The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1968 Olympic Games

1968 Summer Olympics

The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...

 took place between October 21 and 22. This swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 event used freestyle swimming

Freestyle swimming

Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a freestyle race, as this style is generally the fastest...

, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl

Front crawl

The front crawl, forward crawl, or freestyle is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is nearly universally used during a freestyle swimming competition, hence the synonymously used term "freestyle". It is one of two...

 or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Debbie Meyer Debbie Meyer Deborah Elizabeth Meyer is a former American swimmer who won the 200, 400, and 800 m swimming events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City...		2:10.5	OR
	Jan Henne Jan Henne Jan Henne is an American swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. She was admitted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1979.-External links:**...		2:11.0
	Jane Barkman Jane Barkman Jane Barkman is an American swimmer and olympic champion. She competed at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, where she received a gold medal in 4×100 m freestyle, and a bronze medal in 200 m freestyle. She was also part of the American team that won the gold medal in 4×100 m...		2:11.2
4	Gabriele Wetzko Gabriele Wetzko Gabriele Wetzko is a former German swimmer. Born in Leipzig, East Germany, she competed for East Germany in the 1968 Summer Olympics and again in the 1972 Summer Olympics...		2:12.3
5	Mirjana Šegrt		2:13.3
6	Claude Mandonnaud		2:14.9
7	Lyn Bell Lyn Bell Lynette Bell , known after marriage as Lynette Chipchase, was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won the silver medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics....		2:15.1
8	Olga Kozičová		2:16.0

Key: OR = Olympic record