Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke explained

Event:Women's 200 metre breaststroke
Games:1948 Summer
Venue:Empire Pool
Date:30 July (heats)
31 July (semifinals)
3 August (final)
Competitors:22
Nations:14
Win Value:2:57.2
Gold:Nel van Vliet
Goldnoc:NED
Silver:Nancy Lyons
Silvernoc:AUS
Bronze:Éva Novák-Gerard
Bronzenoc:HUN
Prev:1936

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics, took place from 30 July to 3 August at the Empire Pool. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the fifth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. It was also the first appearance of the event since the outbreak of World War II. A total of 22 competitors from 14 nations participated in the event.[1]

Records

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

The following records were established during the competition:

DateRoundNameNationalityTimeORWR
30 July Heat 2 3:01.2 OR
30 July Heat 3 2:57.4 OR
31 July Semifinals 2:57.0 OR
Hungarian Éva Székely set her Olympic record in the event using the butterfly stroke, which was allowed at the time.[2] At the 1956 Summer Olympics, a new 100m butterfly event was created. The technique was disallowed in the 200m breaststroke event that year and in all future Olympic Games.

Results

Heats

The four fastest swimmers in each heat and the next four fastest swimmers overall advanced to the semifinals on 31 July.[3]

Heat 1

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
13:02.9 Q
13:02.9 Q
33:04.4 Q
43:07.4 Q
53:12.2 q
63:16.2 q
73:18.3
83:19.9

Heat 2

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
13:01.2 Q, OR
23:06.0 Q
33:09.0 Q
43:10.7 Q
53:17.0 q
63:27.8
73:28.1

Heat 3

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
12:57.4 Q, OR
23:09.1 Q
33:11.4 Q
43:13.3 Q
53:14.2 q
63:23.6
73:26.1

Semifinals

The three fastest swimmers in each heat and the next two fastest overall advanced to the final on 3 August.[4]

Semifinal 1

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
13:00.9 Q
23:01.4 Q
33:02.8 Q
43:09.7
53:13.1
63:14.4
63:14.4
83:16.9

Semifinal 2

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
12:57.0 Q, OR
22:58.0 Q
33:05.5 Q
43:05.7 q
53:07.1 q
63:10.0
73:13.9
83:15.8

Final

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes
2:57.2
2:57.7
3:00.2
43:02.5
53:06.2
63:06.1
73:07.5
83:08.1

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Swimming at the 1948 London Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417170032/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1948/SWI/womens-200-metres-breaststroke.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 1 July 2012 . Olympics at Sports-Reference.com . Sports Reference, LLC.
  2. Book: Mallon, Bill . The Olympic Record Book . 1988 . Garland Publishing . 0824029488 . 240 . Olympic Records by Sport; Summer Sports .
  3. OCXIVO, p. 590.
  4. OCXIVO, p. 590.