Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley
The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 1968 Summer Olympics took place on 24–25 October. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool. The first two lengths were swum using the butterfly stroke, the second pair with the backstroke, the third pair of lengths in breaststroke, and the final two were 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.Medalists
Results
Heats
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Sue Pedersen | | 5:26.4 | |
| 2 | Larisa Zakharova | | 5:38.6 | |
| 3 | Hennie Penterman | | 5:38.8 | |
| 4 | Carla Galle | | 5:55.2 | |
| 5 | Olga de Angulo | | 6:00.6 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Sabine Steinbach | | 5:31.3 | |
| 2 | Eva Sigg | | 5:37.3 | |
| 3 | Sue Eddy | | 5:42.2 | |
| 4 | Norma Amezcua | | 5:47.9 | |
| 5 | Ruth Apt | | 6:04.5 | |
| 6 | Shen Bao-ni | | 6:21.5 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Lynn Vidali | | 5:28.9 | |
| 2 | Shelagh Ratcliffe | | 5:33.2 | |
| 3 | Laura Vaca | | 5:33.7 | |
| 4 | Tamara Oynick | | 5:48.4 | |
| 5 | Kirsten Strange-Campbell | | 5:59.0 | |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Marianne Seydel | | 5:30.9 | |
| 2 | Tui Shipston | | 5:33.7 | |
| 3 | Eva Wittke | | 5:40.6 | |
| 4 | Mariya Nikolova | | 5:45.2 | |
| 5 | Patricia Olano | | 5:52.6 | |
| 6 | Yvonne Tobis | | 5:53.8 | |
| 7 | Hedy García | | 6:07.3 | |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Claudia Kolb | | 5:17.2 | |
| 2 | Dianna Rickard | | 5:37.8 | |
| 3 | Heli Matzdorf | | 5:50.5 | |
| 4 | Consuelo Changanaqui | | 5:52.2 | |
| 5 | Nelly Syro | | 6:13.1 | |
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Claudia Kolb | | 5:08.5 | OR |
| Lynn Vidali | | 5:22.2 | |
| Sabine Steinbach | | 5:25.3 | |
| 4 | Sue Pedersen | | 5:25.8 | |
| 5 | Shelagh Ratcliffe | | 5:30.5 | |
| 6 | Marianne Seydel | | 5:32.0 | |
| 7 | Tui Shipston | | 5:34.6 | |
| 8 | Laura Vaca | | 5:35.7 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record
