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

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Olympia Schwimmhalle
Date	29 August (heats and final)
Competitors	40 from 23 nations
Winning time	2:41.71 (OR)
Medalists
Beverley Whitfield  Australia Dana Schoenfield  United States Galina Prozumenshchikova  Soviet Union

Swimming events at the 1972 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 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1972 Summer Olympics, took place on August 29, at the Olympia Schwimmhalle. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the eleventh appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 40 competitors from 23 nations participated in the event, another 2 entries from 2 other countries did not compete.

Records

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

World record	Catie Ball (USA)	2:38.5 s	Los Angeles, California	26 August 1968
Olympic record	Sharon Wichman (USA)	2:44.4 s	Mexico City, Mexico	23 October 1968

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
29 August	Heat 3	Ágnes Kaczander	Hungary	2:43.13	OR
29 August	Final	Beverley Whitfield	Australia	2:41.71	OR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Ágnes Kaczander	Hungary	2:43.13	Q, OR
2	3	Éva Kiss	Hungary	2:43.68	Q
3	6	Lyudmila Porubayko	Soviet Union	2:43.68	Q
4	4	Dana Schoenfield	United States	2:43.97	Q
5	5	Galina Prozumenshchikova	Soviet Union	2:44.20	Q
6	5	Beverley Whitfield	Australia	2:44.47	Q
7	6	Claudia Clevenger	United States	2:44.74	Q
8	6	Petra Nows	West Germany	2:45.20	Q
9	4	Hannelore Anke	East Germany	2:45.92
10	2	Britt-Marie Smedh	Sweden	2:46.05
11	1	Vreni Eberle	West Germany	2:46.17
12	6	Chieno Shibata	Japan	2:46.87
13	2	Barbara Mitchell	United States	2:47.05
14	2	Pat Beavan	Great Britain	2:47.42
15	6	Erika Rüegg	Switzerland	2:47.63
16	5	Jane Wright	Canada	2:47.85
17	3	Alie te Riet	Netherlands	2:48.49
18	4	Judith Hudson	Australia	2:49.09
19	4	Marian Stuart	Canada	2:49.11
20	5	Christine Jarvis	Great Britain	2:49.24
21	1	Sylvia Langer	East Germany	2:49.68
22	5	Jeanette Pettersson	Sweden	2:50.36
23	2	Ulrike Klees	West Germany	2:50.48
24	1	Tetiana Prudnikova	Soviet Union	2:50.79
25	5	Nieves Panadell	23x15px Spain	2:51.50
26	3	Amanda Radnage	Great Britain	2:51.85
27	4	Béatrice Mottoulle	Belgium	2:52.18
28	2	Brigitte Schuchardt	East Germany	2:53.03
29	2	Ann O'Connor	Ireland	2:53.04
30	1	Patrizia Miserini	Italy	2:53.14
31	3	Mairi Ioannidou	Greece	2:53.53
32	3	Shlomit Nir	Israel	2:53.60
33	6	Zuzana Marková	Czechoslovakia	2:53.88
34	6	Ana Elena de la Portilla	Mexico	2:54.10
35	4	Yoko Yamamoto	Japan	2:54.28
36	2	Rose-Marie Pepe	Canada	2:54.75
37	3	Leonor Urueta	Mexico	2:55.21
38	4	Winnie Nielsen	Denmark	2:59.31
39	1	Lie Yue-Hwan	Republic of China	3:04.74
40	1	Cristina Teixeira	Brazil	2:57.03	DSQ
41	5	Ani Jane Mugrditchian	Lebanon	—	DNS
42	1	Halina Zawadzka	Poland	—	DNS

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Beverley Whitfield	Australia	2:41.71	OR
	Dana Schoenfield	United States	2:42.05
	Galina Prozumenshchikova	Soviet Union	2:42.36
4	Claudia Clevenger	United States	2:42.88
5	Petra Nows	West Germany	2:43.38
6	Ágnes Kaczander	Hungary	2:43.41
7	Lyudmila Porubayko	Soviet Union	2:44.48
8	Éva Kiss	Hungary	2:45.12