Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre individual medley
The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 1968 Summer Olympics took place 20 October. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool. The first length was swum using the butterfly stroke, the second with the backstroke, the third length in breaststroke, and the fourth freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events anyway.
Medalists
Results
Heats
Heat 1| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Sabine Steinbach | 2:33.2 | ||
| 2 | Jan Henne | 2:33.9 | ||
| 3 | Sue Eddy | 2:36.6 | ||
| 4 | Yvonne Tobis | 2:41.0 | ||
| 5 | Nelly Syro | 2:55.7 | ||
| 6 | Liana Vicens | 2:57.0 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Tui Shipston | 2:35.5 | ||
| 2 | Dianna Rickard | 2:36.0 | ||
| 3 | Consuelo Changanaqui | 2:40.0 | ||
| 4 | Heli Matzdorf | 2:42.1 | ||
| 5 | Felicia Ospitaletche | 2:47.8 | ||
| 6 | Donatella Ferracuti | 2:48.6 |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Yoshimi Nishigawa | 2:31.5 | ||
| 2 | Pru Chapman | 2:42.1 | ||
| 3 | Hedy García | 2:42.3 | ||
| 4 | Ellen Ingvadóttir | 2:43.1 | ||
| 5 | Hrafnhildur Guðmundsdóttir | 2:44.3 | ||
| 6 | Ruth Apt | 2:45.9 |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Claudia Kolb | 2:28.8 | ||
| 2 | Larisa Zakharova | 2:34.6 | ||
| 3 | Shelagh Ratcliffe | 2:34.9 | ||
| 4 | Kirsten Strange-Campbell | 2:39.4 | ||
| 5 | Eva Sigg | 2:41.0 | ||
| 6 | Lidia Ramírez | 2:42.6 | ||
| 7 | María Moreño | 2:51.1 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Marianne Seydel | 2:32.8 | ||
| 2 | Sue Pedersen | 2:33.2 | ||
| 3 | Danièle Dorléans | 2:39.5 | ||
| 4 | Carla Galle | 2:40.9 | ||
| 5 | Kristina Moir | 2:42.8 | ||
| 6 | Carmen Ferracuti | 2:44.7 | ||
| 7 | Olga de Angulo | 2:48.7 |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Hennie Penterman | 2:36.7 | ||
| 2 | Judit Turóczy | 2:38.8 | ||
| 3 | Márta Egerváry | 2:40.7 | ||
| 4 | Mariya Nikolova | 2:40.8 | ||
| 5 | Pilar von Carsten | 2:41.7 | ||
| 6 | Helmi Boxberger | 2:45.2 | ||
| 7 | Shen Bao-ni | 2:48.1 |
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Claudia Kolb | 2:24.7 | OR | ||
| Susan Pedersen | 2:28.8 | |||
| Jan Henne | 2:31.4 | |||
| 4 | Sabine Steinbach | 2:31.4 | ||
| 5 | Yoshimi Nishigawa | 2:33.7 | ||
| 6 | Marianne Seydel | 2:33.7 | ||
| 7 | Larisa Zakharova | 2:37.0 | ||
| Shelagh Ratcliffe | DQ |
Key: DQ = Disqualified, OR = Olympic record