Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre freestyle

The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 30–31 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.[1]

Women's 200 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Date	July 30, 2012 (heats & semifinals) July 31, 2012 (final)
Competitors	37 from 31 nations
Winning time	1:53.61 OR
Medalists
Allison Schmitt  United States Camille Muffat  France Bronte Barratt  Australia

U.S. swimmer Allison Schmitt blasted a new Olympic record with a stunning effort to capture the gold medal in the event for the first time, since Nicole Haislett topped the podium in 1992. She pulled away from a tightly-packed field on the final lap to hit the wall first in a sterling time of 1:53.61, shaving 1.21 seconds off the record set by Italy's Federica Pellegrini from Beijing in 2008.[2][3] After defeating Schmitt in a close duel to grab the 400 m freestyle title two days earlier, France's Camille Muffat trailed behind her rival by almost a body length for the silver in 1:55.58.[4] Meanwhile, Australia's Bronte Barratt produced a striking touch to take home the bronze in 1:55.81, edging out American teenage star Missy Franklin by a hundredth of a second.[5][6][7]

Franklin missed a chance to add her third career medal with a fourth-place time in 1:55.82, while Pellegrini, the defending Olympic champion, dropped off the podium to fifth in 1:56.73.[8][9] Russia's Veronika Popova (1:57.25), Great Britain's home favorite Caitlin McClatchey (1:57.60) and Barratt's teammate Kylie Palmer (1:57.68) closed out the field.[5][7]

Notable swimmers failed to reach the top-eight final roster including Slovenia's Sara Isaković, the defending silver medalist, who placed fourteenth (1:58.47) in the semifinals; and Romania's Camelia Potec, a four-time Olympian and 2004 Olympic champion, who posted a twenty-fifth place time (2:01.15) on the morning prelims.[10]

Records

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

World record	Federica Pellegrini (ITA)	1:52.98	Rome, Italy	29 July 2009	[11][12]
Olympic record	Federica Pellegrini (ITA)	1:54.82	Beijing, China	13 August 2008	[13]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
July 31	Final	Allison Schmitt	United States	1:53.61	OR

Results

Heats

[14]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	5	Federica Pellegrini	Italy	1:57.16	Q
2	5	4	Allison Schmitt	United States	1:57.33	Q
3	3	4	Missy Franklin	United States	1:57.62	Q
4	3	3	Veronika Popova	Russia	1:57.79	Q
	5	7	Melania Costa Schmid	Spain		Q
6	3	6	Barbara Jardin	Canada	1:57.92	Q
7	5	5	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden	1:58.03	Q
	4	2	Caitlin McClatchey	Great Britain		Q
9	3	7	Samantha Cheverton	Canada	1:58.11	Q
10	4	3	Bronte Barratt	Australia	1:58.12	Q
11	5	3	Kylie Palmer	Australia	1:58.16	Q
12	4	4	Camille Muffat	France	1:58.49	Q
13	5	6	Silke Lippok	Germany	1:58.59	Q
14	4	6	Wang Shijia	China	1:58.73	Q
15	4	1	Hanae Ito	Japan	1:58.93	Q
16	5	1	Sara Isaković	Slovenia	1:58.96	Q
17	3	2	Rebecca Turner	Great Britain	1:58.98
18	3	1	Ophélie-Cyrielle Etienne	France	1:59.15
19	4	8	Nina Rangelova	Bulgaria	1:59.21	NR
20	5	8	Karin Prinsloo	South Africa	1:59.24
21	4	7	Song Wenyan	China	1:59.47
22	5	2	Ágnes Mutina	Hungary	1:59.56
23	3	8	Sze Hang Yu	Hong Kong	1:59.92
24	2	5	Pernille Blume	Denmark	2:00.91
25	2	6	Camelia Potec	Romania	2:01.15
26	2	2	Liliana Ibanez	Mexico	2:01.36
27	2	1	Anna Stylianou	Cyprus	2:01.87
28	2	8	Katarína Filová	Slovakia	2:02.03
29	2	4	Jördis Steinegger	Austria	2:02.39
30	1	3	Natthanan Junkrajang	Thailand	2:02.49
31	1	5	Danielle Villars	Switzerland	2:03.55
32	2	7	Hanna-Maria Seppälä	Finland	2:04.21
33	1	4	Baek Il-joo	South Korea	2:04.32
34	1	6	Heather Arseth	Mauritius	2:07.81
35	1	2	Aurelie Fanchette	Seychelles	2:23.49
	2	3	Grainne Murphy	Ireland	DNS
	4	5	Femke Heemskerk	Netherlands	DNS

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Bronte Barratt	Australia	1:56.08	Q
2	4	Allison Schmitt	United States	1:56.15	Q
3	7	Camille Muffat	France	1:56.18	Q
4	5	Veronika Popova	Russia	1:56.84	Q, NR
5	3	Barbara Jardin	Canada	1:57.91
6	6	Sarah Sjöström	Sweden	1:58.12
7	8	Sara Isaković	Slovenia	1:58.47
8	1	Wang Shijia	China	1:58.63

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Federica Pellegrini	Italy	1:56.67	Q
2	6	Caitlin McClatchey	Great Britain	1:57.33	Q
3	7	Kylie Palmer	Australia	1:57.44	Q
4	5	Missy Franklin	United States	1:57.57	Q
5	3	Melania Costa Schmid	Spain	1:57.76
6	2	Samantha Cheverton	Canada	1:57.98
7	1	Silke Lippok	Germany	1:58.24
8	8	Hanae Ito	Japan	1:59.62

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Allison Schmitt	United States	1:53.61	OR, AM
	3	Camille Muffat	France	1:55.58
	4	Bronte Barratt	Australia	1:55.81
4	8	Missy Franklin	United States	1:55.82
5	6	Federica Pellegrini	Italy	1:56.73
6	2	Veronika Popova	Russia	1:57.25
7	7	Caitlin McClatchey	Great Britain	1:57.60
8	1	Kylie Palmer	Australia	1:57.68

References

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 29 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
2. "Allison Schmitt wins gold medal for US". Boston Globe. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
3. "Olympics swimming: Allison Schmitt wins with Games record". BBC Sport. 31 July 2012. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
4. "Allison Schmitt wins 200 free". ESPN. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
5. "Bronte Barratt claims Olympic bronze medal in women's 200m freestyle". News Corp Australia. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
6. "Barratt snares bronze in 200m free". ABC News Australia. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
7. "2012 London Olympics: Allison Schmitt Torches 200 Free With Olympic, American Record; Missy Franklin Misses Podium". Swimming World Magazine. 31 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
8. Das, Andrew (31 July 2012). "Schmitt Sets Mark in Winning Gold; Franklin Fourth". New York Times. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
9. Auerbach, Nicole (31 July 2012). "Missy Franklin finishes fourth in 200 free in London". USA Today. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
10. "2012 London Olympics: Defending Champion Federica Pellegrini Leads Way in Women's 200 Free Prelims; Schmitt and Franklin Fractions Behind". Swimming World Magazine. 30 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
11. "FINA World Championships, Swimming: Federica Pellegrini Puts on Show for Home Crowd With World Record, U.S. Goes 2-3 With American Record". Swimming World Magazine. 31 July 2012. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
12. "Phelps bounces back with 200m fly world record triumph". Sydney Morning Herald. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
13. "Pellegrini takes 200m free gold". BBC Sport. 12 August 2008. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
14. "Women's 200m Freestyle – Heats". London 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage