The

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

competitions at the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

took place from 17 to 26 October at the

Alberca Olímpica Francisco Márquez The Alberca Olímpica Francisco Márquez is an indoor swimming pool Olympic facility located in Mexico City, Mexico. It has a capacity of 4,300. It hosted the 1968 Summer Olympics for competitions of swimming, diving, water polo, and the swimmin ...

. Swimming featured a record total of 29 events. There was a total of 468 participants from 51 countries competing. The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

dominated the competition, winning 52 of 87 possible medals. 15-year-old American phenom

Debbie Meyer Deborah Elizabeth Meyer (born August 14, 1952), also known by her married name Deborah Weber, is an American former competition swimmer, a three-time Olympic champion, and a former world record-holder in four events. Meyer won the 200-, 400-, a ...

from Maryland won three gold medals.

Events

Swimming at the 1968 Olympics featured a total of 29 events (15 for men and 14 for women). This was a significant increase from the 18 events contested in the previous Olympic Games. The following events were contested (all pool events are long course, and distances are in meters): * Freestyle: 100, 200, 400, and 1,500 (men's); 100, 200, 400 and 800 (women's) *

Backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

: 100 and 200; *

Breaststroke Breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and that it can be s ...

: 100 and 200; *

Butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

: 100 and 200; *

Individual medley Medley is a combination of four different swimming styles—backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle—into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as a medley relay. Individual m ...

: 200 and 400; *

Relays A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

: 4×100 free, 4×200 free, 4×100 medley (men's); 4×100 free, 4×100 medley (women's)

Participating nations

468 swimmers from 51 nations competed.

Medal table

Medal summary

Men's events

Women's events

Gallery of the medalists

Some of the Olympic medalists in Mexico City: File:Don Schollander 1964.jpg,

Don Schollander Donald Arthur Schollander (born April 30, 1946) is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in four events. He won a total of five gold medals and one silver medal at the 1964 and 1968 S ...

, winner of the 4×200-metre freestyle relay. File:Mark Spitz.jpg,

Mark Spitz Mark Andrew Spitz (born February 10, 1950) is an American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning seven gold medals, each in world-record ti ...

, winner of the 4×100-metre freestyle relay and 4×200-metre freestyle relay. File:Mike Burton (swimmer).jpg, Mike Burton, winner of the 400-metre freestyle and 1500-metre freestyle. File:Debbie Meyer 1968.jpg,

, winner of the 200-metre freestyle, 400-metre freestyle, and 800-metre freestyle. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J0411-0003-001, Roland Matthes.jpg,

Roland Matthes Roland Matthes (, ; 17 November 1950 – 20 December 2019) was a German swimmer and the most successful backstroke swimmer of all time. Between April 1967 and August 1974 he won all backstroke competitions he entered. He won four European champ ...

, winner of the 100-metre backstroke and 200-metre backstroke. File:Carl Robie.jpg,

Carl Robie Carl Joseph Robie III (May 12, 1945 – November 29, 2011) was an American swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. Biography At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Robie received a silver medal for his second-place fi ...

, winner of the 200-metre butterfly. File:Charlie Hickcox 1968.jpg, Charlie Hickcox, winner of the 200-metre individual medley and 400-metre individual medley. File:Claudia Kolb 1970.jpg,

Claudia Kolb Claudia Anne Kolb (born December 19, 1949), also known by her married name Claudia Thomas, is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in four events. Kolb represented the United States a ...

, winner of the 200-metre individual medley and 400-metre individual medley. File:Donald McKenzie USA Olympic Swimmer.jpg, Don McKenzie, winner of the 100-metre breaststroke and 4×100-metre medley relay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 1968 Summer Olympics 1968 1968 Summer Olympics events 1968 in swimming