The women's 100 metre butterfly event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 16–17 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.

Dutch rising star Inge de Bruijn broke her own world record by 0.03 seconds to claim the gold medal in the event. Forging a narrow lead at the initial turn, she cruised her path on the final lap to hit the wall first in a sterling time of 56.61. Slovakia's Martina Moravcová moved herself up from fourth to surge past the field for the silver medal in 57.97. At only 33 years of age and competing in her fourth Olympics since 1984, U.S. legend Dara Torres ended her seven-year retirement from the sport by taking home the bronze in 58.20.

Australia's top favorite Petria Thomas failed to impress the home crowd with her fourth-place effort, finishing off the podium by 29-hundredths of a second in 58.49. Trailing behind De Bruijn by 0.12 seconds, Jenny Thompson faded down the final stretch to pick up a fifth spot in 58.73. Earlier in the prelims, she posted a leading time (57.66) to cut off Qian Hong's 1992 Olympic record by almost a full second. Japan's Junko Onishi (59.13), Thomas' teammate Susie O'Neill (59.27), competing in her third Olympics, and Romania's Diana Mocanu (59.43) rounded out the finale.

Before her breakthrough final, De Bruijn erased Thompson's record from heat five by 0.06 seconds to post a top-seeded time of 57.60 in the prelims. Followed by an evening session on the first night of the Games, she eventually lowered it to 57.14 in the semifinals.

Records 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 16 September Heat 5 Jenny Thompson 57.66 16 September Heat 7 Inge de Bruijn 57.60 16 September Semifinal 2 Inge de Bruijn 57.14 17 September Final Inge de Bruijn 56.61

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 7 4 Inge de Bruijn 57.60 Q, 2 5 4 Jenny Thompson 57.66 Q, AM 3 7 5 Petria Thomas 58.52 Q 4 7 3 Otylia Jędrzejczak 58.66 Q, NR 5 6 4 Dara Torres 58.76 Q 6 6 5 Martina Moravcová 58.95 Q 7 5 3 Junko Onishi 59.11 Q 8 6 6 Mette Jacobsen 59.45 Q 9 5 5 Susie O'Neill 59.49 Q 10 7 8 Natalya Sutyagina 59.50 Q, NR 11 6 3 Johanna Sjöberg 59.59 Q12 5 7 Franziska van Almsick 59.72 Q, 6 7 Diana Mocanu Q, NR 14 4 3 Sophia Skou 59.79 Q 15 5 6 Anna-Karin Kammerling 59.88 Q 16 7 7 Mandy Loots 59.94 Q, AF 17 6 1 Cécile Jeanson 59.96 Q 18 6 2 Liu Limin 59.98 19 7 2 Vered Borochovski 1:00.34 20 4 4 Jen Button 1:00.83 21 5 8 Jessica Deglau 1:00.97 7 6 Maki Mita 23 4 7 Fabienne Dufour 1:01.15 4 8 Orsolya Ferenczy 25 7 1 Ruan Yi 1:01.16 26 6 8 Joscelin Yeo 1:01.28 27 5 2 Daniela Samulski 1:01.31 28 4 6 Renate du Plessis 1:01.32 29 4 5 María Peláez 1:01.47 30 4 2 Margaretha Pedder 1:01.53 31 5 1 Yekaterina Vinogradova 1:01.54 32 3 3 Maria Papadopoulou 1:01.64 NR 33 4 1 Marja Pärssinen 1:01.94 34 3 5 Zampia Melachroinou 1:02.06 35 3 2 Lee Bo-eun 1:02.22 36 3 8 Fabíola Molina 1:02.77 37 3 4 Praphalsai Minpraphal 1:02.99 38 3 6 Mariya Ogurtsova 1:03.00 39 3 1 Eydis Konráðsdóttir 1:03.27 40 3 7 Siobhan Cropper 1:03.34 41 2 4 Hsieh Shu-ting 1:03.52 42 2 3 Yan Kay Flora Kong 1:04.09 43 2 2 Ayse Diker 1:04.65 44 2 5 María del Pilar Pereyra 1:04.75 45 1 4 Lisa de la Motte 1:06.70 46 1 3 Angela Galea 1:07.88 47 2 7 Ellen Lendra Hight 1:09.34 48 2 6 Mariya Bugakova 1:09.94 49 1 5 Tracy Ann Route 1:13.53 2 1 Kenza Bennaceur

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Jenny Thompson 58.18 Q 2 3 Martina Moravcová 58.49 Q 3 7 Diana Mocanu 59.12 Q, NR 4 5 Otylia Jędrzejczak 59.14 5 2 Natalya Sutyagina 59.30 6 6 Mette Jacobsen 59.75 7 8 Cécile Jeanson 59.80 8 1 Anna-Karin Kammerling 1:00.40

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Inge de Bruijn 57.14 Q, 2 5 Petria Thomas 58.11 Q 3 3 Dara Torres 58.35 Q 4 6 Junko Onishi 59.04 Q 5 2 Susie O'Neill 59.05 Q 6 7 Johanna Sjöberg 59.15 7 8 Mandy Loots 59.63 AF 8 1 Sophia Skou 59.89

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Inge de Bruijn 56.61 2 Martina Moravcová 57.97 NR 6 Dara Torres 58.20 4 5 Petria Thomas 58.49 5 3 Jenny Thompson 58.73 6 7 Junko Onishi 59.13 7 1 Susie O'Neill 59.27 8 8 Diana Mocanu 59.43

References

External links Official Olympic Report