| Event: | Women's 200 metre freestyle |
| Games: | 2008 Summer |
| Venue: | Beijing National Aquatics Center |
| Date: | August 11, 2008 (heats) August 12, 2008(semifinals) August 13, 2008 (final) |
| Competitors: | 46 |
| Nations: | 37 |
| Win Value: | 1:54.82 |
| Gold: | Federica Pellegrini |
| Goldnoc: | ITA |
| Silver: | Sara Isakovič |
| Silvernoc: | SLO |
| Bronze: | Pang Jiaying |
| Bronzenoc: | CHN |
| Prev: | 2004 |
| Next: | 2012 |
The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.[1]
Italy's Federica Pellegrini broke a new world record of 1:54.82 to claim a gold medal in the event. Sara Isakovič, who finished behind Pellegrini by 0.15 of a second, cleared a 1:55 barrier to set a new Slovenian record of 1:54.97, and ultimately become the nation's first ever medalist in swimming. China's Pang Jiaying edged out U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff on the final lap to pick up a bronze in 1:55.05. Hoff finished in fourth place in an American record of 1:55.78.[2] [3] [4]
Defending champion Camelia Potec finished outside the medals in fifth place, posting a Romanian record of 1:56.87. Great Britain's Caitlin McClatchey earned a sixth spot in 1:57.65, and was followed by a seventh-place tie between Australia's Bronte Barratt and France's Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne in a matching time of 1:57.83. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went faster than a winning time of 1:58.03, previously set by Potec in Athens four years earlier.[2]
Earlier in the prelims, Pang broke one of the oldest Olympic records in the book, when she clocked at 1:57.37 to lead the fourth heat, slashing 0.28 seconds off the old mark set by East Germany's Heike Friedrich from Seoul in 1988. Two heats later, Pellegrini posted a top-seeded time of 1:55.45 to erase Laure Manaudou's world record, set in 2007.[5]
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 11 | Heat 4 | align=left | align=left | 1:57.37 | ||||
| August 11 | Heat 5 | align=left | align=left | 1:55.86 | ||||
| August 11 | Heat 6 | align=left | align=left | 1:55.45 | ||||
| August 13 | Final | align=left | align=left | 1:54.82 |
| Rank | Lane | width=200 | Name ! | width=150 | Nationality ! | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Sara Isakovič | 1:56.50 | Q | |||
| 2 | 5 | Katie Hoff | 1:57.01 | Q | |||
| 3 | 3 | 1:57.34 | Q | ||||
| 4 | 2 | Bronte Barratt | 1:57.55 | Q | |||
| 5 | 7 | Linda Mackenzie | 1:58.19 | ||||
| 6 | 6 | Haruka Ueda | 1:58.44 | ||||
| 7 | 1 | Joanne Jackson | 1:58.70 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | Ida Marko-Varga | 1:59.41 |
| Rank | Lane | width=200 | Name ! | width=150 | Nationality ! | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Federica Pellegrini | 1:57.23 | Q | |||
| 2 | 2 | Camelia Potec | 1:57.71 | Q | |||
| 3 | 5 | 1:57.73 | Q | ||||
| 4 | 7 | Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne | 1:58.00 | Q | |||
| 5 | 6 | 1:58.01 | |||||
| 6 | 8 | Aurore Mongel | 1:58.08 | ||||
| 7 | 3 | 1:58.15 | |||||
| 8 | 1 | Josefin Lillhage | 1:59.29 |
| Rank | Lane | width=200 | Name ! | width=150 | Nationality ! | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1:54.82 | ||||||
| 4 | 1:54.97 | NR | |||||
| 6 | 1:55.05 | AS | |||||
| 4 | 5 | 1:55.78 | AM | ||||
| 5 | 7 | 1:56.87 | NR | ||||
| 6 | 1 | 1:57.65 | |||||
| 7 | 2 | 1:57.83 | |||||
| 8 |