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
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* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
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* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
-sized pool employing the
breaststroke. It was the seventh appearance of the event, which first appeared at the
1924 Summer Olympics in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. A total of 14 competitors from 10 nations participated in the event.
This was a decrease from the
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...
(33 competitors from 19 nations), because the breaststroke event was split into the 200m orthodox
breaststroke and the
100m butterfly event.
[Doyle, p. 77.]
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
Hungarian Éva Székely originally held the
Olympic record
Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games, including:
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...
in the event after swimming a time of 2:51.7 min
four years ago.
[Kolkka, p. 591.] However Székely had used the
butterfly stroke for her swim, which was now disallowed as a new
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been conteste ...
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.
[Doyle, p. 588.]
The following records were established during the competition:
Ursula Happe
Ursula Happe (; 20 October 1926 – 26 March 2021) was a German swimmer and Olympic champion. She competed at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, where she won the gold medal in 200 m breaststroke.[FINA
FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...]
in the late 1950s to ensure the majority of the race was swum on the surface.
Results
Heats
Finals
Sources
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 1956 Summer Olympics - Women's 200 Metre Breaststroke
Women's breaststroke 200 metres
1956 in women's swimming
Women's events at the 1956 Summer Olympics