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


The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Italy's Federica Pellegrini broke a new world record of 1:54.82 to claim a gold medal in the event. Sara Isakovič, who finished behind Pellegrini by 0.15 of a second, cleared a 1:55 barrier to set a new Slovenian record of 1:54.97, and ultimately become the nation's first ever medalist in swimming. China's Pang Jiaying edged out U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff on the final lap to pick up a bronze in 1:55.05. Hoff finished in fourth place in an American record of 1:55.78.
Defending champion Camelia Potec finished outside the medals in fifth place, posting a Romanian record of 1:56.87. Great Britain's Caitlin McClatchey earned a sixth spot in 1:57.65, and was followed by a seventh-place tie between Australia's Bronte Barratt and France's Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne in a matching time of 1:57.83. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went faster than a winning time of 1:58.03, previously set by Potec in Athens four years earlier.
Earlier in the prelims, Pang broke one of the oldest Olympic records in the book, when she clocked at 1:57.37 to lead the fourth heat, slashing 0.28 seconds off the old mark set by East Germany's Heike Friedrich from Seoul in 1988. Two heats later, Pellegrini posted a top-seeded time of 1:55.45 to erase Laure Manaudou's world record, set in 2007.

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 11Heat 4Pang Jiaying1:57.37
August 11Heat 5Sara Isakovič1:55.86
August 11Heat 6Federica Pellegrini1:55.45,
August 13FinalFederica Pellegrini1:54.82,

Results

Heats

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
14Sara Isakovič1:56.50Q
25Katie Hoff1:57.01Q
33Pang Jiaying1:57.34Q
42Bronte Barratt1:57.55Q
57Linda Mackenzie1:58.19
66Haruka Ueda1:58.44
71Joanne Jackson1:58.70
88Ida Marko-Varga1:59.41

Semifinal 2

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
14Federica Pellegrini1:57.23Q
22Camelia Potec1:57.71Q
35Caitlin McClatchey1:57.73Q
47Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne1:58.00Q
56Allison Schmitt1:58.01
68Aurore Mongel1:58.08
73Ágnes Mutina1:58.15
81Josefin Lillhage1:59.29

Final