Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metres

Women's 200 metres; at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	September 4 & 7
Medalists
	← 1968 1976 →

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men

The women's 200 metres sprint event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place on September 4 & 7. The favorite would have been Republic of China's Chi Cheng. Who set world records in the 200 meters and 220 yards distances in 1970. She suffered a career ending injury at the end of 1970. An attempted surgery in 1971, failed. The top 3 ranked women in the world in 1971, were the 3 women on the podium in Munich. European Champion Renate Stecher (GDR), Commonwealth Champion Raelene Boyle (AUS), and the defending Champion Irena Szewinska of Poland.

Heats

Top five in each heat (blue) and the next two fastest (pink) advanced to quarterfinal round.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Lane	Time
1	Alice Anum	Ghana	6	23.15
2	Barbara Ferrell	United States	5	23.38
3	Rosie Allwood	Jamaica	1	23.56
4	Donna Murray	Great Britain	3	23.76
5	Juana Mosquera	Colombia	2	24.20
6	Carolina Rieuwpassa	Indonesia	7	24.68
-	Irene Fitzner	Argentina	4	DNS

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Lane	Time
1	Renate Stecher	East Germany	2	22.96
2	Raelene Boyle	Australia	4	23.58
3	Nadezhda Besfamilnaya	Soviet Union	3	23.62
4	Amelita Alanes	23x15px Philippines	5	25.28
5	Helen Olaye	Nigeria	1	25.30
6	Mabel Saeluzika	Malawi	6	28.29
-	Carmen Valdes	Cuba	7	DNS

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Lane	Time
1	Annegret Kroniger	West Germany	4	23.37
2	Wilma van Gool	Netherlands	6	23.86
3	Della James	Great Britain	2	23.97
4	Hannah Afriyie	Ghana	3	24.38
5	María Luisa Vilca	Peru	1	24.46
6	Josefa Vicent	Uruguay	7	25.09
7	Meas Kheng	Cambodia	5	25.86

Heat 4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Lane	Time
1	Ellen Strophal	East Germany	1	23.54
2	Pam Greene	United States	7	23.96
3	Una Morris	Jamaica	6	23.99
4	Pirjo Wilmi	Finland	3	24.16
5	Rose Musani	Uganda	5	25.37
6	Laura Pierre	Trinidad and Tobago	4	26.32
-	Eva Gleskovà	Czechoslovakia	2	DNS

Heat 5

Rank	Name	Nationality	Lane	Time
1	Irena Szewińska	Poland	3	23.37
2	Christiane Krause	West Germany	7	23.51
3	Jackie Thompson	United States	6	23.67
4	Karoline Käfer	Austria	1	24.42
5	Russel Carrero	Nicaragua	5	28.02
-	Silvia Chivas	Cuba	2	DNS
-	Karen Powell	23x15px Bahamas	4	DNS

Heat 6

Rank	Name	Nationality	Lane	Time
1	Marina Sidorova	Soviet Union	5	23.46
2	Sylviane Telliez	France	4	23.51
3	Christina Heinich	East Germany	6	23.90
4	Margaret Critchley	Great Britain	2	24.04
5	Marcia Trotman	Barbados	7	24.06
6	Beatrice Lungu	Zambia	1	25.11
7	Fatima El-Faquir	Morocco	3	25.27