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

The women's 50 freestyle at the 1988 Summer Olympics was contested on 25 September. This was the first time that women swam the 50 freestyle as an event at the Olympic Games.

Records

The existing World and Olympic records at the time of the event were:

World record	Yang Wenyi (CHN)	24.98	Guangzhou, China	10 April 1988
Olympic record	Not held before 1988	-	-	-

Finals

A Final

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

B final

Place	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
9		Marion Aizpors	West Germany	26.17
10		Christiane Pielke	West Germany	26.22
11		Marie-Thérèse Armentero	Switzerland	26.34
12=		Kristin Topham	Canada	26.45
12=		Ayako Nakano	Japan	26.45
14		Inna Abramova	Soviet Union	26.48
15		Karin Brienesse	Netherlands	26.66
16		Diane van der Plaats	Netherlands	26.80

Preliminary heats

Heat	Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
7	1		Yang Wenyi	China	25.67	Q OR
7	2		Katrin Meissner	East Germany	25.77	Q
6	1		Kristin Otto	East Germany	25.85	Q OR
5	1		Leigh Ann Fetter	United States	25.91	Q OR
6	2		Catherine Plewinski	France	26.01	Q
7	3		Jill Sterkel	United States	26.02	Q
6	3		Tamara Costache	Romania	26.06	Q
7	4		Karen Van Wirdum	Australia	26.12	Q
7	5		Marion Aizpors	West Germany	26.20	q B final
7	6		Inna Abramova	Soviet Union	26.27	q B final
5	2		Marie-Thérèse Armentero	Switzerland	26.32	q B final
5	3		Christiane Pielke	West Germany	26.33	q B final
6	4		Ayako Nakano	Japan	26.44	q B final
4	1		Diane van der Plaats	Netherlands	26.49	q B final OR
6	5		Kristin Topham	Canada	26.50	q B final
5	4		Karin Brienesse	Netherlands	26.54	q B final
4	2		Adriana Pereira	Brazil	26.56
5	5		Luminiţa Dobrescu	Romania	26.56
6	6		Andrea Nugent	Canada	26.60
5	6=		Gitta Jensen	Denmark	26.61
5	6=		Kaori Sasaki	Japan	26.61
6	7		Xia Fujie	China	26.66
7	7		Helena Åberg	Sweden	26.67
6	8		Karin Furuhed	Sweden	26.85
7	8		Alison Sheppard	Great Britain	27.14
4	3		María Rivera	Mexico	27.16
4	4		Annabelle Cripps	Great Britain	27.17
4	5		Karen Dieffenthaler	Trinidad and Tobago	27.27