The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19–20 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.

U.S. swimmer Misty Hyman stunned Australia's defending champion Susie O'Neill to claim the Olympic title in front of a raucous home crowd. Seen as almost a lock victory for O'Neill, Hyman seized off a powerful lead and held a full body length over the champion at the 150-metre turn to maintain her relentless pace and touch the wall first in one of the oldest Olympic records in the book. She improved a sterling lifetime best of 2:05.88 to erase Mary T. Meagher's 1984 record by 1.02 seconds, but her time was just a 0.07-margin closer to O'Neill's world record. In a signature race, O'Neill ended up with only a silver in 2:06.58, adding it to her gold from Atlanta in 1996 and bronze from Barcelona in 1992. Meanwhile, Petria Thomas took home the bronze in 2:07.12, handing the entire medal lock for the Aussies with a two–three finish.

Danish star Mette Jacobsen, competing in her fourth Olympics, finished off the podium by over a second in 2:08.24, while Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak posted a fifth-place time of 2:08.48. Racing next to her teammate Hyman in lane seven, Kaitlin Sandeno picked up a sixth spot with a time of 2:08.81. Japanese duo Yuko Nakanishi (2:09.66) and Maki Mita (2:10.72) closed out the field.

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 20 September Final Misty Hyman 2:05.88

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 5 Misty Hyman 2:07.87 Q 2 5 4 Susie O'Neill 2:07.97 Q3 4 4 Petria Thomas 2:08.70 Q 4 5 Otylia Jędrzejczak Q 5 3 4 Mette Jacobsen 2:09.30 Q 6 5 5 Maki Mita 2:09.85 Q 7 5 3 Kaitlin Sandeno 2:09.92 Q 8 3 3 Yuko Nakanishi 2:10.22 Q 9 2 3 Cécile Jeanson 2:10.78 Q, NR 10 5 6 Mireia García 2:10.96 Q 11 3 2 Georgina Lee 2:11.09 Q 12 4 2 Éva Risztov 2:11.32 Q 13 5 2 Sophia Skou 2:11.35 Q 14 4 7 Mandy Loots 2:11.38 Q, AF 15 4 6 Margaretha Pedder 2:11.59 Q 16 3 8 Elizabeth van Welie 2:11.62 Q, NR 17 3 7 Jen Button 2:11.74 18 3 1 Yekaterina Vinogradova 2:11.94 19 4 1 Liu Limin 2:12.32 20 2 1 Mirjana Boševska 2:12.59 NR 21 5 1 Liu Yin 2:12.79 22 4 3 Jessica Deglau 2:12.86 23 2 4 Petra Zahrl 2:13.29 NR 24 2 5 Zhanna Lozumyrska 2:14.47 25 5 7 María Peláez 2:14.66 26 5 8 Anna Uryniuk 2:14.87 27 2 6 Raquel Felgueiras 2:15.19 28 3 6 Franziska van Almsick 2:15.68 29 4 8 Hsieh Shu-tzu 2:16.23 30 2 7 Natalia Roubina 2:17.01 31 2 2 Zampia Melachroinou 2:17.60 32 2 8 Christel Bouvron 2:17.62 33 1 3 Chan Wing Suet 2:19.86 34 1 5 Tinka Dančević 2:21.02 35 1 4 Ana Carolina Aguilera 2:21.23 36 1 6 Hana Majaj 2:31.78

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Susie O'Neill 2:07.57 Q 2 5 Petria Thomas 2:07.63 Q 3 3 Maki Mita 2:09.88 Q 4 6 Yuko Nakanishi 2:09.89 Q 5 2 Mireia García 2:10.24 6 1 Mandy Loots 2:10.58 AF 7 8 Elizabeth van Welie 2:11.68 8 7 Éva Risztov 2:11.83

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Otylia Jędrzejczak 2:07.81 Q, EU 2 4 Misty Hyman 2:07.96 Q 3 3 Mette Jacobsen 2:08.11 Q, NR 4 6 Kaitlin Sandeno 2:09.40 Q 5 7 Georgina Lee 2:10.33 NR 6 8 Margaretha Pedder 2:10.49 7 2 Cécile Jeanson 2:10.78 =NR 8 1 Sophia Skou 2:11.07

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 6 Misty Hyman 2:05.88 * 4 Susie O'Neill 2:06.58 5 Petria Thomas 2:07.12 4 2 Mette Jacobsen 2:08.24 5 3 Otylia Jędrzejczak 2:08.48 6 7 Kaitlin Sandeno 2:08.81 7 8 Yuko Nakanishi 2:09.66 8 1 Maki Mita 2:10.72 * Also an American record.

References

External links Official Olympic Report