| Event: | Women's 100 metre freestyle |
| Games: | 2008 Summer |
| Venue: | Beijing National Aquatics Center |
| Date: | August 13, 2008 (heats) August 14, 2008(semifinals) August 15, 2008 (final) |
| Competitors: | 49 |
| Nations: | 41 |
| Win Value: | 53.12 |
| Gold: | Britta Steffen |
| Goldnoc: | GER |
| Silver: | Lisbeth Trickett |
| Silvernoc: | AUS |
| Bronze: | Natalie Coughlin |
| Bronzenoc: | USA |
| Prev: | 2004 |
| Next: | 2012 |
The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 13–15 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.[1]
Germany's Britta Steffen blasted a new Olympic record to claim a gold medal in the event. Coming from eighth place in the turn, she posted a time of 53.12 to edge out Australia's world record holder and top favorite Lisbeth Trickett by 0.04 of a second. Swimming in lane eight, Trickett earned a silver with an outside record time of 53.16.[2] [3] [4] She narrowly reached the final as the eighth seed, when China's Pang Jiaying was disqualified for a false start in the semifinals.[5] Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin powered home with a bronze in a matching American record of 53.39 for the second consecutive Olympics. It was Coughlin's fifth medal of these Games, matching her total from Athens four years earlier.[6]
Competing at her third straight Olympics with Steffen, Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppälä finished outside the medals in fourth place at 53.97. Earlier, she posted a top-seeded time of 53.60 from the sixth heat to lead the prelims.[7] She was followed in fifth place by Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen (54.06), and host nation China's Zhu Yingwen, who shared a sixth-place tie with the Netherlands' Marleen Veldhuis in 54.21. Great Britain's Francesca Halsall (54.29) closed out the field.[2]
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 10 | Final* | align=left | align=left | 53.38 | ||||
| August 15 | Final | align=left | align=left | 53.12 |
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 3 | 53.60 | Q, NR | |||
| 2 | 6 | 4 | 53.67 | Q | |||
| 3 | 6 | 5 | 53.76 | Q | |||
| 4 | 7 | 5 | 53.82 | Q | |||
| 5 | 5 | 6 | 53.93 | Q | |||
| 6 | 7 | 4 | 53.99 | Q | |||
| 7 | 6 | 6 | 54.01 | Q, =AS | |||
| 7 | 7 | Q, =AS | |||||
| 9 | 4 | 5 | 54.04 | Q | |||
| 10 | 6 | 2 | 54.07 | Q | |||
| 11 | 7 | 3 | 54.12 | Q | |||
| 12 | 5 | 7 | 54.52 | Q | |||
| 13 | 5 | 4 | 54.55 | Q | |||
| 14 | 5 | 3 | 54.62 | Q | |||
| 15 | 7 | 6 | 54.66 | Q | |||
| 16 | 6 | 7 | 54.70 | Q* | |||
| 7 | 1 | ||||||
| 18 | 5 | 2 | 54.86 | ||||
| 19 | 7 | 8 | 55.01 | ||||
| 20 | 6 | 1 | 55.14 | NR | |||
| 21 | 6 | 8 | 55.17 | ||||
| 22 | 4 | 3 | 55.18 | ||||
| 23 | 5 | 1 | 55.20 | ||||
| 24 | 5 | 5 | 55.23 | ||||
| 25 | 4 | 4 | 55.29 | ||||
| 26 | 3 | 3 | 55.32 | ||||
| 27 | 4 | 8 | 55.51 | ||||
| 28 | 3 | 4 | 55.61 | ||||
| 29 | 3 | 2 | 55.62 | ||||
| 30 | 4 | 2 | 55.70 | ||||
| 31 | 5 | 8 | 55.92 | ||||
| 32 | 3 | 1 | 55.96 | ||||
| 33 | 4 | 7 | 56.10 | ||||
| 34 | 2 | 5 | 56.14 | ||||
| 35 | 3 | 5 | 56.35 | ||||
| 36 | 3 | 8 | 56.38 | ||||
| 37 | 3 | 7 | 56.44 | ||||
| 38 | 4 | 1 | 56.50 | ||||
| 39 | 2 | 6 | 56.56 | ||||
| 40 | 2 | 4 | 56.57 | ||||
| 41 | 2 | 7 | 56.67 | NR | |||
| 42 | 4 | 6 | 56.72 | ||||
| 43 | 2 | 3 | 57.28 | ||||
| 44 | 3 | 6 | 57.30 | ||||
| 45 | 1 | 4 | 57.97 | NR | |||
| 46 | 2 | 2 | 58.77 | ||||
| 47 | 1 | 5 | 59.93 | ||||
| 48 | 1 | 6 | |||||
| 7 | 2 |
| Rank | Lane | width=200 | Name ! | width=150 | Nationality ! | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 53.70 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 6 | 53.84 | Q, AS | ||||
| 3 | 4 | 53.96 | Q | ||||
| 4 | 3 | 54.10 | Q | ||||
| 5 | 2 | 54.59 | |||||
| 6 | 1 | 54.74 | |||||
| 7 | 8 | 55.05 | |||||
| 8 | 7 | 55.31 |
| Rank | Lane | width=200 | Name ! | width=150 | Nationality ! | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 53.81 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 4 | 53.84 | Q | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 53.94 | Q | ||||
| 4 | 2 | 54.05 | Q | ||||
| 5 | 7 | 54.20 | |||||
| 6 | 1 | 54.54 | |||||
| 7 | 8 | 55.36 | |||||
| 6 |
| Rank | Lane | width=200 | Name ! | width=150 | Nationality ! | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 53.12 | ||||||
| 8 | 53.16 | ||||||
| 4 | 53.39 | =AM | |||||
| 4 | 6 | 53.97 | |||||
| 5 | 1 | 54.06 | |||||
| 6 | 3 | 54.21 | |||||
| 5 | |||||||
| 8 | 2 | 54.29 |