The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games

1972 Summer Olympics

The 1972 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from August 26 to September 11, 1972....

 took place between August 28 and 29. 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 two lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Sandra Neilson Sandra Neilson Sandra Neilson-Bell is a former freestyle swimmer from the United States, who won three golden medals as a 16-year old at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany...		58.59	OR
	Shirley Babashoff Shirley Babashoff Shirley Frances Babashoff is a former swimmer from the United States, who set six world records and earned a total of eight individual Olympic medals in her career...		59.02
	Shane Gould Shane Gould Shane Elizabeth Gould, MBE is an Australian former swimmer who won three gold medals, a silver and bronze in 1972 Summer Olympics. It was the greatest performance by an Australian at a single Olympics.-Biography:...		59.06
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...		59.21
5	Heidi Reineck		59.73
6	Andrea Eife		59.91
7	Magdolna Patóh		1:00.02
8	Enith Brigitha Enith Brigitha Enith Sijtje Maria Brigitha was one of Holland's leading swimmers in the 1970s, who represented the Netherlands twice at the Summer Olympics, starting in 1972 . She won two bronze medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, in the women's 100 m and 200 m freestyle...		1:00.09

Key: OR = Olympic record