# Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 200 metre freestyle

Women's 200 metre freestyle competition of the swimming events at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships took place on September 5.
Records show that prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
| World record | Shane Gould (AUS) | 2:03.56 | Munich, West Germany | 1 September 1972 |
| Competition record | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 5 September | Heat | Lesley Allardice | United Kingdom | 2:12.946 | CR |
| 5 September | Heat | Irwi Johansson | Sweden | 2:09.260 | CR |
| 5 September | Heat | Andrea Eife | East Germany | 2:08.099 | CR |
| 5 September | Heat | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 2:07.531 | CR |
| 5 September | Final | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 2:04.999 | CR |

## Results
### Heats

34 swimmers participated in 5 heats, qualified swimmers are listed:
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | - | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 2:07.531 | Q, CR |
| 2 | 5 | - | Shirley Babashoff | United States | 2:07.753 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | - | Andrea Eife | East Germany | 2:08.099 | Q, CR |
| 4 | 2 | - | Irwi Johansson | Sweden | 2:09.260 | Q, CR |
| 5 | 5 | - | Virginia Rickard | Australia | 2:09.936 | Q, PB |
| 6 | 2 | - | Elke Sehmisch | East Germany | 2:09.973 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | - | Jutta Weber | West Germany | 2:10.778 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | - | Veronica Stel | Netherlands | 2:10.878 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | - | Suzy Anderson | Australia | 2:11.179 | |
| 10 | 5 | - | Guylaine Berger | France | 2:11.400 | |
| 11 | 3 | - | Leslie Cliff | Canada | 2:11.506 | |
| 12 | 3 | - | Angela Steinbach | West Germany | 2:12.438 | |
| 13 | 1 | - | Lesley Allardice | Great Britain | 2:12.946 | CR |
| 14 | 5 | - | Tatyana Zolotnitskaya | Soviet Union | 2:13.141 | |
| 15 | 4 | - | Maria Guimarães | Brazil | 2:14.218 | |
| 16 | 1 | - | Brenda Holmes | Canada | 2:14.431 | |
| 17 | 4 | - | Federica Stabilini | Italy | 2:14.496 | |
| 18 | 5 | - | Lucy Burle | Brazil | 2:14.987 | |
| 19 | 1 | - | Marie Sundeborg | Sweden | 2:15.506 | |
| 20 | 1 | - | Ileana Morales | Venezuela | 2:15.518 | |
| 21 | 4 | - | Tamara Shelofastova | Soviet Union | 2:15.940 | |
| 22 | 3 | - | Chantal Schertz | France | 2:16.558 | |
| 23 | 1 | - | Cathy Whiting | New Zealand | 2:17.016 | |
| 24 | 3 | - | Elżbieta Pilawska | Poland | 2:17.716 | |
| 25 | 2 | - | Eleni Avlanitou | Greece | 2:19.384 | |
| 26 | 4 | - | María Saavedra | Colombia | 2:20.064 | |
| 27 | 4 | - | Marianela Huen | Venezuela | 2:21.916 | |
| 28 | 1 | - | Loida Moreda | Puerto Rico | 2:23.097 | |
| 29 | 5 | - | Leslie Thompson | Puerto Rico | 2:23.220 | |
| 30 | 2 | - | Eva Tomandl | Austria | 2:24.075 | |
| 31 | 4 | - | B. Garcia | Argentina | 2:24.328 | |
| 32 | 3 | - | Myriam Mizouni | Tunisia | 2:25.432 | |
| 33 | 3 | - | Edit Kovács | Hungary | 2:25.470 | |
| 34 | 2 | - | H. Nastaren | Iran | 2:45.589 | |

### Final

The results of the final are below.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | - | Keena Rothhammer | United States | 2:04.999 | CR |
| | - | Shirley Babashoff | United States | 2:05.332 | |
| | - | Andrea Eife | East Germany | 2:05.525 | |
| 4 | - | Virginia Rickard | Australia | 2:07.889 | PB |
| 5 | - | Irwi Johansson | Sweden | 2:08.895 | |
| 6 | - | Elke Sehmisch | East Germany | 2:09.331 | |
| 7 | - | Veronica Stel | Netherlands | 2:09.412 | |
| 8 | - | Jutta Weber | West Germany | 2:10.587 | |