The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 1968 Olympic Games took place between 22 and 24 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 sixteen lengths of the pool.
The winning margin was 11.7 seconds which as of 2023 remains the greatest winning margin in this event at the Olympics and one of only two occasions when the event was won by more than 7 seconds, the other time being in 2016.
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9:42.8 | ||||
| 2 | 10:00.2 | ||||
| 3 | 10:09.3 | ||||
| 4 | 10:24.5 | ||||
| 5 | 10:32.9 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9:38.3 | ||||
| 2 | 9:59.3 | ||||
| 3 | 10:01.8 | ||||
| 4 | 10:28.0 | ||||
| 5 | 10:31.6 | ||||
| 6 | 10:57.7 |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9:49.8 | ||||
| 2 | 10:07.5 | ||||
| 3 | 10:17.6 | ||||
| 4 | 10:18.4 | ||||
| 5 | 11:19.1 |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10:06.7 | ||||
| 2 | 10:19.8 | ||||
| 3 | 10:21.0 | ||||
| 4 | 10:44.1 | ||||
| 5 | 11:12.5 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9:46.4 | ||||
| 2 | 9:46.4 | ||||
| 3 | 10:21.4 | ||||
| 4 | 10:23.3 | ||||
| 5 | 10:40.5 |
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:24.0 | OR | ||||
| 9:35.7 | |||||
| 9:38.5 | |||||
| 4 | 9:38.6 | ||||
| 5 | 9:51.3 | ||||
| 6 | 9:56.4 | ||||
| 7 | 9:56.7 | ||||
| 8 | 10:02.5 |
Key: OR = Olympic record