Women's 800 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Date	October 17–19, 1968
Competitors	24 from 16 nations
Winning time	2:00.9 OR
Medalists
Madeline Manning  United States Ileana Silai  Romania Mia Gommers  Netherlands
← 1964 1972 →

Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
80 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
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 800 metres competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico. The event were held at the University Olympic Stadium on October 17–19.^[1]

Madeline Manning became the first Black woman to win an Olympic 800m title. She also became the first American to do so.

The competition had four heats in the first round, two semi-finals and a final. The top four in the first round heats progressed. The top four finishers in the semi-final race reached the finals.

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

World record	Vera Nikolić (YUG)	2:00.5	London, United Kingdom	July 20, 1968
Olympic record	Ann Packer (GBR)	2:01.1	Tokyo, Japan	October 20, 1964

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Vera Nikolić	Yugoslavia	2:05.7	Q
2	Laine Erik	Soviet Union	2:06.5	Q
3	Paola Pigni	Italy	2:06.7	Q
4	Karin Krebs	East Germany	2:07.1	Q
5	Francie Kraker	United States	2:07.3
6	Elizabeth Chesire	Kenya	2:10.9

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mia Gommers	Netherlands	2:04.0	Q
2	Ileana Silai	Romania	2:04.1	Q
3	Sheila Carey	Great Britain	2:04.1	Q
4	Anna Zimina	Soviet Union	2:04.4	Q
5	Barbara Wieck	East Germany	2:08.5
6	Hana Shezifi	Israel	2:09.2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Maryvonne Dupureur	France	2:09.5	Q
2	Doris Brown	United States	2:09.5	Q
3	Pat Lowe-Cropper	Great Britain	2:09.5	Q
4	Sylvia Potts	New Zealand	2:09.6	Q
5	Eeva Haimi	Finland	2:09.6
6	Tilly van der Made	Netherlands	2:10.5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Madeline Manning	United States	2:08.7	Q
2	Abby Hoffman	Canada	2:08.9	Q
3	Jaroslava Jehličková	Czechoslovakia	2:08.9	Q
4	Ilja Keizer	Netherlands	2:08.9	Q
5	Annelise Damm Olesen	Denmark	2:09.0
6	Joan Page-Allison	Great Britain	2:10.2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Madeline Manning	United States	2:05.8	Q
2	Ileana Silai	Romania	2:05.9	Q
3	Pat Lowe-Cropper	Great Britain	2:06.6	Q
4	Abby Hoffman	Canada	2:07.0	Q
5	Karin Krebs	East Germany	2:08.4
6	Anna Zimina	Soviet Union	2:04.4
7	Ilja Keizer	Netherlands	2:14.8
—	Vera Nikolić	Yugoslavia	DNF

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mia Gommers	Netherlands	2:05.1	Q
2	Doris Brown	United States	2:05.2	Q
3	Sheila Carey	Great Britain	2:05.2	Q
4	Maryvonne Dupureur	France	2:05.5	Q
5	Laine Erik	Soviet Union	2:06.0
6	Sylvia Potts	New Zealand	2:07.2
7	Paola Pigni	Italy	2:07.8
8	Jaroslava Jehličková	Czechoslovakia	2:13.5

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Madeline Manning	United States	2:00.9	OR
	Ileana Silai	Romania	2:02.5
	Mia Gommers	Netherlands	2:02.6
4	Sheila Carey	Great Britain	2:03.8
5	Doris Brown	United States	2:03.9
6	Pat Lowe-Cropper	Great Britain	2:04.2
7	Abby Hoffman	Canada	2:06.8
8	Maryvonne Dupureur	France	2:08.2

• Official Olympic Report^{[permanent dead link‍]}, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 16, 2012.