Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Women's 50 metre freestyle

The inaugural women's 50 metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 25 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

Women's 50 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Venue	Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool
Date	25 September 1988 (heats & finals)
Competitors	50 from 33 nations
Winning time	25.49 OR
Medalists
Kristin Otto  East Germany Yang Wenyi  China Katrin Meissner  East Germany Jill Sterkel  United States

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Yang Wenyi (CHN)	24.98	Guangzhou, China	11 April 1988
Olympic record	Inaugural event	—	—	—

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
25 September	Heat 7	Yang Wenyi	China	25.67	OR
25 September	Final A	Kristin Otto	East Germany	25.49	OR

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	7	Yang Wenyi	China	25.67	Q, OR
2	7	Katrin Meissner	East Germany	25.77	Q
3	6	Kristin Otto	East Germany	25.85	Q
4	5	Leigh Ann Fetter	United States	25.91	Q
5	6	Catherine Plewinski	France	26.01	Q, NR
6	7	Jill Sterkel	United States	26.02	Q
7	6	Tamara Costache	Romania	26.06	Q
8	7	Karen van Wirdum	Australia	26.12	Q, OC
9	7	Marion Aizpors	West Germany	26.20	q
10	7	Inna Abramova	Soviet Union	26.27	q
11	5	Marie-Thérèse Armentero	Switzerland	26.32	q
12	5	Christiane Pielke	West Germany	26.33	q
13	6	Ayako Nakano	Japan	26.44	q
14	4	Diana van der Plaats	Netherlands	26.49	q, NR
15	6	Kristin Topham	Canada	26.50	q
16	5	Karin Brienesse	Netherlands	26.54	q
17	4	Adriana Pereira	Brazil	26.56
	5	Luminița Dobrescu	Romania
19	6	Andrea Nugent	Canada	26.60
20	5	Gitta Jensen	Denmark	26.61
	5	Kaori Sasaki	Japan
22	6	Xia Fujie	China	26.66
23	7	Helena Aberg	Sweden	26.67
24	6	Karin Furuhed	Sweden	26.85
25	7	Alison Sheppard	Great Britain	27.14
26	4	María Rivera	Mexico	27.16
27	4	Annabelle Cripps	Great Britain	27.17
28	4	Karen Dieffenthaler	Trinidad and Tobago	27.27
29	5	Senda Gharbi	Tunisia	27.34
30	4	Akiko Thomson	Philippines	27.43
31	3	Mônica Rezende	Brazil	27.44
32	4	Patricia Kohlmann	Mexico	27.45
33	2	Carolina Mauri	Costa Rica	27.96
34	3	Han Young-hee	South Korea	28.02
35	3	Hung Cee Kay	Hong Kong	28.15
36	3	Park Joo-li	South Korea	28.20
37	2	Bryndís Ólafsdóttir	Iceland	28.38
38	3	Ana Joselina Fortin	Honduras	28.46
39	2	Cina Munch	Fiji	28.55
40	2	Catherine Fogarty	Zimbabwe	28.66
41	3	Wang Chi	Chinese Taipei	28.73
42	2	Sabrina Lum	Chinese Taipei	28.82
43	2	Veronica Cummings	Guam	28.94
44	2	Angela Birch	Fiji	29.01
45	3	Tsang Wing Sze	Hong Kong	29.14
46	2	Katerine Moreno	Bolivia	29.42
47	4	Elsa Freire	Angola	29.54
48	1	Carolina Araujo	Mozambique	29.64
49	3	Ana Martins	Angola	29.74
50	1	Nancy Khalaf	Lebanon	30.77

Finals

Final B

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
9	4	Marion Aizpors	West Germany	26.17
10	6	Christiane Pielke	West Germany	26.22
11	3	Marie-Thérèse Armentero	Switzerland	26.34
12	1	Kristin Topham	Canada	26.45
	2	Ayako Nakano	Japan
14	5	Inna Abramova	Soviet Union	26.48
15	8	Karin Brienesse	Netherlands	26.66
16	7	Diana van der Plaats	Netherlands	26.80

Final A

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	3	Kristin Otto	East Germany	25.49	OR
	4	Yang Wenyi	China	25.64
	5	Katrin Meissner	East Germany	25.71
	7	Jill Sterkel	United States
5	6	Leigh Ann Fetter	United States	25.78
6	1	Tamara Costache	Romania	25.80
7	2	Catherine Plewinski	France	25.90	NR
8	8	Karen van Wirdum	Australia	26.01	OC

External links

• Official Report
• USA Swimming