Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre freestyle
# Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre freestyle

The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place September 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 four lengths of the pool.

## Medalists

| Gold | Shane Gould Australia |
| - | - |
| Silver | Shirley Babashoff United States |
| Bronze | Keena Rothhammer United States |

## Results

### Heats

Heat 1

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Ann Marshall | United States | 2:08.12 | OR, Q |
| 2 | Karin Tülling | East Germany | 2:09.01 | Q |
| 3 | Jutta Weber | West Germany | 2:12.44 | |
| 4 | Merrily Stratten | Canada | 2:12.44 | |
| 5 | Heather Coombridge | New Zealand | 2:14.78 | |
| 6 | Karen LeGresley | Canada | 2:16.34 | |
| 7 | Belinda Phillips | Jamaica | 2:19.49 | |

Heat 2

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Anke Rijnders | Netherlands | 2:09.09 | Q |
| 2 | Helen Gray | Australia | 2:12.76 | |
| 3 | Nadezhda Matyukhina | Soviet Union | 2:13.60 | |
| 4 | Françoise Monod | Switzerland | 2:15.30 | |
| 5 | Olga de Angulo | Colombia | 2:17.34 | |
| 6 | Silvia Borgini | Argentina | 2:23.11 | |

Heat 3

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 2:07.48 | OR, Q |
| 2 | Hansje Bunschoten | Netherlands | 2:08.58 | Q |
| 3 | Tatyana Zolotnitskaya | Soviet Union | 2:13.12 | |
| 4 | Yelena Timoshenko | Soviet Union | 2:14.06 | |
| 5 | Diana Sutherland | Great Britain | 2:16.00 | |
| 6 | Ileana Morales | Venezuela | 2:18.84 | |

Heat 4

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Shane Gould | Australia | 2:07.95 | Q |
| 2 | Deborah Palmer | Australia | 2:10.29 | |
| 3 | Uta Schütz | West Germany | 2:12.84 | |
| 4 | Mary Beth Rondeau | Canada | 2:13.52 | |
| 5 | Susan Edmondson | Great Britain | 2:13.54 | |
| 6 | Lucy Burle | Brazil | 2:18.57 | |
| 7 | Marcia Arriaga | Mexico | 2:18.93 | |

Heat 5

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Andrea Eife | East Germany | 2:07.95 | OR, Q |
| 2 | Shirley Babashoff | United States | 2:08.48 | Q |
| 3 | Gudrun Wegner | East Germany | 2:09.49 | |
| 4 | Angela Steinbach | West Germany | 2:10.59 | |
| 5 | Lesley Allardice | Great Britain | 2:13.43 | |
| 6 | Roselina Angel | Colombia | 2:18.62 | |
| 7 | Hsu Yue-yun | Chinese Taipei | 2:20.17 | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| | Shane Gould | Australia | 2:03.56 | WR |
| | Shirley Babashoff | United States | 2:04.33 | |
| | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 2:04.92 | |
| 4 | Ann Marshall | United States | 2:05.45 | |
| 5 | Andrea Eife | East Germany | 2:06.27 | |
| 6 | Hansje Bunschoten | Netherlands | 2:08.40 | |
| 7 | Anke Rijnders | Netherlands | 2:09.41 | |
| 8 | Karin Tülling | East Germany | 2:11.70 | |

Key: WR = World record

