The women's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 7–8 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Summary U.S. swimmer Lilly King stormed home on the final lap in a match against Russia's Yuliya Yefimova to capture the sprint breaststroke title for the first time since Megan Quann topped the podium in 2000. With 15 metres to go, King launched a mighty surge to pass Yefimova by more than half a second for the gold medal with a time of 1:04.93. King's time also shaved 0.24 seconds off the Olympic record set by Australia's four-time Olympian Leisel Jones in Beijing in 2008. Yefimova finished with a silver in 1:05.50. King's teammate Katie Meili snared the final podium spot with a 1:05.69 for the bronze.

China's Shi Jinglin delivered a time of 1:06.37 to pick up the fourth spot, just ahead of Canada's Rachel Nicol (1:06.68) by about three tenths of a second. Iceland's Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir placed sixth in 1:07.18, while Lithuania's world-record holder and defending champion Rūta Meilutytė could not reproduce her effort from London 2012 with a seventh-place time in 1:07.32. Jamaica's Alia Atkinson, fourth-place finalist at the previous Games, rounded out the top eight with a 1:08.10.

The medals for the competition were presented by Richard Peterkin, IOC member from Saint Lucia, and the gifts were presented by Donald Rukare, FINA bureau member.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Round Name Nation Time Record8 August Final Lilly King 1:04.93

Competition format

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 4 Lilly King 1:05.78 Q 2 5 4 Yuliya Yefimova 1:05.79 Q 3 4 4 Katie Meili 1:06.00 Q 4 6 5 Rūta Meilutytė 1:06.35 Q 5 6 3 Shi Jinglin 1:06.55 Q 6 4 7 Rikke Møller Pedersen 1:06.58 Q 7 5 5 Alia Atkinson 1:06.72 Q 8 4 6 Taylor McKeown 1:06.73 Q 9 6 6 Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir 1:06.81 Q 10 5 6 Jennie Johansson 1:06.84 Q 11 4 2 Rachel Nicol 1:06.85 Q 12 5 8 Chloé Tutton 1:06.88 Q 13 6 2 Satomi Suzuki 1:06.99 Q 14 6 1 Jessica Vall 1:07.07 Q 15 5 2 Viktoria Zeynep Güneş 1:07.14 Q 16 4 3 Kanako Watanabe 1:07.22 Q 17 5 7 Arianna Castiglioni 1:07.32 18 3 4 Jenna Laukkanen 1:07.35 NR 19 6 7 Kierra Smith 1:07.41 20 5 3 Martina Carraro 1:07.56 21 5 1 Fiona Doyle 1:07.58 22 6 8 Zhang Xinyu 1:07.59 23 3 2 Molly Renshaw 1:07.92 24 4 5 Georgia Bohl 1:07.96 25 3 1 Anna Sztankovics 1:08.06 26 3 8 Martina Moravčíková 1:08.50 27 3 5 Sophie Hansson 1:08.67 28 4 1 Fanny Lecluyse 1:08.80 29 4 8 Daria Chikunova 1:09.12 30 3 6 Amit Ivry 1:09.42 31 2 5 Maria Romanjuk 1:09.49 32 3 3 Yvette Kong 1:09.56 33 2 4 Phee Jinq En 1:10.22 34 2 6 Dariya Talanova 1:10.94 35 3 7 Tjaša Vozel 1:11.15 36 2 3 Tatiana Chișca 1:11.37 37 2 2 Evita Leter 1:14.96 38 2 1 Pilar Shimizu 1:16.65 39 2 8 Izzy Shne Joachim 1:17.37 40 2 7 Jamila Lunkuse 1:19.64 41 1 3 Darýa Semýonowa 1:19.84 42 1 5 Rechael Tonjor 1:21.43 43 1 4 Teona Bostashvili 1:22.91 44 1 6 Daniah Hagul 1:25.47

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Yuliya Yefimova 1:05.72 Q 2 5 Rūta Meilutytė 1:06.44 Q 3 2 Jennie Johansson 1:07.06 4 3 Rikke Møller Pedersen 1:07.07 5 6 Taylor McKeown 1:07.12 6 7 Chloé Tutton 1:07.29 7 8 Kanako Watanabe 1:07.43 8 1 Jessica Vall 1:07.55

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Lilly King 1:05.70 Q 2 3 Shi Jinglin 1:06.31 Q3 5 Katie Meili 1:06.52 Q 6 Alia Atkinson Q 5 2 Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir 1:06.71 Q 6 7 Rachel Nicol 1:06.73 Q 7 1 Satomi Suzuki 1:07.18 8 8 Viktoria Zeynep Güneş 1:07.41

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Lilly King 1:04.93 5 Yuliya Yefimova 1:05.50 2 Katie Meili 1:05.69 4 3 Shi Jinglin 1:06.37 5 8 Rachel Nicol 1:06.68 6 1 Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir 1:07.18 7 6 Rūta Meilutytė 1:07.32 8 7 Alia Atkinson 1:08.10

References