# Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre individual medley

The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 1968 Summer Olympics took place 20 October. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool. The first length was swum using the butterfly stroke, the second with the backstroke, the third length in breaststroke, and the fourth freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events anyway.

## Medalists

| Gold | Claudia Kolb United States |
| Silver | Susan Pedersen United States |
| Bronze | Jan Henne United States |

## Results
### Heats

Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Sabine Steinbach | East Germany | 2:33.2 |
| 2 | Jan Henne | United States | 2:33.9 |
| 3 | Sue Eddy | Australia | 2:36.6 |
| 4 | Yvonne Tobis | Israel | 2:41.0 |
| 5 | Nelly Syro | Colombia | 2:55.7 |
| 6 | Liana Vicens | Puerto Rico | 2:57.0 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Tui Shipston | New Zealand | 2:35.5 |
| 2 | Dianna Rickard | Australia | 2:36.0 |
| 3 | Consuelo Changanaqui | Peru | 2:40.0 |
| 4 | Heli Matzdorf | West Germany | 2:42.1 |
| 5 | Felicia Ospitaletche | Uruguay | 2:47.8 |
| 6 | Donatella Ferracuti | El Salvador | 2:48.6 |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Yoshimi Nishigawa | Japan | 2:31.5 |
| 2 | Pru Chapman | New Zealand | 2:42.1 |
| 3 | Hedy García | Philippines | 2:42.3 |
| 4 | Ellen Ingvadóttir | Iceland | 2:43.1 |
| 5 | Hrafnhildur Guðmundsdóttir | Iceland | 2:44.3 |
| 6 | Ruth Apt | Uruguay | 2:45.9 |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Claudia Kolb | United States | 2:28.8 |
| 2 | Larisa Zakharova | Soviet Union | 2:34.6 |
| 3 | Shelagh Ratcliffe | Great Britain | 2:34.9 |
| 4 | Kirsten Strange-Campbell | Denmark | 2:39.4 |
| 5 | Eva Sigg | Finland | 2:41.0 |
| 6 | Lidia Ramírez | Mexico | 2:42.6 |
| 7 | María Moreño | El Salvador | 2:51.1 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Marianne Seydel | East Germany | 2:32.8 |
| 2 | Sue Pedersen | United States | 2:33.2 |
| 3 | Danièle Dorléans | France | 2:39.5 |
| 4 | Carla Galle | Belgium | 2:40.9 |
| 5 | Kristina Moir | Puerto Rico | 2:42.8 |
| 6 | Carmen Ferracuti | El Salvador | 2:44.7 |
| 7 | Olga de Angulo | Colombia | 2:48.7 |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Hennie Penterman | Netherlands | 2:36.7 |
| 2 | Judit Turóczy | Hungary | 2:38.8 |
| 3 | Márta Egerváry | Hungary | 2:40.7 |
| 4 | Mariya Nikolova | Bulgaria | 2:40.8 |
| 5 | Pilar von Carsten | Spain | 2:41.7 |
| 6 | Helmi Boxberger | West Germany | 2:45.2 |
| 7 | Shen Bao-ni | Taiwan | 2:48.1 |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Claudia Kolb | United States | 2:24.7 | OR |
| | Susan Pedersen | United States | 2:28.8 | |
| | Jan Henne | United States | 2:31.4 | |
| 4 | Sabine Steinbach | East Germany | 2:31.4 | |
| 5 | Yoshimi Nishigawa | Japan | 2:33.7 | |
| 6 | Marianne Seydel | East Germany | 2:33.7 | |
| 7 | Larisa Zakharova | Soviet Union | 2:37.0 | |
| | Shelagh Ratcliffe | Great Britain | DQ | |
Key: DQ = Disqualified, OR = Olympic record