# Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre breaststroke

The women's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 1968 Summer Olympics took place between 18 and 19 October in the Alberca Olímpica Francisco Márquez. This swimming event used the breaststroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool. This was the first appearance for this event in the Olympics for the women swimmers.
American Katie Ball was the favorite to win three gold medals at the 1968 Olympics. She was the reigning world record holder in all four breaststroke distances and bettered her own world records in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Olympic Trials in August 1968. She arrived at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, however, with a case of influenza. She won her only Olympic medal, a gold, as a member of the winning U.S. 4×100-meter medley relay team by swimming the breaststroke leg of the four-person relay. Sharing the gold medal honors were her relay teammates Kaye Hall (backstroke), Ellie Daniel (butterfly) and Susan Pedersen (freestyle). In the 100-meter breaststroke final, Ball led close to the finish but physical exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she finished fifth. She was too ill to swim in the subsequent preliminary heats of the 200-meter breaststroke and was scratched from the event.

## Results
### Heats

Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Catie Ball | United States | 1:18.8 | OR |
| 2 | Jo-Anne Barnes | Australia | 1:19.1 | |
| 3 | Sue Jones | United States | 1:19.3 | |
| 4 | Dorothy Harrison | Great Britain | 1:19.6 | |
| 5 | Christine Filippovits | Austria | 1:19.9 | |
| 6 | Tamara Oynick | Mexico | 1:22.7 | |
| 7 | Liana Vicens | Puerto Rico | 1:25.2 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Djurdjica Bjedov | Yugoslavia | 1:17.7 | OR |
| 2 | Alla Grebennikova | Soviet Union | 1:19.3 | |
| 3 | Shlomit Nir | Israel | 1:20.9 | |
| 4 | Ann O'Connor | Ireland | 1:21.1 | |
| 5 | Marjan Janus | Netherlands | 1:21.9 | |
| 6 | Tamara Orejuela | Ecuador | 1:26.8 | |
| 7 | Celia Jokisch | El Salvador | 1:46.6 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Sharon Wichman | United States | 1:18.3 |
| 2 | Judy Playfair | Australia | 1:19.2 |
| 3 | Yvonne Brage | Sweden | 1:20.8 |
| 4 | Vreni Eberle | West Germany | 1:22.6 |
| 5 | Víctoria Casas | Mexico | 1:24.7 |
| 6 | María Moreño | El Salvador | 1:27.2 |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Uta Frommater | West Germany | 1:18.5 |
| 2 | Galina Prozumenschikova | Soviet Union | 1:18.6 |
| 3 | Svetlana Babanina | Soviet Union | 1:20.2 |
| 4 | Jill Slattery | Great Britain | 1:20.7 |
| 5 | Sue McKenzie | Australia | 1:20.9 |
| 6 | Ellen Ingvadóttir | Iceland | 1:22.6 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Ana María Norbis | Uruguay | 1:17.4 | OR |
| 2 | Kiyoe Nakagawa | Japan | 1:18.2 | |
| 3 | Diana Harris | Great Britain | 1:19.8 | |
| 4 | Yukari Takemoto | Japan | 1:20.7 | |
| 5 | Márta Egerváry | Hungary | 1:22.6 | |
| 6 | Arlette Wilmes | Luxembourg | 1:24.4 | |
| 7 | María Castro | El Salvador | 1:36.9 | |

### Semifinals

Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Sharon Wichman | United States | 1:16.8 | OR |
| 2 | Djurdjica Bjedov | Yugoslavia | 1:17.1 | |
| 3 | Galina Prozumenschikova | Soviet Union | 1:17.5 | |
| 4 | Joanne Barnes | Australia | 1:18.4 | |
| 5 | Alla Grebennikova | Soviet Union | 1:18.6 | |
| 6 | Christine Filippovits | Austria | 1:18.9 | |
| 7 | Dorothy Harrison | Great Britain | 1:19.6 | |
| 8 | Jill Slattery | Great Britain | 1:19.8 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Ana Norbis | Uruguay | 1:16.7 | OR |
| 2 | Catie Ball | United States | 1:16.8 | |
| 3 | Uta Frommater | West Germany | 1:16.9 | |
| 4 | Kiyoe Nakagawa | Japan | 1:17.7 | |
| 5 | Svetlana Babanina | Soviet Union | 1:18.3 | |
| 6 | Sue Jones | United States | 1:18.6 | |
| 7 | Judy Playfair | Australia | 1:19.3 | |
| 8 | Diana Harris | Great Britain | 1:19.3 | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Đurđica Bjedov | Yugoslavia | 1:15.8 | OR |
| | Galina Prozumenshchikova | Soviet Union | 1:15.9 | |
| | Sharon Wichman | United States | 1:16.1 | |
| 4 | Uta Frommater | West Germany | 1:16.2 | |
| 5 | Catie Ball | United States | 1:16.7 | |
| 6 | Kiyoe Nakagawa | Japan | 1:17.0 | |
| 7 | Svetlana Babanina | Soviet Union | 1:17.2 | |
| 8 | Ana María Norbis | Uruguay | 1:17.3 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record