# Swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1936 Summer Olympics, took place from 8 to 11 August, at the (50 m) Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin. It was the fourth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 23 competitors from 12 nations participated in the event.
The world record holder at the time, Japanese Hideko Maehata, won the event four years after losing the gold medal to Australian Clare Dennis by one tenth of a second. Twenty four-year-old German silver medalist Martha Genenger broke the Olympic record in her heat on 8 August, but Maebata broke it again in the next heat with a time of 3:01.9 seconds. Danish Inge Sørensen won the bronze medal, becoming the youngest ever female Olympic medalist (12 years, 24 days). Sørensen's compatriot Valborg Christensen was favoured to win a medal in this event, but she was eliminated after finishing fifth in her semifinal.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
| World record | Hideko Maehata (JPN) | 3:00.4 min | Tokyo, Japan | 30 September 1933 |
| Olympic record | Clare Dennis (AUS) | 3:06.3 min | Los Angeles, United States | 9 August 1932 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | OR | WR |
| 8 August | Heat 2 | Martha Genenger | Germany | 3:02.9 | OR | |
| 8 August | Heat 3 | Hideko Maehata | Japan | 3:01.9 | OR | |

## Results
### Heats

The three fastest swimmers of each heat and the next two fastest swimmers overall (Hanni Hölzner and Dorothy Schiller) advanced to the semifinals on 9 August.

#### Heat 1

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Inge Sørensen | Denmark | 3:06.7 | Q |
| 2 | Kerstin Isberg | Sweden | 3:08.7 | Q |
| 3 | Jopie Waalberg | Netherlands | 3:10.4 | Q |
| 4 | Hanni Hölzner | Germany | 3:11.0 | q |
| 5 | Dorothy Schiller | United States | 3:17.4 | q |
| 6 | Vera Kingston | Great Britain | 3:21.7 | |
| 7 | Joan Langdon | Canada | 3:24.3 | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Martha Genenger | Germany | 3:02.9 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Jenny Kastein | Netherlands | 3:07.8 | Q |
| 3 | Unoko Tsuboi | Japan | 3:15.0 | Q |
| 4 | Anja Lappalainen | Finland | 3:19.1 | |
| 5 | Ann Govednik | United States | 3:25.3 | |

#### Heat 3

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Hideko Maehata | Japan | 3:01.9 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Valborg Christensen | Denmark | 3:07.8 | Q |
| 3 | Margaret Gomm | Great Britain | 3:15.7 | Q |
| 4 | Iris Cummings | United States | 3:21.9 | |
| 5 | Eliška Boubelová | Czechoslovakia | 3:25.8 | |
| 6 | Tenny Wyss | Switzerland | 3:31.3 | |

#### Heat 4

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Trude Wollschläger | Germany | 3:08.5 | Q |
| 2 | Doris Storey | Great Britain | 3:10.8 | Q |
| 3 | Maria Lenk | Brazil | 3:17.2 | Q |
| 4 | Edel Nielsen | Denmark | 3:21.3 | |
| 5 | Jo Stroomberg | Netherlands | 3:22.5 | |

### Semifinals

The three fastest swimmers of both semifinals and the best fourth-place finisher advanced to the final on 11 August.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Hideko Maehata | Japan | 3:03.1 | Q |
| 2 | Inge Sørensen | Denmark | 3:06.0 | Q |
| 3 | Hanni Hölzner | Germany | 3:08.8 | Q |
| 4 | Jopie Waalberg | Netherlands | 3:09.7 | Q |
| 5 | Trude Wollschläger | Germany | 3:10.3 | |
| 6 | Margaret Gomm | Great Britain | 3:15.8 | |
| 7 | Maria Lenk | Brazil | 3:17.7 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Martha Genenger | Germany | 3:02.8 | Q |
| 2 | Jenny Kastein | Netherlands | 3:09.2 | Q |
| 3 | Doris Storey | Great Britain | 3:09.8 | Q |
| 4 | Kerstin Isberg | Sweden | 3:11.4 | |
| 5 | Valborg Christensen | Denmark | 3:14.1 | |
| 6 | Unoko Tsuboi | Japan | 3:18.4 | |
| 7 | Dorothy Schiller | United States | 3:18.5 | |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | Hideko Maehata | Japan | 3:03.6 |
| | Martha Genenger | Germany | 3:04.2 |
| | Inge Sørensen | Denmark | 3:07.8 |
| 4 | Hanni Hölzner | Germany | 3:09.5 |
| 4 | Jopie Waalberg | Netherlands | 3:09.5 |
| 6 | Doris Storey | Great Britain | 3:09.7 |
| 7 | Jenny Kastein | Netherlands | 3:12.8 |