Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre individual medley


The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Australia's Stephanie Rice became the third swimmer in Olympic history to strike a medley double, since Michelle Smith did so in 1996 and Yana Klochkova in 2000 and 2004. She established a sterling time of 2:08.45 to lower her world record from the Olympic trials by almost half a second. Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry added a third silver to her collection, finishing with an African record of 2:08.59. U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin, who held the lead on the backstroke leg, picked up a bronze medal in 2:10.34.
Completing the second half of a difficult double, American Katie Hoff produced the same result from the 200 m freestyle, as she finished again in fourth place with a time of 2:10.68. Australia's Alicia Coutts placed fifth in 2:11.43, while Japan's Asami Kitagawa swam the outside lane to finish the race in sixth place at 2:11.56. On the strength of the breaststroke leg, Kitagawa won a swimoff for the last slot in the top 8 final over Hungary's Evelyn Verrasztó. Canada's Julia Wilkinson and Poland's Katarzyna Baranowska closed out the field.
Earlier in the semifinals, Coventry established an Olympic standard of 2:09.53 to cut off Yana Klochkova's eight-year record by a 1.15-second deficit.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
August 12Semifinal 1Kirsty Coventry2:09.53
August 13FinalStephanie Rice2:08.45,

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
143Alicia Coutts2:11.55Q
244Katie Hoff2:11.58Q
334Natalie Coughlin2:11.63Q
453Hannah Miley2:11.72Q
536Julie Hjorth-Hansen2:11.99Q
654Stephanie Rice2:12.07Q
745Camille Muffat2:12.16Q
855Kirsty Coventry2:12.18Q
932Asami Kitagawa2:12.47Q
956Katarzyna Baranowska2:12.47Q
1152Evelyn Verrasztó2:12.52Q
1231Li Jiaxing2:12.53Q
1337Julia Wilkinson2:12.56Q
1435Mireia Belmonte García2:12.75Q
1533Keri-Anne Payne2:12.78Q
1641Svetlana Karpeeva2:12.94Q
1748Katinka Hosszú2:13.05
1851Helen Norfolk2:13.50
1957Erica Morningstar2:14.11
2046Qi Hui2:14.25
2142Cylia Vabre2:14.34
2227Joanna Maranhão2:14.97
2321Sara Nordenstam2:15.13NR
2422Choi Hye-Ra2:15.26
2523Anja Klinar2:15.39
2625Jessica Pengelly2:15.80
2738María Peláez2:15.97
2826Femke Heemskerk2:16.28
2928Siow Yi Ting2:17.11
3047Katharina Schiller2:18.00
3116Ganna Dzerkal2:18.25
3212Erika Stewart2:18.54NR
3313Sherry Tsai2:18.91
3458Sonja Schöber2:20.18
3514Erla Dögg Haraldsdóttir2:20.53
3617Lin Man-Hsu2:23.29
3724Georgina Bardach2:25.74
3811Fibriani Ratna Marita2:28.18
15Maroua Mathlouthi

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Swimoff

Final