The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July and 1 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.

China's Jiao Liuyang stormed home on the final stretch to upgrade her silver from Beijing four years earlier with an Olympic title in the event. She produced a striking effort on the last lap to come from behind and demolish the field with a gold-medal time and a new Olympic record in 2:04.06, shaving 0.12 seconds off the standard set by teammate Liu Zige. Meanwhile, Mireia Belmonte García made an Olympic milestone to become Spain's first ever female medalist and fourth overall in swimming, as she brought home the silver in 2:05.25, the ninth-fastest of all time. Japan's Natsumi Hoshi added a sixth bronze to her swimming squad at these Games, in a sterling time of 2:05.48.

Leading through the prelims and the semifinals, U.S. swimmer Kathleen Hersey finished off the podium with a fourth-place time in 2:05.78, a full second ahead of her teammate Cammile Adams (2:06.78). Great Britain's Jemma Lowe (2:06.80), Hungary's Zsuzsanna Jakabos (2:07.33) and defending champion Liu Zige (2:07.77) rounded out the field.

Notable swimmers missed the final roster featuring Australia's Jessicah Schipper, a former world record holder; and Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, a 2004 Olympic champion, both of whom placed thirteenth (2:08.21) and sixteenth (2:13.09) respectively in the semifinals.

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 August 1 Final Jiao Liuyang 2:04.06

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 6 Kathleen Hersey 2:06.41Q 2 3 4 Jiao Liuyang 2:07.15Q 3 4 5 Jemma Lowe 2:07.64Q 4 3 6 Katinka Hosszú 2:07.75Q 5 4 3 Zsuzsanna Jakabos 2:07.79Q 6 2 4 Natsumi Hoshi 2:08.04Q 7 2 6 Judit Ignacio Sorribes 2:08.14Q 8 3 3 Cammile Adams 2:08.18Q 9 2 5 Mireia Belmonte García 2:08.19Q 10 2 7 Choi Hye-ra 2:08.45Q 11 4 4 Liu Zige 2:08.72Q 12 2 3 Jessicah Schipper 2:08.74Q 13 3 2 Martina Granström 2:08.94Q 14 4 1 Anja Klinar 2:09.24Q 15 2 2 Audrey Lacroix 2:09.25Q 16 4 2 Otylia Jędrzejczak 2:09.33Q 17 3 5 Ellen Gandy 2:09.92 18 1 5 Ingvild Snildal 2:10.99 NR 19 4 7 Katerine Savard 2:11.05 20 3 7 Samantha Hamill 2:11.07 21 3 8 Denisa Smolenová 2:11.10 22 1 3 Andreina Pinto 2:11.23 NR 23 4 8 Rita Medrano 2:11.42 24 1 4 Sara Oliveira 2:11.54 25 2 1 Martina van Berkel 2:12.25 26 3 1 Joanna Melo 2:13.17 27 2 8 Emilia Pikkarainen 2:13.81 28 1 6 Cheng Wan-jung 2:14.29

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Jiao Liuyang 2:06.10 Q 2 3 Natsumi Hoshi 2:06.37 Q 3 6 Cammile Adams 2:07.33 Q 4 5 Katinka Hosszú 2:07.69 5 1 Anja Klinar 2:07.84 6 7 Jessicah Schipper 2:08.21 7 2 Choi Hye-Ra 2:08.32 8 8 Otylia Jędrzejczak 2:13.09

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Kathleen Hersey 2:05.90 Q 2 2 Mireia Belmonte García 2:06.62 Q 3 3 Zsuzsanna Jakabos 2:06.82 Q 4 7 Liu Zige 2:06.99 Q 5 5 Jemma Lowe 2:07.37 Q 6 1 Martina Granström 2:07.83 NR 7 8 Audrey Lacroix 2:08.00 8 6 Judit Ignacio Sorribes 2:08.96

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 5 Jiao Liuyang 2:04.06 6 Mireia Belmonte García 2:05.25 NR 3 Natsumi Hoshi 2:05.48 4 4 Kathleen Hersey 2:05.78 5 1 Cammile Adams 2:06.78 6 8 Jemma Lowe 2:06.80 7 2 Zsuzsanna Jakabos 2:07.33 8 7 Liu Zige 2:07.77

References

External links