Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Pool
Date	21 July (heats and final)
Competitors	39 from 22 nations
Winning time	2:33.35 (WR)
Medalists
Marina Kosheveya  Soviet Union Marina Yurchenya  Soviet Union Lyubov Rusanova  Soviet Union

Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Breaststroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men
Butterfly
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Individual medley
400 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4 × 100 m		women
4 × 200 m	men
Medley relay
4 × 100 m	men	women

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics, took place on July 21, at the Olympic Pool in Montreal, Canada.^[1] In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the twelfth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 39 competitors from 22 nations participated in the event.^[2]

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:

World record	Karla Linke (GDR)	2:34.99 s	Vienna, Austria	19 August 1974	[3]
Olympic record	Beverley Whitfield (AUS)	2:41.71 s	Munich, West Germany	29 August 1972	[4]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
21 July	Heat 1	Marina Kosheveya	Soviet Union	2:35.14	OR
21 July	Final	Marina Kosheveya	Soviet Union	2:33.35	OR	WR

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Marina Kosheveya	Soviet Union	2:35.14	Q, OR[4]
2	5	Karla Linke	East Germany	2:37.13	Q
3	4	Hannelore Anke	East Germany	2:37.13	Q
4	4	Lyubov Rusanova	Soviet Union	2:37.45	Q
5	2	Marina Yurchenya	Soviet Union	2:37.92	Q
6	1	Debbie Rudd	Great Britain	2:38.26	Q
7	3	Margaret Kelly	Great Britain	2:39.01	Q
8	5	Carola Nitschke	East Germany	2:39.06	Q
9	3	Joann Baker	Canada	2:39.27
10	5	Wijda Mazereeuw	Netherlands	2:39.59
11	3	Lisa Borsholt	Canada	2:39.94
12	2	Susanne Nielsson	Denmark	2:41.09
13	2	Ann-Sofi Roos	Sweden	2:41.38
14	2	Christine Jarvis	Great Britain	2:41.61
15	2	Laura Siering	United States	2:41.66
16	1	Marcia Morey	United States	2:41.85
17	4	Dagmar Rehak	West Germany	2:41.98
18	4	Anna Skolarczyk	Poland	2:42.05
19	2	Gabriele Askamp	West Germany	2:42.58
20	4	Judith Hudson	Australia	2:43.88
21	2	Kazuyo Inaba	Japan	2:44.08
22	5	Toshiko Haruoka	Japan	2:44.11
23	3	Melanie MacKay	Canada	2:45.08
24	4	Anette Fredriksson	Sweden	2:45.31
25	5	Janis Hape	United States	2:45.57
26	3	Annick de Susini	France	2:45.63
27	3	Karin Deleurand	Denmark	2:45.96
28	3	Chiharu Mori	Japan	2:46.04
29	4	Colette Crabbe	Belgium	2:47.16
30	5	Véronique Brisy	Belgium	2:47.55
31	1	Cristina Teixeira	Brazil	2:47.69
32	1	Allison Smith	Australia	2:50.11
33	1	Beatriz Camuñas	Mexico	2:50.78
34	4	Angela López	Puerto Rico	2:52.71
35	5	Nancy Deano	Philippines	2:53.08
36	3	Elena Ospitaletche	Uruguay	2:53.60
37	1	Dacyl Pérez	Venezuela	2:56.76
38	2	Patricia Spohn	Argentina	2:59.51
39	1	Éva Kiss	Hungary	—	DNS[2]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Marina Kosheveya	Soviet Union	2:33.35	WR[2][4]
	Marina Yurchenya	Soviet Union	2:36.08
	Lyubov Rusanova	Soviet Union	2:36.22
4	Hannelore Anke	East Germany	2:36.49
5	Karla Linke	East Germany	2:36.97
6	Carola Nitschke	East Germany	2:38.27
7	Margaret Kelly	Great Britain	2:38.37
8	Debbie Rudd	Great Britain	2:39.01

• "Games of the XXI Olympiad; Montréal 1976" (PDF). Volume Three. COJO 76. 1976. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
• Albert Schoenfeld, ed. (September 1976). "Results from the 1976 Olympic Games (Montreal)" (PDF). Swimming World & Junior Swimmer. Albert Schoenfeld. p. 90. ISSN 0039-7431. Retrieved 5 July 2012.