Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Helsinki Swimming Stadium
Date	26 July (heats) 27 July (semifinals) 29 July (final)
Competitors	33 from 19 nations
Winning time	2:51.7 (OR)
Medalists
Éva Székely   Hungary   Éva Novák-Gerard   Hungary   Elenor Gordon   Great Britain

Swimming at the 1952 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 1952 Summer Olympics, took place on July 26–29, at the Helsinki Swimming Stadium. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the sixth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 33 competitors from 19 nations participated in the event.^[1]

Records

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

World record	Éva Novák-Gerard (HUN)	2:48.5 s	Moscow, Soviet Union	5 May 1951	[2]
Olympic record	Nel van Vliet (NED)	2:57.2 s	London, United Kingdom	31 July 1948	[2]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
July 26	Heat 1	Éva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	2:54.0	OR
July 27	Semifinal 2	Éva Székely	Hungary	2:54.0	OR
July 29	Final	Éva Székely	Hungary	2:51.7	OR

Hungarian Éva Székely used the butterfly stroke in this event, which was permissible at the time. At the 1956 Summer Olympics, the 200m breaststroke event only allowed the orthodox breaststroke to be used, and a new 100m butterfly event was created.^[3]

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Novák-Gerard, ÉvaÉva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	2:54.0	Q, OR[4]
2	4	Székely, ÉvaÉva Székely	Hungary	2:55.1	Q
3	5	Hansen, JytteJytte Hansen	Denmark	2:57.7	Q
4	3	Gordon, ElenorElenor Gordon	Great Britain	2:58.6	Q
5	3	Killermann, KláraKlára Killermann	Hungary	2:59.1	Q
6	5	Garritsen, NelNel Garritsen	Netherlands	2:59.4	Q
7	2	Bonnier, LiesLies Bonnier	Netherlands	3:00.6	Q
8	5	Eklund, Ulla-BrittUlla-Britt Eklund	Sweden	3:01.2	Q
9	5	Havrysh, MariyaMariya Havrysh	Soviet Union	3:01.6	Q
10	1	Happe, UrsulaUrsula Happe	Germany	3:02.7	Q
10	3	Sakamoto, KazukoKazuko Sakamoto	Japan	3:02.7	Q
12	4	Vergauwen, RaymondeRaymonde Vergauwen	Belgium	3:02.8	Q
13	2	Lyons, NancyNancy Lyons	Australia	3:04.4	Q
14	4	Wrigley, JeanJean Wrigley	Great Britain	3:04.5	Q
15	1	Bruins, RikaRika Bruins	Netherlands	3:04.7	Q
16	4	Mäkelä, KaijaKaija Mäkelä	Finland	3:04.7	Q
17	2	Harris, ValerieValerie Harris	Great Britain	3:04.6
18	5	Aoki, MasayoMasayo Aoki	Japan	3:05.6
19	3	Lusien, OdetteOdette Lusien	France	3:06.7
20	1	Kostina, VeraVera Kostina	Soviet Union	3:07.3
21	4	Hedegaard Jensen, KirstenKirsten Hedegaard Jensen	Denmark	3:07.5
22	3	Ward Petersen, EileenEileen Ward Petersen	Denmark	3:09.3
23	2	Zenziveyeva, RozaRoza Zenziveyeva	Soviet Union	3:10.5
23	1	Albert, IlseIlse Albert	Austria	3:12.5
24	1	Peters, GailGail Peters	United States	3:13.3
25	4	Strong, IreneIrene Strong	Canada	3:13.5
26	5	Sehorn, DellaDella Sehorn	United States	3:13.7
27	1	Knabenhans, MargritMargrit Knabenhans	Switzerland	3:17.4
28	2	Cornell, JuliaJulia Cornell	United States	3:17.7
29	2	Kwok, IreneIrene Kwok	Hong Kong	3:19.2
30	5	Kobi, LiselotteLiselotte Kobi	Switzerland	3:22.0
31	4	Nazir, DollyDolly Nazir	India	3:37.9
32	3	Saha, AratiArati Saha	India	3:40.8
33	2	Mróz, AleksandraAleksandra Mróz	Poland	—	DSQ[4]

Semifinals

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Székely, ÉvaÉva Székely	Hungary	2:54.0	Q, OR[4]
2	1	Novák-Gerard, ÉvaÉva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	2:55.8	Q
3	1	Killermann, KláraKlára Killermann	Hungary	2:56.5	Q
4	2	Gordon, ElenorElenor Gordon	Great Britain	2:57.8	Q
5	1	Havrysh, MariyaMariya Havrysh	Soviet Union	2:58.6	Q
6	2	Garritsen, NelNel Garritsen	Netherlands	2:59.5	Q
7	1	Hansen, JytteJytte Hansen	Denmark	2:59.5	Q
8	2	Eklund, Ulla-BrittUlla-Britt Eklund	Sweden	2:59.6	Q
9	1	Bonnier, LiesLies Bonnier	Netherlands	3:00.3
10	1	Bruins, RikaRika Bruins	Netherlands	3:02.4
11	2	Vergauwen, RaymondeRaymonde Vergauwen	Belgium	3:02.6
12	2	Wrigley, JeanJean Wrigley	Great Britain	3:03.2
13	2	Happe, UrsulaUrsula Happe	Germany	3:03.8
14	1	Sakamoto, KazukoKazuko Sakamoto	Japan	3:04.2
15	1	Lyons, NancyNancy Lyons	Australia	3:05.6
16	2	Mäkelä, KaijaKaija Mäkelä	Finland	3:06.2

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Székely, ÉvaÉva Székely	Hungary	2:51.7	OR[4]
	Novák-Gerard, ÉvaÉva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	2:54.4
	Gordon, ElenorElenor Gordon	Great Britain	2:57.6
4	Killermann, KláraKlára Killermann	Hungary	2:57.6
5	Hansen, JytteJytte Hansen	Denmark	2:57.8
6	Havrysh, MariyaMariya Havrysh	Soviet Union	2:58.9
7	Eklund, Ulla-BrittUlla-Britt Eklund	Sweden	3:01.8
8	Garritsen, NelNel Garritsen	Netherlands	3:02.1

Sources

• Edward A. Doyle, ed. (1956). "The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956" (PDF). Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Melbourne. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
• Sulo Kolkka, ed. (1955). "The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XV Olympiad Helsinki 1952" (PDF). Organising Committee for the Games of the XV Olympiad Helsinki. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
• "Swimming at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 1 July 2012.

References

1. "Swimming at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
2. Kolkka, p. 590.
3. Doyle, p. 588.
4. Kolkka, p. 591.