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

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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
1 Debbie Meyer  United States 9:24.0 OR
2 Pam Kruse  United States 9:35.7
3 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.