Quick Facts Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XV Olympiad, Venue ...

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Helsinki Swimming Stadium
Date	26 July (heats) 27 July (semifinals) 29 July (final)
Competitors	34 from 19 nations
Winning time	2:51.7 (OR)
Medalists
Éva Székely  Hungary Éva Novák-Gerard  Hungary Elenor Gordon  Great Britain
← 1948 1956 →

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The women's 200 metre breaststroke event, included in the swimming competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics, took place on 26–29 July, at the Helsinki Swimming Stadium. In this event, swimmers covered four lengths of the 50-metre (160 ft) Olympic-sized pool employing the breaststroke. It was the sixth appearance of the event, which first appeared at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. A total of 33 competitors from 19 nations participated in the event.^[1]

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

World record	Éva Novák-Gerard (HUN)	2:48.5 s	Moscow, Soviet Union	5 May 1951	[2]
Olympic record	Nel van Vliet (NED)	2:57.2 s	London, United Kingdom	31 July 1948	[2]

The following records were established during the competition:

More information Date, Round ...

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
26 July	Heat 1	Éva Novák-Gerard	Hungary	2:54.0	OR
27 July	Semifinal 2	Éva Székely	Hungary	2:54.0	OR
29 July	Final	Éva Székely	Hungary	2:51.7	OR

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Hungarian Éva Székely used the butterfly stroke in this event, which was permissible at the time. At the 1956 Summer Olympics, the 200m breaststroke event only allowed the orthodox breaststroke to be used, and a new 100m butterfly event was created.^[3]

• 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2008. 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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 April 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
• "Swimming at the 1952 Helsinki 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.