The women's 400 metre freestyle event at the 1968 Olympic Games took place between 19 and 20 October. 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 eight lengths of the pool.
Results
Heats Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 María Teresa Ramírez 4:43.9 2 Gabriele Wetzko 4:49.8 3 Laura Vaca 4:53.3 4 Helen Elliott 4:59.9 5 Shen Bao-ni 5:41.8
Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Debbie Meyer 4:35.0 2 Norma Amezcua 5:00.5 3 Dominique Mollier 5:00.5 4 Sheila Clayton 5:08.0
Heat 3 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Pam Kruse 4:45.2 2 Marjatta Hara 4:53.0 3 Olga de Angulo 5:08.6 4 Sally Davison 5:11.2 5 Lylian Castillo 5:30.2 6 Lorna Blake 5:54.7
Heat 4 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Linda Gustavson 4:41.4 2 Marie-José Kersaudy 4:57.3 3 Kristina Moir 4:57.7 4 Susan Williams 5:02.7 5 Emilia Figueroa 5:21.0
Heat 5 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Karen Moras 4:39.6 2 Elisabeth Ljunggren-Morris 4:51.6 3 Novella Calligaris 4:59.4 4 Consuelo Changanaqui 5:02.9 5 Silvana Asturias 5:25.6
Heat 6 Rank Athlete Country Time Note 1 Angela Coughlan 4:47.4 2 Denise Langford 4:52.2 3 Eva Sigg 4:58.5 4 Christine Deakes 5:01.5 5 Patricia Olano 5:01.8
Final
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Debbie Meyer 4:31.8 OR Linda Gustavson 4:35.5 Karen Moras 4:37.0 4 Pam Kruse 4:37.2 5 Gabriele Wetzko 4:40.2 6 María Teresa Ramírez 4:42.2 7 Angela Coughlan 4:51.9 8 Elisabeth Ljunggren-Morris 4:53.8
Key: OR = Olympic record
References