200 metres Breaststroke, Women

World record holder Éva Novák headed a trio of Hungarians who would contend for Olympic glory. Novák and Éva Székely had been third and fourth respectively in London but were favoured to improve their finishing positions in Helsinki. All three Hungarians record times under the existing Olympic record in the preliminaries as did the Scottish swimmer, Elenor Gordon but the reigning European champion, Raymonda Vergauwen of Belguim, missed a place in the final. The final was a battle of contrasting styles; Székely was a butterfly swimmer whilst Novák favoured the orthodox breaststroke. It was the butterfly technique that won out, as Székely finished well ahead of Novák with a Hungarian sweep of the medals only thwarted by the finishing effort of Elenor Gordon, Gordon spotted her finish better than Klára Killermann. In sixth place was the Ukrainian Mariya Havrysh, the only Soviet swimming finalist of the 1952 Games.

Éva Székely later married triple gold medal winning water polo player Dezső Gyarmati. Their daughter Andrea Gyarmati herself won a brace of swimming medals at the 1972 Olympics and married Mihály Hesz, an Olympic canoeing champion.