Competitors 23 from 12 nations Start date 1936 | Winning time 3:03.6 | |
Location Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin Venue Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin | ||
The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics, took place on August 8–11, at the Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the fourth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 23 competitors from 12 nations participated in the event. The world record holder at the time, Japanese Hideko Maehata, won the event four years after losing the gold medal to Australian Clare Dennis by one tenth of a second. Fourteen-year-old German silver medalist Martha Genenger broke the Olympic record in her heat on August 8, but Maebata broke it again in the next heat with a time of 3:01.9 seconds. Danish Inge Sørensen won the bronze medal, becoming the youngest ever female Olympic medalist (12 years, 24 days). Sørensen's compatriot Valborg Christensen was favoured to win a medal in this event, but she was eliminated after finishing fifth in her semifinal.
Contents
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
The following records were established during the competition:
Heats
The three fastest swimmers of each heat and the next two fastest swimmers overall (Hanni Hölzner and Dorothy Schiller) advanced to the semifinals on 9 August.
Semifinals
The three fastest swimmers of both semifinals and the best fourth-place finisher advanced to the final on 11 August.