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

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XIV Olympiad
Venue	Empire Pool
Date	30 July (heats) 31 July (semifinals) 3 August (final)
Competitors	22 from 14 nations
Winning time	2:57.2
Medalists
Nel van Vliet   Netherlands   Nancy Lyons   Australia   Éva Novák-Gerard   Hungary

Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men		women
400 m	men		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men		women
Breaststroke
200 m	men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m			women
4×200 m	men

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics, took place on July 30–August 3, 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:

World record	Nel van Vliet (NED)	2:49.2 s	Hilversum, Netherlands	20 July 1947
Olympic record	Hideko Maehata (JPN)	3:01.9 s	Berlin, Germany	11 August 1936

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
July 30	Heat 2	Éva Székely	Hungary	3:01.2	OR
July 30	Heat 3	Nel van Vliet	Netherlands	2:57.4	OR
July 31	Semifinals	Nel van Vliet	Netherlands	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
1	Lyons, NancyNancy Lyons	Australia	3:02.9	Q
1	Novák-Gerard, ÉvaÉva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	3:02.9	Q
3	de Groot, JannyJanny de Groot	Netherlands	3:04.4	Q
4	Church, ElizabethElizabeth Church	Great Britain	3:07.4	Q
5	Turnbull, DoroteaDorotea Turnbull	Argentina	3:12.2	q
6	Kobi, LiselotteLiselotte Kobi	Switzerland	3:16.2	q
7	Wilson, JeanneJeanne Wilson	United States	3:18.3
8	ÓlafsdóttirAnna Ólafsdóttir	Iceland	3:19.9

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Székely, ÉvaÉva Székely	Hungary	3:01.2	Q, OR[3]
2	Hom, TonnieTonnie Hom	Netherlands	3:06.0	Q
3	Vandekerckhove, YvonneYvonne Vandekerckhove	Belgium	3:09.0	Q
4	Bertrand, JacquelineJacqueline Bertrand	France	3:10.7	Q
5	Caplin, JeanJean Caplin	Great Britain	3:17.0	q
6	Diederichsen, HelgaHelga Diederichsen	Mexico	3:27.8
7	Pence, PennyPenny Pence	United States	3:28.1

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	van Vliet, NelNel van Vliet	Netherlands	2:57.4	Q, OR[3]
2	Hansen, JytteJytte Hansen	Denmark	3:09.1	Q
3	Leskinen, MargitMargit Leskinen	Finland	3:11.4	Q
4	Gordon, ElenorElenor Gordon	Great Britain	3:13.3	Q
5	Strong, IreneIrene Strong	Canada	3:14.2	q
6	LaMore, ClaraClara LaMore	United States	3:23.6
7	ArnadottirÞórdís Árnadóttir	Iceland	3:26.1

Semifinals

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

Semifinal 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Lyons, NancyNancy Lyons	Australia	3:00.9	Q
2	de Groot, JannyJanny de Groot	Netherlands	3:01.4	Q
3	Székely, ÉvaÉva Székely	Hungary	3:02.8	Q
4	Vandekerckhove, YvonneYvonne Vandekerckhove	Belgium	3:09.7
5	Bertrand, JacquelineJacqueline Bertrand	France	3:13.1
6	Caplin, JeanJean Caplin	Great Britain	3:14.4
6	Turnbull, DoroteaDorotea Turnbull	Argentina	3:14.4
8	Strong, IreneIrene Strong	Canada	3:16.9

Semifinal 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	van Vliet, NelNel van Vliet	Netherlands	2:57.0	Q, OR[3]
2	Novák-Gerard, ÉvaÉva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	2:58.0	Q
3	Hansen, JytteJytte Hansen	Denmark	3:05.5	Q
4	Hom, TonnieTonnie Hom	Netherlands	3:05.7	q
5	Church, ElizabethElizabeth Church	Great Britain	3:07.1	q
6	Leskinen, MargitMargit Leskinen	Finland	3:10.0
7	Kobi, LiselotteLiselotte Kobi	Switzerland	3:13.9
8	Gordon, ElenorElenor Gordon	Great Britain	3:15.8

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
01 !	van Vliet, NelNel van Vliet	Netherlands	2:57.2
02 !	Lyons, NancyNancy Lyons	Australia	2:57.7
03 !	Novák-Gerard, ÉvaÉva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	3:00.2
4	Székely, ÉvaÉva Székely	Hungary	3:02.5
5	de Groot, JannyJanny de Groot	Netherlands	3:06.2
6	Church, ElizabethElizabeth Church	Great Britain	3:06.1
7	Hom, TonnieTonnie Hom	Netherlands	3:07.5
8	Hansen, JytteJytte Hansen	Denmark	3:08.1

Sources

• "The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad" (PDF). The Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. 1948. p. 462. Retrieved 20 October 2015. 
• "Swimming at the 1948 London Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 1 July 2012. 

References