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.

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. She narrowly reached the final as the eighth seed, when China's Pang Jiaying was disqualified for a false start in the semifinals. 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.

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. 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.

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 August 10 Final* Britta Steffen 53.38 August 15 Final Britta Steffen 53.12 * Split from the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 3 Hanna-Maria Seppälä 53.60 Q, NR 2 6 4 Britta Steffen 53.67 Q 3 6 5 Marleen Veldhuis 53.76 Q 4 7 5 Natalie Coughlin 53.82 Q 5 5 6 Francesca Halsall 53.93 Q 6 7 4 Lisbeth Trickett 53.99 Q7 6 6 Pang Jiaying 54.01 Q, =AS 7 7 Zhu Yingwen Q, =AS 9 4 5 Jeanette Ottesen 54.04 Q 10 6 2 Josefin Lillhage 54.07 Q 11 7 3 Malia Metella 54.12 Q 12 5 7 Aliaksandra Herasimenia 54.52 Q 13 5 4 Cate Campbell 54.55 Q 14 5 3 Lacey Nymeyer 54.62 Q 15 7 6 Erica Morningstar 54.66 Q16 6 7 Petra Dallmann 54.70 Q* 7 1 Julia Wilkinson 18 5 2 Alena Popchanka 54.86 19 7 8 Tatiana Barbosa 55.01 20 6 1 Agata Ewa Korc 55.14 NR 21 6 8 Lize-Mari Retief 55.17 22 4 3 Anna Gostomelsky 55.18 23 5 1 Martina Moravcová 55.20 24 5 5 Inge Dekker 55.23 25 4 4 Anastasia Aksenova 55.29 26 3 3 Hannah Wilson 55.32 27 4 8 Darya Stepanyuk 55.51 28 3 4 Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace 55.61 29 3 2 Birgit Koschischek 55.62 30 4 2 Arlene Semeco 55.70 31 5 8 Jana Klusáčková 55.92 32 3 1 Chang Hee-jin 55.96 33 4 7 Triin Aljand 56.10 34 2 5 Quah Ting Wen 56.14 35 3 5 Ragnheidur Ragnarsdottir 56.35 36 3 8 Anna Stylianou 56.38 37 3 7 Eleni Kosti 56.44 38 4 1 Miroslava Najdanovski 56.50 39 2 6 Natthanan Junkrajang 56.56 40 2 4 Orsolya Tompa 56.57 41 2 7 Christel Simms 56.67 NR 42 4 6 Maria Laura Simonetto 56.72 43 2 3 Nieh Pin-chieh 57.28 44 3 6 Nina Sovinek 57.30 45 1 4 Madeleine Scerri 57.97 NR 46 2 2 Irina Shlemova 58.77 47 1 5 Elena Popovska 59.93 48 1 6 Olga Hachatryan 7 2 Caitlin McClatchey

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes1 5 Natalie Coughlin 53.70 Q2 6 Zhu Yingwen 53.84 Q, AS3 4 Britta Steffen 53.96 Q4 3 Lisbeth Trickett 54.10 Q5 2 Josefin Lillhage 54.59 6 1 Lacey Nymeyer 54.74 7 8 Petra Dallmann 55.05 8 7 Aliaksandra Herasimenia 55.31

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes1 5 Marleen Veldhuis 53.81 Q2 4 Hanna-Maria Seppälä 53.84 Q3 3 Francesca Halsall 53.94 Q4 2 Jeanette Ottesen 54.05 Q5 7 Malia Metella 54.20 6 1 Cate Campbell 54.54 7 8 Erica Morningstar 55.36 6 Pang Jiaying Note: Lisbeth Trickett advanced to the final only when Chinese swimmer Pang Jiaying, who had finished first in the semifinals, was disqualified for a false start.

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 7 Britta Steffen 53.12 8 Lisbeth Trickett 53.16 4 Natalie Coughlin 53.39 =AM 4 6 Hanna-Maria Seppälä 53.97 5 1 Jeanette Ottesen 54.06 6 3 Zhu Yingwen 54.21 5 Marleen Veldhuis 8 2 Francesca Halsall 54.29

References

External links Official Olympic Report