Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metre freestyle
# Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metre freestyle

The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between September 2 and 3. 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.

## Medalists

| Gold | Keena Rothhammer United States |
| - | - |
| Silver | Shane Gould Australia |
| Bronze | Novella Calligaris Italy |

## Results

### Heats

Heat 1

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Novella Calligaris | Italy | 9:02.96 |
| 2 | Andrea Eife | East Germany | 9:22.88 |
| 3 | Barbara Schwarzfeldt | West Germany | 9:24.89 |
| 4 | María Teresa Ramírez | Mexico | 9:25.09 |
| 5 | Françoise Monod | Switzerland | 9:50.73 |
| 6 | Hsu Yue-yun | Chinese Taipei | 10:08.49 |
| 7 | Eleni Avlonitou | Greece | 10:10.88 |

Heat 2

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 8:59.69 |
| 2 | Hansje Bunschoten | Netherlands | 9:21.13 |
| 3 | Uta Schütz | West Germany | 9:22.93 |
| 4 | Olga de Angulo | Colombia | 9:43.27 |
| 5 | Helga Wagner | West Germany | 9:44.17 |
| 6 | Olga Petrusyova | Soviet Union | 10:04.96 |
| 7 | Silvia Borgini | Argentina | 10:09.19 |

Heat 3

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Ann Simmons | United States | 9:11.94 |
| 2 | Narelle Moras | Australia | 9:17.95 |
| 3 | Roselina Angee | Colombia | 9:38.08 |
| 4 | June Green | Great Britain | 9:39.91 |
| 5 | Laura Vaca | Mexico | 9:50.10 |
| 6 | Belinda Phillips | Jamaica | 9:53.99 |
| 7 | Avis Willington | Great Britain | 10:10.91 |

Heat 4

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Shane Gould | Australia | 9:10.84 |
| 2 | Gudrun Wegner | East Germany | 9:11.32 |
| 3 | Karin Tülling | East Germany | 9:25.73 |
| 4 | Federica Stabilini | Italy | 9:27.84 |
| 5 | Mary Beth Rondeau | Canada | 9:43.31 |
| 6 | Antonella Valentini | Italy | 9:49.07 |
| 7 | Patricia López | Argentina | 10:06.39 |

Heat 5

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Jo Harshbarger | United States | 9:14.46 |
| 2 | Karen Moras | Australia | 9:25.11 |
| 3 | Jaynie Parkhouse | New Zealand | 9:34.65 |
| 4 | Karen LeGresley | Canada | 9:37.13 |
| 5 | Brenda Holmes | Canada | 9:39.44 |
| 6 | Susan Jones | Great Britain | 9:47.35 |
| 7 | Kirsten Knudsen | Denmark | 10:02.56 |
| 8 | Aisling O'Leary | Ireland | 10:18.05 |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 8:53.68 | WR |
| | Shane Gould | Australia | 8:56.39 | |
| | Novella Calligaris | Italy | 8:57.46 | |
| 4 | Ann Simmons | United States | 8:57.62 | |
| 5 | Gudrun Wegner | East Germany | 8:58.89 | |
| 6 | Jo Harshbarger | United States | 9:01.21 | |
| 7 | Hansje Bunschoten | Netherlands | 9:16.69 | |
| 8 | Narelle Moras | Australia | 9:19.06 | |

Key: WR = World record

