# Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre breaststroke

The women's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 23 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Silke Hörner (GDR) | 1:07.91 | Strasbourg, France | 21 August 1987 |
| Olympic record | Petra van Staveren (NED) | 1:09.88 | Los Angeles, United States | 2 August 1984 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 23 September | Heat 4 | Tanya Dangalakova | Bulgaria | 1:08.35 | OR |
| 23 September | Heat 5 | Silke Hörner | East Germany | 1:08.35 | =OR |
| 23 September | Final A | Tanya Dangalakova | Bulgaria | 1:07.95 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Tanya Dangalakova | Bulgaria | 1:08.35 | Q, OR |
| 1 | 6 | Silke Hörner | East Germany | 1:08.35 | Q, OR |
| 3 | 6 | Allison Higson | Canada | 1:08.39 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | Yelena Volkova | Soviet Union | 1:09.86 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | Antoaneta Frenkeva | Bulgaria | 1:10.09 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | Tracey McFarlane | United States | 1:10.59 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | Annett Rex | East Germany | 1:10.61 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | Huang Xiaomin | China | 1:10.78 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | Svetlana Kuzmina | Soviet Union | 1:10.83 | q |
| 10 | 5 | Keltie Duggan | Canada | 1:10.95 | q |
| 11 | 6 | Ingrid Lempereur | Belgium | 1:11.00 | q, NR |
| 12 | 6 | Susan Johnson | United States | 1:11.08 | q |
| 13 | 6 | Gabriella Csépe | Hungary | 1:11.10 | q |
| 14 | 5 | Manuela Dalla Valle | Italy | 1:11.25 | q |
| 15 | 6 | Lara Hooiveld | Australia | 1:11.40 | q |
| 16 | 4 | Suki Brownsdon | Great Britain | 1:11.66 | q |
| 17 | 5 | Linda Moes | Netherlands | 1:11.84 | |
| 18 | 3 | Park Sung-won | South Korea | 1:12.32 | |
| 19 | 6 | Dorota Chylak | Poland | 1:12.38 | |
| 20 | 5 | Margaret Hohmann | Great Britain | 1:12.67 | |
| 21 | 3 | Brigitte Becue | Belgium | 1:12.90 | |
| 22 | 4 | Britta Dahm | West Germany | 1:12.98 | |
| 23 | 3 | Ragnheiður Runólfsdóttir | Iceland | 1:13.01 | |
| 24 | 4 | Pascaline Louvrier | France | 1:13.23 | |
| 25 | 3 | Yoshie Nishioka | Japan | 1:13.36 | |
| 26 | 3 | Virginie Bojaryn | France | 1:13.55 | |
| 27 | 4 | Chen Huiling | China | 1:13.65 | |
| 28 | 2 | Karen Horning | Peru | 1:14.03 | |
| 29 | 3 | Nancy Kemp-Arendt | Luxembourg | 1:14.99 | |
| 30 | 3 | Patricia Brülhart | Switzerland | 1:15.00 | |
| 31 | 3 | Kornelia Stawicka | Poland | 1:15.41 | |
| 32 | 2 | Carwai Seto | Chinese Taipei | 1:15.47 | |
| 33 | 2 | Alicia María Boscatto | Argentina | 1:15.67 | |
| 34 | 6 | Hiroko Nagasaki | Japan | 1:16.63 | |
| 35 | 2 | Sigrid Niehaus | Costa Rica | 1:16.65 | |
| 36 | 1 | Montserrat Hidalgo | Costa Rica | 1:18.42 | |
| 37 | 2 | Valentina Aracil | Argentina | 1:19.60 | |
| 38 | 2 | Dipika Chanmugam | Sri Lanka | 1:20.18 | |
| 39 | 2 | Kimberly Chen | Chinese Taipei | 1:20.95 | |
| 40 | 1 | Katerine Moreno | Bolivia | 1:22.52 | |
| 41 | 1 | Ana Martins | Angola | 1:24.01 | |
| 42 | 1 | Nádia Cruz | Angola | 1:24.46 | |
| | 2 | Annemarie Munk | Hong Kong | DNS | |
| | 4 | Heike Esser | West Germany | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 9 | 4 | Svetlana Kuzmina | Soviet Union | 1:10.42 | |
| 10 | 5 | Keltie Duggan | Canada | 1:10.58 | |
| 11 | 3 | Ingrid Lempereur | Belgium | 1:10.86 | NR |
| 12 | 7 | Manuela Dalla Valle | Italy | 1:10.95 | |
| 13 | 6 | Susan Johnson | United States | 1:11.08 | |
| 14 | 2 | Gabriella Csépe | Hungary | 1:11.24 | |
| 15 | 1 | Lara Hooiveld | Australia | 1:11.26 | |
| 16 | 8 | Suki Brownsdon | Great Britain | 1:11.88 | |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Tanya Dangalakova | Bulgaria | 1:07.95 | OR |
| | 2 | Antoaneta Frenkeva | Bulgaria | 1:08.74 | |
| | 5 | Silke Hörner | East Germany | 1:08.83 | |
| 4 | 3 | Allison Higson | Canada | 1:08.86 | |
| 5 | 6 | Yelena Volkova | Soviet Union | 1:09.24 | |
| 6 | 7 | Tracey McFarlane | United States | 1:09.60 | |
| 7 | 8 | Huang Xiaomin | China | 1:10.53 | |
| 8 | 1 | Annett Rex | East Germany | 1:10.67 | |