Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre butterfly


The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July and 1 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
China's Jiao Liuyang stormed home on the final stretch to upgrade her silver from Beijing four years earlier with an Olympic title in the event. She produced a striking effort on the last lap to come from behind and demolish the field with a gold-medal time and a new Olympic record in 2:04.06, shaving 0.12 seconds off the standard set by teammate Liu Zige. Meanwhile, Mireia Belmonte García made an Olympic milestone to become Spain's first ever female medalist and fourth overall in swimming, as she brought home the silver in 2:05.25, the ninth-fastest of all time. Japan's Natsumi Hoshi added a sixth bronze to her swimming squad at these Games, in a sterling time of 2:05.48.
Leading through the prelims and the semifinals, U.S. swimmer Kathleen Hersey finished off the podium with a fourth-place time in 2:05.78, a full second ahead of her teammate Cammile Adams. Great Britain's Jemma Lowe, Hungary's Zsuzsanna Jakabos and defending champion Liu Zige rounded out the field.
Notable swimmers missed the final roster featuring Australia's Jessicah Schipper, a former world record holder; and Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, a 2004 Olympic champion, both of whom placed thirteenth and sixteenth respectively in 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
August 1FinalJiao Liuyang2:04.06

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
146Kathleen Hersey2:06.41Q
234Jiao Liuyang2:07.15Q
345Jemma Lowe2:07.64Q
436Katinka Hosszú2:07.75Q
543Zsuzsanna Jakabos2:07.79Q
624Natsumi Hoshi2:08.04Q
726Judit Ignacio Sorribes2:08.14Q
833Cammile Adams2:08.18Q
925Mireia Belmonte García2:08.19Q
1027Choi Hye-ra2:08.45Q
1144Liu Zige2:08.72Q
1223Jessicah Schipper2:08.74Q
1332Martina Granström2:08.94Q
1441Anja Klinar2:09.24Q
1522Audrey Lacroix2:09.25Q
1642Otylia Jędrzejczak2:09.33Q
1735Ellen Gandy2:09.92
1815Ingvild Snildal2:10.99NR
1947Katerine Savard2:11.05
2037Samantha Hamill2:11.07
2138Denisa Smolenová2:11.10
2213Andreina Pinto2:11.23NR
2348Rita Medrano2:11.42
2414Sara Oliveira2:11.54
2521Martina van Berkel2:12.25
2631Joanna Melo2:13.17
2728Emilia Pikkarainen2:13.81
2816Cheng Wan-jung2:14.29

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final