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

Women's 200 metre breaststroke
at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
Women's 200 metre breaststroke; at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
	Left-right: Babanina, Prozumenschikova, Kolb
Venue	Yoyogi National Gymnasium
Date	11 October (heats); 12 October (final)
Competitors	27 from 15 nations
Winning time	2:46.4 (OR)
Medalists
	← 1960 1968 →

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1964 Summer Olympics, took place on 11–12 October, 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 medals in this event, with a gold and bronze medal respectively. 14-year-old 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	^[3]
Olympic record	Anita Lonsbrough (GBR)	2:49.5 s	Rome, Italy	27 August 1960	^[3]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR
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

Rank	Heat	Lane^[4]	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	1	Svetlana Babanina	Soviet Union	2:48.3	Q, OR^[5]
2	2	4	Bärbel Grimmer	United Team of Germany	2:48.6	Q, OR^[5]
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^[3]

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	6	Galina Prozumenshchikova	Soviet Union	2:46.4	OR^[3]
	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

^ "Swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
^ "Reynolds Qualifies". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 12 October 1964. p. 17.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "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. pp. 532–533. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
^ Albert Schoenfeld, ed. (29 September 1964). "Results from the 1964 Olympic Games (Tokyo)" (PDF). Swimming World & Junior Swimmer. Albert Schoenfeld. p. 46. ISSN 0039-7431. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
^ ^a ^b "Swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke Round One". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2012.