The women's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 22–23 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Dutch rising star Inge de Bruijn added a third gold to her medal tally in swimming at these Games. She powered past the field to touch the wall first in 24.32, the second-fastest of all-time. Earlier in the semifinals, she blasted her own world record of 24.13 to snatch a top seed for the final. Sweden's Therese Alshammar captured the silver in 24.51, while U.S. legend Dara Torres powered home with the bronze in a new American record of 24.63, edging out defending Olympic champion Amy Van Dyken (25.04) by 41-hundredths of a second. The podium placements also replicated the results of the 100 m freestyle (with the exception of Jenny Thompson), held on the sixth night of the Games.
Slovakia's Martina Moravcová finished off the podium in fifth place at 25.24, and was followed in the sixth spot by Germany's Sandra Völker in 25.27. Great Britain's Alison Sheppard (25.45) and Japan's Sumika Minamoto (25.65) closed out the field.
Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Australia's overwhelming favorite Susie O'Neill; Völker's teammate Katrin Meissner, who shared bronze medals with Jill Sterkel in the event's inception in 1988 as a member of the former East German squad; and Estonia's Jana Kolukanova, who grabbed the final spot from the prelims after winning a three-person swimoff.
One of the most popular highlights in the event took place in the first heat. Dubbed as the Crawler, Paula Barila Bolopa had finally completed a unique double for Equatorial Guinea, as she swam the slowest ever race by a female in Olympic history with a time of 1:03.97.
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. Date Event Name Nationality Time Record 22 September Heat 10 Inge de Bruijn 24.46 22 September Semifinal 2 Inge de Bruijn 24.13
Results
Heats
Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 10 4 Inge de Bruijn 24.46 Q, 2 8 4 Dara Torres 24.96 Q 3 10 5 Amy Van Dyken 25.04 Q 4 9 4 Therese Alshammar 25.24 Q 5 10 7 Martina Moravcová 25.39 Q, NR 6 9 5 Sandra Völker 25.44 Q7 10 3 Sumika Minamoto 25.52 Q 10 1 Vivienne Rignall Q, NR 9 8 5 Alison Sheppard 25.53 Q 10 10 2 Katrin Meissner 25.64 Q 11 10 6 Olga Mukomol 25.67 Q 12 8 7 Susie O'Neill 25.73 Q, OC 13 8 6 Anna-Karin Kammerling 25.79 Q 14 9 3 Wilma van Rijn 25.81 Q 15 6 6 Rania Elwani 25.87 Q, NR16 6 7 Mette Jacobsen 25.96 7 8 Jana Kolukanova 9 7 Ana Belén Palomo 19 8 2 Cristina Chiuso 25.99 20 8 3 Sue Rolph 26.00 21 9 1 Han Xue 26.01 22 8 8 Nadine Rolland 26.04 23 8 1 Sarah Ryan 26.05 6 1 Leah Martindale 25 9 8 Helene Muller 26.07 26 7 6 Alena Popchanka 26.10 27 9 2 Eileen Coparropa 26.19 28 7 4 Liesbet Dreesen 26.21 7 7 Hanna-Maria Seppälä 30 7 5 Ivana Walterová 26.23 31 9 6 Judith Draxler 26.26 32 6 3 Siobhan Cropper 26.36 33 7 3 Yekaterina Kibalo 26.37 34 6 5 Lara Heinz 26.55 35 6 8 Caroline Pickering 26.57 36 6 2 Kirsty Coventry 26.58 37 7 1 Joscelin Yeo 26.71 38 10 8 Jenna Gresdal 26.79 39 1 4 Moe Thu Aung 26.80 40 5 2 Chiang Tzu-ying 26.84 41 6 4 Chang Hee-jin 26.88 4 3 Yekaterina Tochenaya NR 43 7 2 Athina Bochori 26.90 44 5 8 Agnese Ozoliņa 27.28 45 5 3 Pilin Tachakittiranan 27.31 46 5 4 Marijana Šurković 27.32 47 5 7 Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai 27.38 48 5 6 Chantal Gibney 27.46 49 4 6 Angela Chuck 27.48 50 5 1 Jūratė Ladavičiūtė 27.54 51 5 5 Elín Sigurðardóttir 27.58 52 4 5 Marilyn Chua 27.66 53 4 4 Duška Radan 27.70 54 4 1 Maria Tregubova 27.75 55 4 7 Saida Iskandarova 28.08 56 4 2 Talía Barrios 28.11 57 3 5 Ngozi Monu 28.20 58 3 7 Tanya Anacleto 28.78 59 3 4 Alisa Khaleyeva 28.79 60 3 8 Sherri Henry 28.81 61 3 6 Mbolatiana Ramanisa 29.20 62 3 2 Roshendra Vrolijk 29.31 63 3 3 Yuliana Mikheeva 29.79 64 2 5 Theekshana Ratnasekera 29.88 65 2 3 Samar Nassar 30.05 66 2 6 Runa Pradhan 31.28 67 2 2 Teran Matthews 31.71 68 3 1 Francilla Agar 32.22 69 2 7 Fariha Fathimath 32.36 70 2 1 Hem Raksmey 33.11 71 2 4 Noor Haki 35.51 72 4 8 Aissatou Barry 35.79 73 1 3 Paula Barila Bolopa 1:03.97 1 5 Fatema Hameed Gerashi
Swimoff
Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Jana Kolukanova 25.87 Q, NR 2 4 Mette Jacobsen 26.00 3 Ana Belén Palomo
Semifinals
Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Therese Alshammar 24.80 Q 2 4 Dara Torres 24.98 Q 3 3 Sandra Völker 25.22 Q 4 6 Sumika Minamoto 25.43 Q 5 2 Katrin Meissner 25.62 6 7 Susie O'Neill 25.74 7 1 Wilma van Rijn 25.87 8 8 Jana Kolukanova 26.03
Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Inge de Bruijn 24.13 Q, 2 5 Amy Van Dyken 25.00 Q 3 2 Alison Sheppard 25.32 Q 4 3 Martina Moravcová 25.49 Q 5 1 Anna-Karin Kammerling 25.61 5 6 Vivienne Rignall 25.61 7 7 Olga Mukomol 25.88 8 8 Rania Elwani 25.95
Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Inge de Bruijn 24.32 5 Therese Alshammar 24.51 3 Dara Torres 24.63 AM 4 6 Amy Van Dyken 25.04 5 8 Martina Moravcová 25.24 NR 6 2 Sandra Völker 25.27 7 7 Alison Sheppard 25.45 8 1 Sumika Minamoto 25.65
References
External links Official Olympic Report