# Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics, took place from 30 July to 3 August at the Empire Pool. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the fifth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. It was also the first appearance of the event since the outbreak of World War II. A total of 22 competitors from 14 nations participated in the event.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
| World record | Nel van Vliet (NED) | 2:49.2 s | Hilversum, Netherlands | 20 July 1947 |
| Olympic record | Hideko Maehata (JPN) | 3:01.9 s | Berlin, Germany | 11 August 1936 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | OR |
| 30 July | Heat 2 | Éva Székely | Hungary | 3:01.2 | OR |
| 30 July | Heat 3 | Nel van Vliet | Netherlands | 2:57.4 | OR |
| 31 July | Semifinals | Nel van Vliet | Netherlands | 2:57.0 | OR |
Hungarian Éva Székely set her Olympic record in the event using the butterfly stroke, which was allowed at the time. At the 1956 Summer Olympics, a new 100m butterfly event was created. The technique was disallowed in the 200m breaststroke event that year and in all future Olympic Games.

## Results
### Heats

The four fastest swimmers in each heat and the next four fastest swimmers overall advanced to the semifinals on 31 July.

#### Heat 1

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Nancy Lyons | Australia | 3:02.9 | Q |
| 1 | Éva Novák-Gerard | Hungary | 3:02.9 | Q |
| 3 | Janny de Groot | Netherlands | 3:04.4 | Q |
| 4 | Elizabeth Church | Great Britain | 3:07.4 | Q |
| 5 | Dorotea Turnbull | Argentina | 3:12.2 | q |
| 6 | Liselotte Kobi | Switzerland | 3:16.2 | q |
| 7 | Jeanne Wilson | United States | 3:18.3 | |
| 8 | Anna Ólafsdóttir | Iceland | 3:19.9 | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Éva Székely | Hungary | 3:01.2 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Tonnie Hom | Netherlands | 3:06.0 | Q |
| 3 | Yvonne Vandekerckhove | Belgium | 3:09.0 | Q |
| 4 | Jacqueline Bertrand | France | 3:10.7 | Q |
| 5 | Jean Caplin | Great Britain | 3:17.0 | q |
| 6 | Helga Diederichsen | Mexico | 3:27.8 | |
| 7 | Penny Pence | United States | 3:28.1 | |

#### Heat 3

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Nel van Vliet | Netherlands | 2:57.4 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Jytte Hansen | Denmark | 3:09.1 | Q |
| 3 | Margit Leskinen | Finland | 3:11.4 | Q |
| 4 | Elenor Gordon | Great Britain | 3:13.3 | Q |
| 5 | Irene Strong | Canada | 3:14.2 | q |
| 6 | Clara LaMore | United States | 3:23.6 | |
| 7 | Þórdís Árnadóttir | Iceland | 3:26.1 | |

### Semifinals

The three fastest swimmers in each heat and the next two fastest overall advanced to the final on 3 August.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Nancy Lyons | Australia | 3:00.9 | Q |
| 2 | Janny de Groot | Netherlands | 3:01.4 | Q |
| 3 | Éva Székely | Hungary | 3:02.8 | Q |
| 4 | Yvonne Vandekerckhove | Belgium | 3:09.7 | |
| 5 | Jacqueline Bertrand | France | 3:13.1 | |
| 6 | Jean Caplin | Great Britain | 3:14.4 | |
| 6 | Dorotea Turnbull | Argentina | 3:14.4 | |
| 8 | Irene Strong | Canada | 3:16.9 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Nel van Vliet | Netherlands | 2:57.0 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Éva Novák-Gerard | Hungary | 2:58.0 | Q |
| 3 | Jytte Hansen | Denmark | 3:05.5 | Q |
| 4 | Tonnie Hom | Netherlands | 3:05.7 | q |
| 5 | Elizabeth Church | Great Britain | 3:07.1 | q |
| 6 | Margit Leskinen | Finland | 3:10.0 | |
| 7 | Liselotte Kobi | Switzerland | 3:13.9 | |
| 8 | Elenor Gordon | Great Britain | 3:15.8 | |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | Nel van Vliet | Netherlands | 2:57.2 |
| | Nancy Lyons | Australia | 2:57.7 |
| | Éva Novák-Gerard | Hungary | 3:00.2 |
| 4 | Éva Székely | Hungary | 3:02.5 |
| 5 | Janny de Groot | Netherlands | 3:06.2 |
| 6 | Elizabeth Church | Great Britain | 3:06.1 |
| 7 | Tonnie Hom | Netherlands | 3:07.5 |
| 8 | Jytte Hansen | Denmark | 3:08.1 |

## Sources

* "The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad" (PDF). The Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. 1948. p. 462. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
* "Swimming at the 1948 London Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2012.