Swimming at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games:

The Soviet Union has never been a great swimming power, except in the women’s breaststroke. And in Montréal nobody was winning individual events among the women except for swimmers from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), as they won 10 of 11 individual gold medals, and they had two favorites in this event in world record holder [Karle Linke] and 1975 World Champion Hannelore Anke. But they did not win, nor did they even send a swimmer to the podium. Prior to this event, only the United States (11 times), Australia (1956 100 freestyle), and East Germany (1976 200 butterfly) had ever swept the medals at an Olympic women’s swimming event. But in this event the Soviet Union became the fourth nation on that list, as Marina Koshevaya won gold, and led Maryna Yurchenia and [Lyubov Rosanova] to the medal stand. Koshevaya was dominant in winning with 2:33.35, over 1½ seconds better than Linke’s world record and nearly three seconds ahead of Yurchenia.