# Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics, took place on November 29–30, at the Swimming and Diving Stadium. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the seventh appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 14 competitors from 10 nations participated in the event. This was a decrease from the 1952 Summer Olympics (33 competitors from 19 nations), because the breaststroke event was split into the 200m orthodox breaststroke and the 100m butterfly event.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
| World record | Ada den Haan (NED) | 2:46.4 min | Naarden, Netherlands | 13 November 1956 |
| Olympic record | Éva Novák-Gerard (HUN) | 2:54.0 min | Helsinki, Finland | 26 July 1952 |
Hungarian Éva Székely originally held the Olympic record in the event after swimming a time of 2:51.7 min four years ago. However Székely had used the butterfly stroke for her swim, which was now disallowed as a new 100 metres event had been introduced. Éva Novák-Gerard's time of 2:54.0 min in 1952 at the same event was instead replaced as the current Olympic record.
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | OR | WR |
| November 30 | Final | Ursula Happe | United Team of Germany | 2:53.1 min | OR | |
Ursula Happe's Olympic record was set using a technique of swimming long distances underwater during her run. This technique would later be disallowed by FINA in the late 1950s to ensure the majority of the race was swum on the surface.

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Ursula Happe | United Team of Germany | 2:54.1 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Klára Killermann | Hungary | 2:54.6 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Elenor Gordon | Great Britain | 2:55.4 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Éva Székely | Hungary | 2:55.8 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Vinka Jeričević | Yugoslavia | 2:56.0 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | Eva-Maria ten Elsen | United Team of Germany | 2:57.5 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | Christine Gosden | Great Britain | 2:58.2 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | Mary Sears | United States | 2:58.2 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | Jytte Hansen | Denmark | 2:59.8 | |
| 10 | 1 | Colette Goossens | Belgium | 3:00.5 | |
| 11 | 2 | Éva Novák-Gerard | Belgium | 3:02.7 | |
| 12 | 2 | Barbara Evans | Australia | 3:03.6 | |
| 13 | 1 | Elena Zennaro | Italy | 3:05.2 | |
| 14 | 2 | Ria Tobing | Indonesia | 3:14.2 | |

### Finals

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Ursula Happe | United Team of Germany | 2:53.1 | OR |
| | Éva Székely | Hungary | 2:54.8 | |
| | Eva-Maria ten Elsen | United Team of Germany | 2:55.1 | |
| 4 | Vinka Jeričević | Yugoslavia | 2:55.8 | |
| 5 | Klára Killermann | Hungary | 2:56.1 | |
| 6 | Elenor Gordon | Great Britain | 2:56.1 | |
| 7 | Mary Sears | United States | 2:57.2 | |
| 8 | Christine Gosden | Great Britain | 2:59.2 | |

## Sources

* Edward A. Doyle, ed. (1956). "The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956" (PDF). Organising Committee for the Games of the XVI Melbourne. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
* Sulo Kolkka, ed. (1955). "The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the Games of the XV Olympiad Helsinki 1952" (PDF). Organising Committee for the Games of the XV Olympiad Helsinki. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
* "Swimming at the 1956 Melbourne 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.