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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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

The following records were established during the competition:

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

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 5 Federica Pellegrini 1:57.16 Q 2 5 4 Allison Schmitt 1:57.33 Q 3 3 4 Missy Franklin 1:57.62 Q4 3 3 Veronika Popova 1:57.79 Q 5 7 Melania Costa Schmid Q 6 3 6 Barbara Jardin 1:57.92 Q7 5 5 Sarah Sjöström 1:58.03 Q 4 2 Caitlin McClatchey Q 9 3 7 Samantha Cheverton 1:58.11 Q 10 4 3 Bronte Barratt 1:58.12 Q 11 5 3 Kylie Palmer 1:58.16 Q 12 4 4 Camille Muffat 1:58.49 Q 13 5 6 Silke Lippok 1:58.59 Q 14 4 6 Wang Shijia 1:58.73 Q 15 4 1 Hanae Ito 1:58.93 Q 16 5 1 Sara Isaković 1:58.96 Q 17 3 2 Rebecca Turner 1:58.98 18 3 1 Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne 1:59.15 19 4 8 Nina Rangelova 1:59.21 NR 20 5 8 Karin Prinsloo 1:59.24 21 4 7 Song Wenyan 1:59.47 22 5 2 Ágnes Mutina 1:59.56 23 3 8 Sze Hang Yu 1:59.92 24 2 5 Pernille Blume 2:00.91 25 2 6 Camelia Potec 2:01.15 26 2 2 Liliana Ibanez 2:01.36 27 2 1 Anna Stylianou 2:01.87 28 2 8 Katarína Filová 2:02.03 29 2 4 Jördis Steinegger 2:02.39 30 1 3 Natthanan Junkrajang 2:02.49 31 1 5 Danielle Villars 2:03.55 32 2 7 Hanna-Maria Seppälä 2:04.21 33 1 4 Baek Il-joo 2:04.32 34 1 6 Heather Arseth 2:07.81 35 1 2 Aurelie Fanchette 2:23.49 2 3 Gráinne Murphy 4 5 Femke Heemskerk

Semifinals

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

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Federica Pellegrini 1:56.67 Q 2 6 Caitlin McClatchey 1:57.33 Q 3 7 Kylie Palmer 1:57.44 Q 4 5 Missy Franklin 1:57.57 Q 5 3 Melania Costa Schmid 1:57.76 6 2 Samantha Cheverton 1:57.98 7 1 Silke Lippok 1:58.24 8 8 Hanae Ito 1:59.62

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

References

External links