The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 2–3 August at the London Aquatics Centre based at the Olympic park London.

Aged 15, American Katie Ledecky narrowly missed the world record on the final lap to recapture the first Olympic title for the Americans since Brooke Bennett in 2000. Strengthening her lead almost the entire race, she headed into the 750-metre turn under world-record pace, and pulled off a stunning upset from the rest of the field to post a personal best and smash Janet Evans' 23-year-old U.S. record in 8:14.63. Spain's Mireia Belmonte García added a second silver to her Olympic hardware in a national record of 8:18.76. Meanwhile, Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington, the reigning Olympic champion, tried to hold on with Ledecky earlier through the race, but faded down the stretch to pick up a bronze in 8:20.32.

New Zealand's Lauren Boyle finished with a fourth-place time and an Oceanian record of 8:22.72. Meanwhile, Denmark's Lotte Friis, the defending bronze medalist, opened the race with an early lead, but dropped back to fifth with a time of 8:23.86. France's Coralie Balmy (8:29.26) and Venezuela's Andreina Pinto (8:29.28) rounded out the field in one of the program's long-distance pool races.

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

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes1 5 4 Rebecca Adlington 8:21.78 Q2 4 4 Lotte Friis 8:21.89 Q3 3 4 Katie Ledecky 8:23.84 Q4 3 5 Mireia Belmonte García 8:25.26 Q5 5 6 Lauren Boyle 8:25.91 Q, NR6 4 3 Boglárka Kapás 8:26.43 Q 4 8 Andreina Pinto Q, NR8 4 2 Coralie Balmy 8:27.15 Q9 5 3 Shao Yiwen 8:27.78 10 5 2 Erika Villaecija García 8:27.99 11 3 1 Alexa Komarnycky 8:28.11 12 3 3 Wendy Trott 8:28.98 13 3 2 Éva Risztov 8:29.06 14 4 7 Kristel Köbrich 8:29.55 15 5 1 Savannah King 8:29.72 16 5 8 Cecilia Biagioli 8:33.97 NR17 2 4 Julia Hassler 8:35.18 NR18 4 6 Kylie Palmer 8:35.75 19 2 2 Katya Bachrouche 8:35.88 NR20 5 7 Jessica Ashwood 8:37.21 21 5 5 Kate Ziegler 8:37.38 22 3 6 Ellie Faulkner 8:38.00 23 4 1 Camelia Potec 8:38.44 24 4 5 Xin Xin 8:40.88 25 2 5 Tjaša Oder 8:41.82 26 3 8 Yelena Sokolova 8:42.73 27 2 6 Patricia Castañeda Miyamoto 8:44.44 28 2 3 Nina Dittrich 8:45.41 29 1 4 Samantha Arevalo 8:49.21 NR30 2 7 Cai Lin Khoo 8:51.18 31 2 1 Lynette Lim 8:52.92 32 2 8 Han Na-kyeong 8:57.26 33 1 5 Pamela Benitez 9:02.66 34 1 6 Danielle van den Berg 9:23.21 35 1 3 Simona Marinova 9:28.41 3 7 Grainne Murphy

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 3 Katie Ledecky 8:14.63 AM 6 Mireia Belmonte García 8:18.76 NR 4 Rebecca Adlington 8:20.32 4 2 Lauren Boyle 8:22.72 OC 5 5 Lotte Friis 8:23.86 6 7 Boglárka Kapás 8:23.89 NR 7 8 Coralie Balmy 8:29.26 8 1 Andreina Pinto 8:29.28

References

External links