The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 12–14 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

In front of a large home crowd inside the Water Cube, Liu Zige powered past the entire field to capture a first gold medal for the host nation in swimming. She set a new world record of 2:04.18 to cut off a 1.22-second standard set by Australia's Jessicah Schipper at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She also enjoyed her teammate Jiao Liuyang handing an entire medal haul for China with a one–two finish. Jiao earned a silver medal as she overhauled Schipper on the final lap, and touched the wall in 2:04.72. Meanwhile, Schipper added a second bronze to her hardware from the 100 m butterfly, outside the record time of 2:06.26.

Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, the defending Olympic champion, finished outside the medals in fourth place at 2:07.02. Having won a bronze medal from Athens four years earlier, Japan's Yuko Nakanishi earned a fifth spot in 2:07.32, holding off France's Aurore Mongel (2:07.36) to sixth by four hundredths of a second (0.04). Americans Elaine Breeden (2:07.57) and Kathleen Hersey (2:08.23) closed out the field.

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 August 14 Final Liu Zige 2:04.18

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 2 Liu Zige 2:06.46 Q, NR 2 5 5 Aurore Mongel 2:06.49 Q, NR 3 3 4 Yuko Nakanishi 2:06.62 Q 4 5 6 Jiao Liuyang 2:06.89 Q 5 5 4 Otylia Jędrzejczak 2:06.91 Q 6 3 6 Natsumi Hoshi 2:07.02 Q 7 4 6 Kathleen Hersey 2:07.65 Q 8 4 7 Micha Østergaard 2:07.77 Q, NR 9 5 3 Elaine Breeden 2:07.92 Q 10 4 5 Jemma Lowe 2:08.07 Q 11 4 4 Jessicah Schipper 2:08.11 Q 12 4 3 Audrey Lacroix 2:08.54 Q 13 5 2 Samantha Hamill 2:08.83 Q 14 4 8Petra Granlund 2:08.97 Q 15 4 2 Ellen Gandy 2:08.98 Q 16 2 6 Kathryn Meaklim 2:09.41 Q, AF 17 2 4 Nina Dittrich 2:09.85 NR 18 5 7 Beatrix Boulsevicz 2:10.00 19 2 5 Sara Oliveira 2:10.14 NR 20 3 8 Stephanie Horner 2:10.33 21 3 7 Paola Cavallino 2:10.46 22 5 8 Joanna Melo 2:10.64 23 5 1 Choi Hye-ra 2:11.42 24 2 8 Tetyana Khala 2:12.16 25 4 1 Yana Martynova 2:12.47 26 2 7 Tao Li 2:12.63 NR 27 3 5 Emese Kovács 2:12.73 28 3 1 Magali Rousseau 2:13.12 29 2 2 Yang Chin-Kuei 2:13.26 30 1 5 Eleftheria Evgenia Efstathiou 2:13.27 31 2 1 Denisa Smolenová 2:13.81 32 1 6 Gülşah Günenç 2:14.44 NR 33 1 4 Ingvild Snildal 2:14.53 34 1 3 Kristina Lennox-Silva 2:17.27 2 3 Georgina Bardach 3 3 Sara Isakovič

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Jiao Liuyang 2:06.42 Q 2 4 Aurore Mongel 2:07.21 Q 3 2 Jemma Lowe 2:07.87 4 3 Natsumi Hoshi 2:07.93 5 6 Micha Østergaard 2:09.29 6 7 Audrey Lacroix 2:09.74 7 1 Petra Granlund 2:09.79 8 8 Kathryn Meaklim 2:11.74

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Liu Zige 2:06.25 Q, AS 2 7 Jessicah Schipper 2:06.34 Q 3 3 Otylia Jędrzejczak 2:06.78 Q4 5 Yuko Nakanishi 2:06.96 Q 6 Kathleen Hersey Q 6 2 Elaine Breeden 2:07.73Q 7 1Samantha Hamill 2:09.58 8 8 Ellen Gandy 2:10.60

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Liu Zige 2:04.18 3 Jiao Liuyang 2:04.72 5 Jessicah Schipper 2:06.26 4 6 Otylia Jędrzejczak 2:07.02 5 2 Yuko Nakanishi 2:07.32 6 1 Aurore Mongel 2:07.36 7 8 Elaine Breeden 2:07.57 8 7 Kathleen Hersey 2:08.23

References

External links Official Olympic Report