The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 18 and 19.

U.S. swimmer and world-record holder Amanda Beard completed a full set of medals in the event, adding a gold to her silver from Atlanta (1996) and bronze from Sydney (2000). She posted an Olympic record of 2:23.37, holding off Australia's Leisel Jones by 0.23 of a second for a silver medal in 2:23.60. Anne Poleska, who had been seventh at the halfway mark, moved quickly into the field and finished strongly with a bronze in a personal best of 2:25.82, earning Germany's first individual medal of the meet since its reunification in 1990.

Hungary's Ágnes Kovács, the gold medalist from Sydney, finished outside the medals in fifth place behind Japan's Masami Tanaka with a time of 2:26.12.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record 19 August Final Amanda Beard 2:23.37

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 4 Leisel Jones 2:26.02 Q 2 3 3 Anne Poleska 2:26.48 Q 3 5 4 Amanda Beard 2:26.61 Q 4 5 2 Ágnes Kovács 2:26.90 Q 5 4 3 Masami Tanaka 2:26.91 Q 6 4 5 Brooke Hanson 2:27.38 Q 7 3 5 Birte Steven 2:27.42 Q 8 5 6 Caroline Bruce 2:27.82 Q 9 3 4 Mirna Jukić 2:28.28 Q 10 5 5 Qi Hui 2:28.66 Q 11 4 6 Kirsty Balfour 2:29.78 Q 12 3 2 Chiara Boggiatto 2:30.32 Q 13 2 3 Marina Kuč 2:30.39 Q 14 4 2 Lauren van Oosten 2:30.44 Q 15 4 8 Inna Kapishina 2:31.26 Q 16 5 7 Elena Bogomazova 2:31.49 Q 17 4 1 Smiljana Marinović 2:32.52 18 4 7 Alenka Kejžar 2:32.64 19 2 5 Ilkay Dikmen 2:32.69 20 1 3 Jaclyn Pangilinan 2:33.38 NR 21 5 8 Siow Yi Ting 2:33.79 22 1 5 Eeva Saarinen 2:34.17 23 3 7 Diana Gomes 2:34.23 24 5 1 Lee Ji-young 2:34.55 25 2 7 Majken Thorup 2:35.29 26 2 6 Agustina de Giovanni 2:35.94 27 2 4 Adriana Marmolejo 2:36.10 28 2 2 Imaday Nuñez Gonzalez 2:36.40 29 3 8 Iryna Maystruk 2:37.42 30 1 4 Nicolette Teo 2:38.17 31 3 1 Athina Tzavella 2:40.18 3 6 Diana Remenyi 5 3 Luo Xuejuan

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 Brooke Hanson 2:26.43 Q 2 4 Anne Poleska 2:26.59 Q 3 5 Ágnes Kovács 2:26.63 Q 4 2 Qi Hui 2:26.75 Q 5 6 Caroline Bruce 2:27.60 6 8 Elena Bogomazova 2:30.35 7 1 Lauren van Oosten 2:30.39 8 7 Chiara Boggiatto 2:30.76

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Amanda Beard 2:25.62 Q 2 3 Masami Tanaka 2:26.38 Q 3 4 Leisel Jones 2:26.71 Q 4 2 Mirna Jukić 2:26.95 Q 5 7 Kirsty Balfour 2:28.92 6 6 Birte Steven 2:29.22 7 1 Marina Kuč 2:31.77 8 Inna Kapishina

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Amanda Beard 2:23.37 7 Leisel Jones 2:23.60 6 Anne Poleska 2:25.82 4 5 Masami Tanaka 2:25.87 5 2 Ágnes Kovács 2:26.12 6 1 Qi Hui 2:26.35 7 8 Mirna Jukić 2:26.36 8 3 Brooke Hanson 2:26.39

References

External links Official Olympic Report