Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre backstroke


The women's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 29–30 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
At only 17 years of age, U.S. teenage sensation Missy Franklin, billed as "Missy the Missile" by her fans, stormed home on the final stretch to pick up her first ever Olympic gold medal in swimming. Trailing behind at the halfway turn, she pulled away from a tightly packed field with a more destructive force to hit the wall first in an American record of 58.33. Australia's Emily Seebohm started the race with a marginal lead over the rest of the field, but faded down the stretch to settle only for the silver in 58.68. Meanwhile, Japan's Aya Terakawa came up with a spectacular swim to grab the bronze in a superb Asian record of 58.83, holding off the fast-charging Russian swimmer Anastasia Zuyeva to a fourth spot in 59.00.
Great Britain's Gemma Spofforth, the reigning world record holder, finished fifth in 59.20, while China's Zhao Jing, Australia's Belinda Hocking and Zhao's teammate Fu Yuanhui rounded out the field.
Earlier in the prelims, Seebohm blitzed the field from heat four to lead all swimmers with a sterling Olympic and Oceanian record in 58.23, shaving 0.54 seconds off the standard set by Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry in Beijing four years earlier. Coventry, double Olympic silver medalist, missed a chance to reach the final roster with a fourteenth-place effort from the semifinals.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
July 29Heat 4Emily Seebohm58.23

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
145Emily Seebohm58.23Q, OC,
264Missy Franklin59.37Q
363Belinda Hocking59.61Q
465Aya Terakawa59.82Q
554Anastasia Zuyeva59.88Q
646Georgia Davies59.92Q
756Julia Wilkinson59.94Q
862Fu Yuanhui59.96Q
944Zhao Jing59.97Q
1068Simona Baumrtová59.99Q, NR
1155Rachel Bootsma1:00.03Q
1257Gemma Spofforth1:00.05Q
1353Sinead Russell1:00.10Q
1461Alexianne Castel1:00.16Q
1548Kirsty Coventry1:00.24Q
1647Arianna Barbieri1:00.25Q, NR
1743Mie Nielsen1:00.38
1841Duane da Rocha1:00.57
1852Daryna Zevina1:00.57
2042Sharon van Rouwendaal1:00.61
2166Jenny Mensing1:00.72
2267Laure Manaudou1:01.03
2334Maria Fernanda Gonzalez1:01.28
2451Fabíola Molina1:01.40
2535Alicja Tchórz1:01.44
2628Tao Li1:01.60NR
2758Elena Gemo1:01.77
2832Carolina Colorado1:01.81
2938Kimberly Buys1:01.92NR
3037Melissa Ingram1:01.94
3136Ekaterina Avramova1:02.20
3223Eygló Ósk Gústafsdóttir1:02.40NR
3324Melanie Nocher1:02.44
3421Anja Čarman1:02.68
3531Therese Svendsen1:03.11
3625Sanja Jovanović1:03.38
3726Eszter Povázsay1:03.55
3827Yekaterina Rudenko1:03.64
3933Hoi Shun Stephanie Au1:04.31
4022Hazal Sarikaya1:04.80
4113Karen Vilorio1:06.38
4214Monica Ramirez1:07.72
4315Ines Remersaro1:08.03
4416Anahit Barseghyan1:08.19
4512Angelique Trinquier1:10.79

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final