3	Kristina Moir	Puerto Rico	4:57.7
4	Susan Williams	Great Britain	5:02.7
5	Emilia Figueroa	Uruguay	5:21.0

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Karen Moras	Australia	4:39.6
2	Elisabeth Ljunggren-Morris	Sweden	4:51.6
3	Novella Calligaris	Italy	4:59.4
4	Consuelo Changanaqui	Peru	5:02.9
5	Silvana Asturias	Guatemala	5:25.6

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Angela Coughlan	Canada	4:47.4
2	Denise Langford	Australia	4:52.2
3	Eva Sigg	Finland	4:58.5
4	Christine Deakes	Australia	5:01.5
5	Patricia Olano	Colombia	5:01.8

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Debbie Meyer	United States	4:31.8	OR
	Linda Gustavson	United States	4:35.5
	Karen Moras	Australia	4:37.0
4	Pam Kruse	United States	4:37.2
5	Gabriele Wetzko	East Germany	4:40.2
6	María Teresa Ramírez	Mexico	4:42.2
7	Angela Coughlan	Canada	4:51.9
8	Elisabeth Ljunggren-Morris	Sweden	4:53.8

Key: OR = Olympic record

References