Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metre freestyle

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.

Medalists

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Gold Debbie Meyer
  United States
Silver Pam Kruse
  United States
Bronze Maria Teresa Ramírez
  Mexico

Results

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Heats

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Heat 1

Rank Athlete Country Time Note
1 Debbie Meyer   United States 9:42.8
2 Angela Coughlan   Canada 10:00.2
3 Sigrid Goral   East Germany 10:09.3
4 Kristina Moir   Puerto Rico 10:24.5
5 Helen Elliott   Philippines 10:32.9

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Country Time Note
1 Karen Moras   Australia 9:38.3
2 Denise Langford   Australia 9:59.3
3 Laura Vaca   Mexico 10:01.8
4 Tui Shipston   New Zealand 10:28.0
5 Norma Amezcua   Mexico 10:31.6
6 Emilia Figueroa   Uruguay 10:57.7

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Country Time Note
1 Pam Kruse   United States 9:49.8
2 Elisabeth Ljunggren-Morris   Sweden 10:07.5
3 Susan Williams   Great Britain 10:17.6
4 Sabine Rantzsch   East Germany 10:18.4
5 Lylian Castillo   Uruguay 11:19.1

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Country Time Note
1 Christine Deakes   Australia 10:06.7
2 Marie-José Kersaudy   France 10:19.8
3 Novella Calligaris   Italy 10:21.0
4 Patricia Olano   Colombia 10:44.1
5 Silvana Asturias   Guatemala 11:12.5

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Country Time Note
1 María Teresa Ramírez   Mexico 9:46.4
2 Patty Caretto   United States 9:46.4
3 Dominique Mollier   France 10:21.4
4 Marjatta Hara   Finland 10:23.3
5 Olga de Angulo   Colombia 10:40.5

Final

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Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
  Debbie Meyer   United States 9:24.0 OR
  Pam Kruse   United States 9:35.7
  Maria Teresa Ramírez   Mexico 9:38.5
4 Karen Moras   Australia 9:38.6
5 Patty Caretto   United States 9:51.3
6 Angela Coughlan   Canada 9:56.4
7 Denise Langford   Australia 9:56.7
8 Laura Vaca   Mexico 10:02.5

Key: OR = Olympic record

References

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  1. ^ "Swimming at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Games: Women's 800 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2016.