Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre individual medley


The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 18–19 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Yana Klochkova, Ukraine's swimming pride and three-time European champion, became the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to strike a medley double, since Claudia Kolb did so in 1968, Tracy Caulkins in 1984, and Michelle Smith in 1996. Leading from start to finish, she established a sterling time of 2:10.68 to cut off Lin Li's eight-year Olympic record by a comfortable margin of 0.95 seconds. Romania's Beatrice Câșlaru, who shared the European title with Klochkova in the event, raced to silver with a national record of 2:12.57 on the rear of a dominant breaststroke leg. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Cristina Teuscher took home the bronze in 2:13.32 to touch out Canada's Marianne Limpert by 12-hundredths of a second.
Limpert was followed in fifth by her teammate Joanne Malar and in sixth by Russia's Oxana Verevka. Previously competed for Brazil in Atlanta four years earlier, Gabrielle Rose finished seventh in 2:14.82, while Japan's Tomoko Hagiwara rounded out the field with an eighth-place time of 2:15.64.
Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring China's Chen Yan, who recorded the second fastest time ever in the event's history but faded badly to place ninth ; and Australia's home favorite Elli Overton, who finished her semifinal run with an eleventh-place effort.

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
19 SeptemberFinalYana Klochkova2:10.68

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
137Oxana Verevka2:13.48Q, NR
244Beatrice Câșlaru2:13.72Q
354Yana Klochkova2:13.83Q
445Joanne Malar2:13.92Q
555Cristina Teuscher2:14.17Q
643Marianne Limpert2:15.07Q
734Tomoko Hagiwara2:15.16Q
836Gabrielle Rose2:15.55Q
952Chen Yan2:16.01Q
1051Federica Biscia2:16.09Q, NR
1146Sue Rolph2:16.43Q
1248Yseult Gervy2:16.51Q
1342Zhan Shu2:16.63Q
1453Elli Overton2:16.76Q
1533Nicole Hetzer2:16.98Q
1656Sabine Herbst2:17.18Q
1723Hana Černá2:17.58NR
1838Kirsty Coventry2:17.73AF
1925Alenka Kejžar2:18.33NR
2031Helen Norfolk2:18.90
2158Vered Borochovski2:18.99
2224Carolyn Adel2:19.17
2341Joscelin Yeo2:19.18
2457Kathryn Evans2:19.41
2547Anna Windsor2:19.44
2632Yasuko Tajima2:21.65
2722Nam Yoo-sun2:22.53
2813Marina Mulyayeva2:22.72
2921María Virginia Garrone2:22.98
3026Aikaterini Sarakatsani2:23.05
3128Sia Wai Yen2:23.31
3215Alexandra Zertsalova2:24.09
3327Smiljana Marinović2:25.24
3435Diana Mocanu2:29.58
3514Meritxell Sabate2:30.41
3616Fernanda Cuadra2:38.25

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

* Also a European and a Ukrainian record.