Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre freestyle
The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 30–31 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
U.S. swimmer Allison Schmitt blasted a new Olympic record with a stunning effort to capture the gold medal in the event for the first time, since Nicole Haislett topped the podium in 1992. She pulled away from a tightly-packed field on the final lap to hit the wall first in a sterling time of 1:53.61, shaving 1.21 seconds off the record set by Italy's Federica Pellegrini from Beijing in 2008. After defeating Schmitt in a close duel to grab the 400 m freestyle title two days earlier, France's Camille Muffat trailed behind her rival by almost a body length for the silver in 1:55.58. Meanwhile, Australia's Bronte Barratt produced a striking touch to take home the bronze in 1:55.81, edging out American teenage star Missy Franklin by a hundredth of a second.
Franklin missed a chance to add her third career medal with a fourth-place time in 1:55.82, while Pellegrini, the defending Olympic champion, dropped off the podium to fifth in 1:56.73. Russia's Veronika Popova, Great Britain's home favorite Caitlin McClatchey and Barratt's teammate Kylie Palmer closed out the field.
Notable swimmers failed to reach the top-eight final roster including Slovenia's Sara Isaković, the defending silver medalist, who placed fourteenth in the semifinals; and Romania's Camelia Potec, a four-time Olympian and 2004 Olympic champion, who posted a twenty-fifth place time on the morning prelims.Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| July 31 | Final | Allison Schmitt | | 1:53.61 | |
Results
Heats
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 5 | Federica Pellegrini | | 1:57.16 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | Allison Schmitt | | 1:57.33 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Missy Franklin | | 1:57.62 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | Veronika Popova | | 1:57.79 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 7 | Melania Costa Schmid | | 1:57.79 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 6 | Barbara Jardin | | 1:57.92 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 5 | Sarah Sjöström | | 1:58.03 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 2 | Caitlin McClatchey | | 1:58.03 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | 7 | Samantha Cheverton | | 1:58.11 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 3 | Bronte Barratt | | 1:58.12 | Q |
| 11 | 5 | 3 | Kylie Palmer | | 1:58.16 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 4 | Camille Muffat | | 1:58.49 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Silke Lippok | | 1:58.59 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 6 | Wang Shijia | | 1:58.73 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 1 | Hanae Ito | | 1:58.93 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 1 | Sara Isaković | | 1:58.96 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | 2 | Rebecca Turner | | 1:58.98 | |
| 18 | 3 | 1 | Ophélie-Cyrielle Etienne | | 1:59.15 | |
| 19 | 4 | 8 | Nina Rangelova | | 1:59.21 | NR |
| 20 | 5 | 8 | Karin Prinsloo | | 1:59.24 | |
| 21 | 4 | 7 | Song Wenyan | | 1:59.47 | |
| 22 | 5 | 2 | Ágnes Mutina | | 1:59.56 | |
| 23 | 3 | 8 | Sze Hang Yu | | 1:59.92 | |
| 24 | 2 | 5 | Pernille Blume | | 2:00.91 | |
| 25 | 2 | 6 | Camelia Potec | | 2:01.15 | |
| 26 | 2 | 2 | Liliana Ibanez | | 2:01.36 | |
| 27 | 2 | 1 | Anna Stylianou | | 2:01.87 | |
| 28 | 2 | 8 | Katarína Filová | | 2:02.03 | |
| 29 | 2 | 4 | Jördis Steinegger | | 2:02.39 | |
| 30 | 1 | 3 | Natthanan Junkrajang | | 2:02.49 | |
| 31 | 1 | 5 | Danielle Villars | | 2:03.55 | |
| 32 | 2 | 7 | Hanna-Maria Seppälä | | 2:04.21 | |
| 33 | 1 | 4 | Baek Il-joo | | 2:04.32 | |
| 34 | 1 | 6 | Heather Arseth | | 2:07.81 | |
| 35 | 1 | 2 | Aurelie Fanchette | | 2:23.49 | |
| 2 | 3 | Grainne Murphy | | | |
| 4 | 5 | Femke Heemskerk | | | |
Semifinals
Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
Final
