The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

Australia's Stephanie Rice became the third swimmer in Olympic history to strike a medley double, since Michelle Smith did so in 1996 and Yana Klochkova in 2000 and 2004. She established a sterling time of 2:08.45 to lower her world record from the Olympic trials by almost half a second (0.50). Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry added a third silver to her collection, finishing with an African record of 2:08.59. U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin, who held the lead on the backstroke leg, picked up a bronze medal in 2:10.34.

Completing the second half of a difficult double, American Katie Hoff produced the same result from the 200 m freestyle, as she finished again in fourth place with a time of 2:10.68. Australia's Alicia Coutts placed fifth in 2:11.43, while Japan's Asami Kitagawa swam the outside lane to finish the race in sixth place at 2:11.56. On the strength of the breaststroke leg, Kitagawa won a swimoff for the last slot in the top 8 final over Hungary's Evelyn Verrasztó. Canada's Julia Wilkinson (2:12.43) and Poland's Katarzyna Baranowska (2:13.36) closed out the field.

Earlier in the semifinals, Coventry established an Olympic standard of 2:09.53 to cut off Yana Klochkova's eight-year record by a 1.15-second deficit.

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 12 Semifinal 1 Kirsty Coventry 2:09.53 August 13 Final Stephanie Rice 2:08.45

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 3 Alicia Coutts 2:11.55 Q 2 4 4 Katie Hoff 2:11.58 Q 3 3 4 Natalie Coughlin 2:11.63 Q 4 5 3 Hannah Miley 2:11.72 Q 5 3 6 Julie Hjorth-Hansen 2:11.99 Q 6 5 4 Stephanie Rice 2:12.07 Q 7 4 5 Camille Muffat 2:12.16 Q 8 5 5 Kirsty Coventry 2:12.18 Q9 3 2 Asami Kitagawa 2:12.47 Q, NR 5 6 Katarzyna Baranowska Q 11 5 2 Evelyn Verrasztó 2:12.52 Q 12 3 1 Li Jiaxing 2:12.53 Q 13 3 7 Julia Wilkinson 2:12.56 Q 14 3 5 Mireia Belmonte García 2:12.75 Q 15 3 3 Keri-Anne Payne 2:12.78 Q 16 4 1 Svetlana Karpeeva 2:12.94 Q 17 4 8 Katinka Hosszú 2:13.05 18 5 1 Helen Norfolk 2:13.50 19 5 7 Erica Morningstar 2:14.11 20 4 6 Qi Hui 2:14.25 21 4 2 Cylia Vabre 2:14.34 22 2 7 Joanna Maranhão 2:14.97 23 2 1 Sara Nordenstam 2:15.13 NR 24 2 2 Choi Hye-Ra 2:15.26 25 2 3 Anja Klinar 2:15.39 26 2 5 Jessica Pengelly 2:15.80 27 3 8 María Peláez 2:15.97 28 2 6 Femke Heemskerk 2:16.28 29 2 8 Siow Yi Ting 2:17.11 30 4 7 Katharina Schiller 2:18.00 31 1 6 Ganna Dzerkal 2:18.25 32 1 2 Erika Stewart 2:18.54 NR 33 1 3 Sherry Tsai 2:18.91 34 5 8Sonja Schöber 2:20.18 35 1 4 Erla Dögg Haraldsdóttir 2:20.53 36 1 7 Lin Man-Hsu 2:23.29 37 2 4 Georgina Bardach 2:25.74 38 1 1 Fibriani Ratna Marita 2:28.18 1 5 Maroua Mathlouthi

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 Kirsty Coventry 2:09.53 Q, , AF 2 3 Stephanie Rice 2:10.58 Q 3 4 Katie Hoff 2:10.90 Q 4 2 Katarzyna Baranowska 2:12.13 Q, NR 5 5 Hannah Miley 2:12.35 6 8 Svetlana Karpeeva 2:13.26 7 1 Mireia Belmonte García 2:13.45 8 7 Li Jiaxing 2:13.47

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Natalie Coughlin 2:11.84 Q2 1 Julia Wilkinson 2:12.03 Q 4 Alicia Coutts Q4 2 Asami Kitagawa 2:12.18 , NR 7 Evelyn Verrasztó 6 3 Julie Hjorth-Hansen 2:12.26 7 6 Camille Muffat 2:12.36 8 8 Keri-Anne Payne 2:14.14

Swimoff Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Asami Kitagawa 2:12.02 Q, NR 2 4 Evelyn Verrasztó 2:14.96

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 5 Stephanie Rice 2:08.45 4 Kirsty Coventry 2:08.59 AF 6 Natalie Coughlin 2:10.34 4 3 Katie Hoff 2:10.68 5 2 Alicia Coutts 2:11.43 6 8 Asami Kitagawa 2:11.56 NR 7 7 Julia Wilkinson 2:12.43 8 1 Katarzyna Baranowska 2:13.36

References

External links Official Olympic Report