The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 8–9 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Summary Another medley double happened for the sixth straight time, as Hungary's Katinka Hosszú pulled away from the field to collect her third individual Olympic gold at these Games. Leading from the start, she threw down a gold-medal time in 2:06.58 to establish a new Olympic record, and to hold off a charging Great Britain's Siobhan-Marie O'Connor by three tenths of a second. Unable to catch the Hungarian towards a sprint finish, O'Connor produced a new British record of 2:06.88 to take home the silver. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Maya DiRado added a bronze to her runner-up prize from the 400 m individual medley three days earlier with a time of 2:08.79, edging out her teammate Melanie Margalis (2:09.21) to fourth by almost half a second.

Australia's Alicia Coutts, silver medalist from London 2012, culminated her Olympic career with a fifth-place time in 2:10.88, and was shortly followed in sixth by Canadian swimmer Sydney Pickrem (2:11.22). Russia's Viktoriya Andreeva (2:12.28), and defending gold medalist Ye Shiwen of China (2:13.56) closed out the field.

Hosszú also posted an Olympic record in 2:07.45 to lead all swimmers on the morning prelims, clipping 0.12 seconds off the previous mark set by Ye Shiwen in London four years earlier.

In the medal ceremony, the medals for the competition were presented by Pál Schmitt, Hungary, IOC member, and the gifts were presented by Mohamed Diop, Senegal, Bureau Member of FINA.

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

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Round Name Nation Time Record8 August Heat 5 Katinka Hosszú 2:07.45 9 August Final Katinka Hosszú 2:06.58

Competition format

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 4 Katinka Hosszú 2:07.45 Q, 2 4 4 Siobhan-Marie O'Connor 2:08.44 Q 3 4 3 Melanie Margalis 2:09.62 Q 4 3 4 Maya DiRado 2:10.24 Q 5 4 5 Miho Teramura 2:10.34 Q 6 3 5 Alicia Coutts 2:10.52 Q 7 3 6 Ye Shiwen 2:10.56 Q 8 5 3 Sydney Pickrem 2:11.06 Q 9 5 6 Zsuzsanna Jakabos 2:11.69 Q 10 2 2 Kim Seo-yeong 2:11.75 Q 11 5 7 Runa Imai 2:11.78 Q 12 3 3 Hannah Miley 2:11.84 Q 13 5 2 Alexandra Wenk 2:12.46 Q 14 4 1 Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson 2:12.56 Q 15 4 2 Mireia Belmonte Garcia 2:12.58 Q 16 5 5 Viktoriya Andreeva 2:13.01 Q 17 4 6 Kotuku Ngawati 2:13.05 18 5 1 Joanna Maranhão 2:13.06 19 2 4 Maria Ugolkova 2:13.77 20 2 8 Stina Gardell 2:14.41 21 3 2 Barbora Závadová 2:14.45 22 2 3 Luisa Trombetti 2:14:66 23 4 7 Zhou Min 2:14.81 24 2 7 África Zamorano 2:14.87 25 1 2 Tanja Kylliäinen 2:14.97 26 4 8 Lisa Zaiser 2:15.23 27 1 8 Anja Crevar 2:15.33 28 5 8 Sara Franceschi 2:15.61 29 2 5 Louise Hansson 2:15.66 30 1 5 Fantine Lesaffre 2:15.71 3 8 Lena Kreundl 32 1 4 Nam Yoo-sun 2:16.11 33 3 7 Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên 2:16.20 34 1 3 Marrit Steenbergen 2:16.59 35 1 1 Victoria Kaminskaya 2:16.78 36 1 6 Simona Baumrtová 2:17.21 37 2 1 Virginia Bardach 2:17.94 38 3 1 Ranohon Amanova 2:18.97 39 1 7 Katarzyna Baranowska 2:19.03 2 6 Siobhán Haughey

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 4 Siobhan-Marie O'Connor 2:07.57 Q, NR 2 3 5 Maya DiRado 2:08.91 Q 3 3 3 Alicia Coutts 2:10.35 Q 4 5 6 Sydney Pickrem 2:10.57 Q 5 5 8 Viktoriya Andreeva 2:10.87 Q 6 2 2 Kim Seo-yeong 2:12.15 3 7 Hannah Miley 8 4 1 Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson 2:12.25

Semifinal 2 Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 4 Katinka Hosszú 2:08.13 Q 2 3 6 Ye Shiwen 2:09.33 Q 3 4 5 Melanie Margalis 2:10.10 Q 4 4 3 Miho Teramura 2:11.03 5 5 2 Zsuzsanna Jakabos 2:12.05 6 5 1 Alexandra Wenk 2:12.13 7 2 7 Runa Imai 2:12.53 8 4 8 Mireia Belmonte García 2:13.33

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 5 Katinka Hosszú 2:06.58 4 Siobhan-Marie O'Connor 2:06.88 NR 3 Maya DiRado 2:08.79 4 2 Melanie Margalis 2:09.21 5 7 Alicia Coutts 2:10.88 6 1 Sydney Pickrem 2:11.22 7 8 Viktoriya Andreeva 2:12.28 8 6 Ye Shiwen 2:13.56

References