The women's 200-metre butterfly event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 31 July to 1 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.

Going into the event, 17 year old Summer McIntosh from Canada was the favourite, with the US' Regan Smith and China's defending Olympic champion Zhang Yufei also contenders for gold. In the heats, Greece's Georgia Damasioti swam 2:09:55 to break the national record, and in the semifinals, Denmark's Helena Rosendahl Bach broke her nation's record with a 2:06.65.

In the final, Zhang took an early lead but was overtaken by McIntosh and Smith in the last 75 metres. McIntosh won gold with a new Olympic and world junior record of 2:03.03, Smith claimed silver with a national record of 2:03.84 and Zhang won the bronze. The medal was McIntosh's second gold of the games, making her the first Canadian swimmer to win multiple Olympic golds.

Background The defending Olympic champion in the event was Zhang Yufei from China, while 17 year old Summer McIntosh from Canada won the event at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. Regan Smith of the US was the silver medallist at the previous Olympics, and had since swum the fourth fastest time in history—0.01 seconds slower than Zhang's personal best and two tenths faster than McIntosh's. Twenty year old Elizabeth Dekkers from Australia was the 2023 World Championships silver medallist and was also on a positive improvement trajectory. SwimSwam and Swimming World both ranked McIntosh as the favourite to win.

The event was held at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.

Qualification Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 2:08.43 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 2:09.07 for this event. In total, 14 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, four athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT.

+ Top 10 fastest qualification times Swimmer Country Time Competition Summer McIntosh 02:04:06 2023 World Aquatics Championships Regan Smith 02:04:80 2024 Pro Swim Series Westmont Elizabeth Dekkers 02:05:20 2024 Australian Championships Zhang Yufei 02:05:57 2022 Asian Games Alex Shackell 02:06:10 2024 United States Olympic Trials Lana Pudar 02:06:26 2023 European Junior Championships Abbey Connor 02:06:43 2024 Australian Olympic Trials Airi Mitsui 02:06:54 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials Laura Stephens 02:06:62 2023 British Championships Chen Luying 02:06:81 2024 Chinese Championships

Heats Three heats (preliminary rounds) took place on 31 July 2024, starting at 11:46. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. Zhang qualified as the top seed, swimming 2:06:55, while Greece's Georgia Damasioti lowered her own national record from 2023 by 0.19 seconds, swimming 2:09:55.

+ Results Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 3 5 Zhang Yufei 2:06.55 2 2 4 Regan Smith 2:06.99 3 3 3 Abbey Connor 2:07.13 4 2 6 Helena Rosendahl Bach 2:07.34 5 2 5 Alex Shackell 2:07.49 6 3 4 Summer McIntosh 2:07.70 7 1 6 Keanna Macinnes 2:08.46 8 1 4 Elizabeth Dekkers 2:08.97 9 2 3 Airi Mitsui 2:09.12 10 2 2 Boglárka Kapás 2:09.28 11 3 6 Chen Luying 2:09.31 12 1 5 Lana Pudar 2:09.32 13 3 7 Georgia Damasioti 2:09.55 , NR 14 1 3 Laura Stephens 2:10.46 15 3 2 Hiroko Makino 2:10.79 16 1 2 Laura Cabanes 2:10.82 17 2 7 Anja Crevar 2:18.46 18 1 7 Alondra Ortiz 2:18.56 19 3 1 Lia Lima 2:22.19

Semifinals Two semifinals took place on 31 July, starting at 20:45. The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final. McIntosh qualified as the top seed with 2:04.87, while Smith qualified second, Zhang qualified third and Dekkers fourth. Also qualifying for the final was the US' Alex Shackell, Denmark's Helena Rosendahl Bach, Australia's Abbey Connor and Great Britain's Laura Stephens. Bach also lowered her Nordic record in the event by 0.28 seconds, swimming 2:06.65.

+ Results Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 1 3 Summer McIntosh 2:04.87 2 1 4 Regan Smith 2:05.39 3 2 4 Zhang Yufei 2:06.09 4 1 6 Elizabeth Dekkers 2:06.17 5 2 3 Alex Shackell 2:06.46 6 1 5 Helena Rosendahl Bach 2:06.65 , NR 7 2 5 Abbey Connor 2:07.10 8 1 1 Laura Stephens 2:07.53 9 2 6 Keanna Macinnes 2:08.04 10 2 7 Chen Luying 2:08.07 11 2 2 Airi Mitsui 2:08.71 12 1 7 Lana Pudar 2:08.74 13 2 8 Hiroko Makino 2:09.16 14 1 2 Boglárka Kapás 2:09.23 15 2 1 Georgia Damasioti 2:10.25 16 1 8 Laura Cabanes 2:10.60

Final The final took place at 20:30 on 1 August 2024. China's Zhang Yufei started fastest, turning first at 50 metres with a 27.08 second split, 0.3 faster than Canada's Summer McIntosh, who in turn split 0.22 faster than Regan Smith from the US. At 65 metres, Zhang had extended her lead to 0.50, but by 100 m McIntosh had closed to 0.16 seconds. At 115 metres (after the third underwater), McIntosh had overtaken Zhang. Zhang temporarily retook the lead during the middle of the penultimate length, but by the final turn McIntosh had a 0.73 advantage. Over the final 50 metres, McIntosh extended her lead to finish in first with 2:03:03, while Smith overtook Zhang to claim silver with 2:03.84. Zhang finished third in 2:05.09.

McIntosh's 2:03.03 was an Olympic record, world junior record and an Americas record. Her win won her second gold medal and third medal of the games, making her the first Canadian swimmer to win multiple Olympic golds. Smith's 2:03.84 lowered her own national record for the US.

Over the race, McIntosh spent about 19 seconds underwater, while Smith was underwater for about 28 and Zhang for about 29. Smith generally breathed once every other stroke, McIntosh generally twice every three strokes and Zhang on almost every stroke. SwimSwam opined after the race: "the key to McIntosh’s victory and Olympic record was her management of the third and fourth laps: she was the only swimmer to touch and surpass the speeds maintained during the first two laps".

+ Results Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 4 Summer McIntosh 2:03.03 OR, WJ, AM 5 Regan Smith 2:03.84 NR 3 Zhang Yufei 2:05.09 4 6 Elizabeth Dekkers 2:07.11 7 Helena Rosendahl Bach 6 2 Alex Shackell 2:07.73 7 1 Abbey Connor 2:08.15 8 8 Laura Stephens 2:08.82

+ Statistics Name 50 metre split 100 metre split 150 metre split Time Stroke rate (strokes/min) Summer McIntosh 00:27.38 00:58.97 01:30.70 2:03.03 51.5 Regan Smith 00:27.60 00:59.36 01:31.50 2:03.84 54.8 Zhang Yufei 00:27.08 00:58.81 01:31.43 2:05.09 52.1 Elizabeth Dekkers 00:28.39 01:00.12 01:32.26 2:07.11 50.7 Helena Rosendahl Bach 00:28.72 01:00.55 01:33.06 52.3 Alex Shackell 00:28.26 00:59.97 01:32.94 2:07.73 51.5 Abbey Connor 00:28.67 01:00.46 01:34.12 2:08.15 48.9 Laura Stephens 00:28.71 01:00.85 01:34.01 2:08.82 49.8

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