Swimming at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Women's 300 metre freestyle

Women's 300 metre freestyle at the Games of the VII Olympiad
Venue	Stade Nautique d'Antwerp
Dates	August 26–28
Competitors	16 from 7 nations
Medalists
Ethelda Bleibtrey  United States Margaret Woodbridge  United States Frances Schroth  United States

Swimming at the 1920 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men		women
300 m			women
400 m	men
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men
Breaststroke
200 m	men
400 m	men
Freestyle relay
4×100 m			women
4×200 m	men

The women's 300 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1920 Summer Olympics programme. It was the first appearance of the event, which was later adjusted to 400 metres to match the men's competition.

A total of 16 swimmers from seven nations competed in the event, which was held on Thursday, August 26 and on Saturday, August 28, 1920.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1920 Summer Olympics.

World Record	4:56.2	Fanny Durack	?	1912
Olympic Record	-	none	-	-

In the first semi-final Ethelda Bleibtrey set a new world record with 4:41.4 minutes. She bettered her own record in the final with 4:34.0 minutes.

Results

Semifinals

Thursday, August 26, 1920: The fastest two in each semi-final and the fastest third-placed from across the semi-finals advanced.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Ethelda Bleibtrey (USA)	4:41.4	Q WR
2	Constance Jeans (GBR)	4:57.8	Q
3	Carin Nilsson (SWE)	5:07.0
4	Hilda James (GBR)	5:07.2
5	Lily Beaurepaire (AUS)

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Margaret Woodbridge (USA)	4:56.6	Q
2	Violet Walrond (NZL)	5:04.6	Q
3	Jane Gylling (SWE)	5:04.8	q
4	Grace McKenzie (GBR)
5	Ernestine Lebrun (FRA)

Semifinal 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Eleanor Uhl (USA)	5:02.0	Q
2	Frances Schroth (USA)	5:03.2	Q
3	Aina Berg (SWE)	5:29.6
4	Suzanne Wurtz (FRA)	5:33.0
5	Florence Sancroft (GBR)
6	22x20px Barbara Nash (RSA)

Final

Saturday, August 28, 1920:

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Ethelda Bleibtrey (USA)	4:34.0 WR
2	Margaret Woodbridge (USA)	4:42.8
3	Frances Schroth (USA)	4:52.0
4	Constance Jeans (GBR)	4:52.4
5	Eleanor Uhl (USA)
6	Jane Gylling (SWE)
7	Violet Walrond (NZL)