Swimming at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
Venue	Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto
Date	26 August (heats) 27 August (final)
Competitors	30 from 19 nations
Winning time	2:49.5 (OR)
Medalists
Anita Lonsbrough   Great Britain   Wiltrud Urselmann   Germany   Barbara Göbel   Germany

Swimming at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men		women
400 m	men		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men		women
Breaststroke
200 m	men		women
Butterfly
100 m			women
200 m	men
Freestyle relay
4×100 m			women
4×200 m	men
Medley relay
4×100 m	men		women

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1960 Summer Olympics, took place on August 26–27, at the Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the eighth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 30 competitors from 19 nations participated in the event.^[1] British gold-medalist Anita Lonsbrough became the first swimmer to break the world record in this event, with a time of 2:49.5 in the final.

Records

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

World record	Wiltrud Urselmann (FRG)	2:50.2 s	Aachen, West Germany	6 June 1960	[2]
Olympic record	Ursula Happe (GER)	2:53.1 s	Melbourne, Australia	30 November 1956	[2]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
August 26	Heat 2	Anita Lonsbrough	Great Britain	2:53.3	OR
August 26	Heat 3	Wiltrud Urselmann	Germany	2:52.0	OR
August 27	Final	Anita Lonsbrough	Great Britain	2:49.5	OR	WR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	4	Urselmann, WiltrudWiltrud Urselmann	Germany	2:52.0	Q, OR[3]
2	2	4	Lonsbrough, AnitaAnita Lonsbrough	Great Britain	2:53.3	Q, OR[4]
3	4	5	den Haan, AdaAda den Haan	Netherlands	2:54.0	Q
4	1	4	GobelBarbara Göbel	Germany	2:54.2	Q
5	3	5	Kok, GrettaGretta Kok	Netherlands	2:55.2	Q
6	3	2	Kempner, PattyPatty Kempner	United States	2:55.5	Q
7	3	6	Kristensen, DorritDorrit Kristensen	Denmark	2:56.2	Q
8	4	4	Warner, AnneAnne Warner	United States	2:56.3	Q
9	3	3	Gosden, ChristineChristine Gosden	Great Britain	2:56.9
10	4	7	Zennaro, ElenaElena Zennaro	Italy	2:57.0
11	1	3	Lassig, RosemaryRosemary Lassig	Australia	2:57.4
12	1	5	Takamatsu, YoshikoYoshiko Takamatsu	Japan	2:57.6
13	2	5	Killermann, KláraKlára Killermann	Hungary	2:58.7
14	2	3	Eriksson, BarbroBarbro Eriksson	Sweden	2:59.8
15	4	6	Andersen, IngeInge Andersen	Denmark	2:57.6
16	4	2	Hogan, JanetJanet Hogan	Australia	3:00.3
17	2	6	Mirkowitch, AmélieAmélie Mirkowitch	France	3:01.5
18	4	3	Kadlecová, MartaMarta Kadlecová	Czechoslovakia	3:01.7
19	1	2	Pialat, MichèleMichèle Pialat	France	3:02.2
20	2	2	Filippovits, ChristlChristl Filippovits	Austria	3:02.6
21	2	7	Korobova, LyudmilaLyudmila Korobova	Soviet Union	3:02.7
22	1	6	Maurer, EveEve Maurer	Soviet Union	3:03.1
23	1	1	Miners, MegMeg Miners	Rhodesia	3:05.2
24	3	7	McHale, JudithJudith McHale	Canada	3:07.7
25	1	7	Wöber, ChristlChristl Wöber	Austria	3:09.3
26	2	1	Marcellini, LucianaLuciana Marcellini	Italy	3:09.8
27	1	8	Hungerbühler, MayaMaya Hungerbühler	Switzerland	3:10.1
28	3	8	Castañe, IsabelIsabel Castañe	Spain	3:10.4
29	4	1	Veloso, ReginaRegina Veloso	Portugal	3:13.3
30	3	1	Schmidlin, SuzetteSuzette Schmidlin	Switzerland	—	DNS[3]

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Lonsbrough, AnitaAnita Lonsbrough	Great Britain	2:49.5	WR[3]
	4	Urselmann, WiltrudWiltrud Urselmann	Germany	2:50.0
	6	Göbel, BarbaraBarbara Göbel	Germany	2:53.6
4	3	den Haan, AdaAda den Haan	Netherlands	2:54.4
5	2	Kok, GrettaGretta Kok	Netherlands	2:54.6
6	8	Warner, AnneAnne Warner	United States	2:55.4
7	7	Kempner, PattyPatty Kempner	United States	2:55.5
8	1	Kristensen, DorritDorrit Kristensen	Denmark	2:55.7

Sources

• "The Games of the XVII Olympiad Rome 1960" (PDF). Volume Two, Part 2. Organizing Committee of the Games of the XVII Olympiad Rome. 1960. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
• "LCM Women Records" (PDF). USA Swimming. 9 May 2012. p. 15. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
• "Swimming at the 1960 Rome Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 1 July 2012.

References

1. "Swimming at the 1960 Rome Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
2. USA Swimming, p. 17.
3. OCGOR, p. 590
4. "Swimming at the 1960 Roma Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke Round One". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved 1 July 2012.