Misplaced Pages

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XI Olympiad
Victory ceremony
Venue	Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin
Date	8 August (heats) 9 August (semifinals) 11 August (final)
Competitors	23 from 12 nations
Winning time	3:03.6
Medalists
Hideko Maehata  Japan Martha Genenger  Germany Inge Sørensen  Denmark
← 19321948 →

Swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
Breaststroke
200 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4 × 100 m		women
4 × 200 m	men
v t e

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1936 Summer Olympics, took place from 8 to 11 August, at the (50 m) Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin. It was the fourth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 23 competitors from 12 nations participated in the event.

The world record holder at the time, Japanese Hideko Maehata, won the event four years after losing the gold medal to Australian Clare Dennis by one tenth of a second. Twenty four-year-old German silver medalist Martha Genenger broke the Olympic record in her heat on 8 August, but Maebata broke it again in the next heat with a time of 3:01.9 seconds. Danish Inge Sørensen won the bronze medal, becoming the youngest ever female Olympic medalist (12 years, 24 days). Sørensen's compatriot Valborg Christensen was favoured to win a medal in this event, but she was eliminated after finishing fifth in her semifinal.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:

World record	Hideko Maehata (JPN)	3:00.4 min	Tokyo, Japan	30 September 1933
Olympic record	Clare Dennis (AUS)	3:06.3 min	Los Angeles, United States	9 August 1932

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
8 August	Heat 2	Martha Genenger	Germany	3:02.9	OR
8 August	Heat 3	Hideko Maehata	Japan	3:01.9	OR

Results

Heats

The three fastest swimmers of each heat and the next two fastest swimmers overall (Hanni Hölzner and Dorothy Schiller) advanced to the semifinals on 9 August.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Inge Sørensen	Denmark	3:06.7	Q
2	Kerstin Isberg	Sweden	3:08.7	Q
3	Jopie Waalberg	Netherlands	3:10.4	Q
4	Hanni Hölzner	Germany	3:11.0	q
5	Dorothy Schiller	United States	3:17.4	q
6	Vera Kingston	Great Britain	3:21.7
7	Joan Langdon	Canada	3:24.3

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Martha Genenger	Germany	3:02.9	Q, OR
2	Jenny Kastein	Netherlands	3:07.8	Q
3	Unoko Tsuboi	Japan	3:15.0	Q
4	Anja Lappalainen	Finland	3:19.1
5	Ann Govednik	United States	3:25.3

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Hideko Maehata	Japan	3:01.9	Q, OR
2	Valborg Christensen	Denmark	3:07.8	Q
3	Margaret Gomm	Great Britain	3:15.7	Q
4	Iris Cummings	United States	3:21.9
5	Eliška Boubelová	Czechoslovakia	3:25.8
6	Tenny Wyss	Switzerland	3:31.3

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Trude Wollschläger	Germany	3:08.5	Q
2	Doris Storey	Great Britain	3:10.8	Q
3	Maria Lenk	Brazil	3:17.2	Q
4	Edel Nielsen	Denmark	3:21.3
5	Jo Stroomberg	Netherlands	3:22.5

Semifinals

The three fastest swimmers of both semifinals and the best fourth-place finisher advanced to the final on 11 August.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Hideko Maehata	Japan	3:03.1	Q
2	Inge Sørensen	Denmark	3:06.0	Q
3	Hanni Hölzner	Germany	3:08.8	Q
4	Jopie Waalberg	Netherlands	3:09.7	Q
5	Trude Wollschläger	Germany	3:10.3
6	Margaret Gomm	Great Britain	3:15.8
7	Maria Lenk	Brazil	3:17.7

Semifinal 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Martha Genenger	Germany	3:02.8	Q
2	Jenny Kastein	Netherlands	3:09.2	Q
3	Doris Storey	Great Britain	3:09.8	Q
4	Kerstin Isberg	Sweden	3:11.4
5	Valborg Christensen	Denmark	3:14.1
6	Unoko Tsuboi	Japan	3:18.4
7	Dorothy Schiller	United States	3:18.5

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Hideko Maehata	Japan	3:03.6
	Martha Genenger	Germany	3:04.2
	Inge Sørensen	Denmark	3:07.8
4	Hanni Hölzner	Germany	3:09.5
	Jopie Waalberg	Netherlands	3:09.5
6	Doris Storey	Great Britain	3:09.7
7	Jenny Kastein	Netherlands	3:12.8

References

General

• "Official Report of the Organising Committee of the Games of the XI Olympiad Berlin" (PDF). The Official Report: Volume 2. Wilhelm Limpert. 1937. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 July 2007. Retrieved 29 June 2012.

Specific

1. ^ "Swimming at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games: Women's 200 metres Breaststroke". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
2. Sherwani, Sabey (24 August 2008). "Who is the youngest Olympic gold medallist?". The Times of India. The Times Group. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
3. Vinson, Maribel Y. (19 July 1936). "Women in Sports". The New York Times. Arthur Hays Sulzberger. p. S2.
4. "Japanese Natators Broke 11 Records". The Washington Post. Eugene Meyer. 24 December 1936. p. 16.
5. ^ Limpert 1937, p. 971.
6. "Olympic Records Yesterday; Swimming". The New York Times. Arthur Hays Sulzberger. 9 August 1936. p. S1.
7. ^ Limpert 1937, p. 972.

• Swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics
• 1936 in women's swimming
• Women's events at the 1936 Summer Olympics