The women's 200 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 2 and 3 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. 41 athletes from 31 nations competed. In successfully defending her title, Elaine Thompson-Herah became the first woman in history to win both the 100 and 200 metres titles at successive games. Her winning time of 21.53 secs, moved her to second on the world all-time list behind Florence Griffith Joyner, and broke Merlene Ottey's 30-year-old Jamaican record. The winning margin was 0.28 seconds. Surprisingly, Thompson-Herah had the slowest reaction time in the final.

Summary The field included six of the top 25 women in history, three of whom set their personal bests earlier in the season. The defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was rounding into form having defended her 100m title three days earlier. The world leader coming into the Olympics was Gabrielle Thomas, who ran the #2 time in history to win the US Trials. Two unknown commodities were Namibian teenagers Beatrice Masilingi and Christine Mboma, who had run exceptional 400m times earlier in the season, but less than a month before the Olympics, they were blocked from running in that event due to their having excess natural testosterone. The 200 metres was their back up event because it is exempted from the rule's limited range of events.

In the second heat, Masilingi set the National Record. In the fourth heat, Mboma broke it, in the process surprising Thomas. What was particularly shocking was the terrible start of Mboma, with Thomas making up the stagger in the first few steps of the race, and the awkward but blazing speed she had in the last half of the race. Returning silver medalist Dafne Schippers failed to qualify in the first semi-final, where Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Masilingi did. In the second semi, Thompson-Herah equalled her personal best, but behind her with superior top end speed was Mboma, again beating Thomas while setting the world junior record at 21.97.

In the final, Fraser-Pryce had a rocket start as would be predictable considering her history, three lanes outside of her in a matching Jamaican uniform, Thompson-Herah was keeping pace. In stark contrast, Mboma trailed the field with Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Masilingi. Coming off the turn, Thomas was barely behind Fraser-Pryce and Thompson-Herah. From there, Thompson-Herah pulled away as Thomas slowly chipped away at Fraser-Pryce's slight advantage. Miller-Uibo's closing speed was not present, but Mboma's was, rocketing past four of the top sprinters in the world in a different gear. Mboma passed Fraser-Pryce and Thomas ten metres out, beating Thomas for the third time to take silver. Thomas beat Fraser-Pryce for bronze.

Background This was the 19th time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since 1948.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the women's 200 metres event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 22.80 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 56 is reached.

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both indoor and outdoor meets were eligible for qualification. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one female athlete regardless of time if they had no female athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 200 metres.

Competition format The event continued to use the three-round format introduced in 2012.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records were as follows.

Area Time (s) Wind Athlete Nation Africa 22.04 +0.5 Blessing Okagbare Asia 22.01 +0.0 Li Xuemei Europe 21.63 +0.3 Dafne Schippers North, Central America and Caribbean 21.34 +1.3 Florence Griffith Joyner Oceania 22.23 +0.8 Melinda Gainsford-Taylor South America 22.48 +1.0 Ana Cláudia Lemos

The following national records were established during the competition:

Country Athlete Round Time Notes Namibia Beatrice Masilingi Round 1 22.63 Christine Mboma Round 1 22.11 Semifinals 21.97 , Final 21.81 , Switzerland Mujinga Kambundji Round 1 22.26 Semifinals 22.26 Niger Aminatou Seyni Semifinals 22.54 Jamaica Elaine Thompson-Herah Final 21.53

Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The women's 200 metres took place over two consecutive days.

Date Time Round Monday, 2 August 2021 9:0019:00 Round 1Semifinals Tuesday, 3 August 2021 19:00 Final

Results Round 1 Qualification rule: first three finishers of each heat (Q) plus the next three fastest times (q) qualify to the semifinals.

Heat 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Marie-Josée Ta Lou 0.170 22.30 2 3 Shaunae Miller-Uibo 0.137 22.40 3 8 Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha 0.156 22.47 , 4 4 Gloria Hooper 0.191 23.16 , 5 2 Ana Azevedo 0.192 23.20 6 5 Olga Safronova 0.162 23.64 Wind: +0.3 m/s

Heat 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 0.140 22.22 2 3 Beatrice Masilingi 0.185 22.63 , 3 2 Dafne Schippers 0.151 23.13 4 8 Lisa-Marie Kwayie 0.169 23.14 5 7 Rafaéla Spanoudaki-Hatziriga 0.131 23.16 6 4 Lucia Moris 0.149 25.24 7 5 Najma Parveen 0.173 28.12 Wind: +0.4 m/s

Heat 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 8 Mujinga Kambundji 0.129 22.26 , = 2 5 Anavia Battle 0.129 22.54 3 4 Gémima Joseph 0.153 22.94 4 7 Jaël Bestué 0.171 23.19 5 6 Inna Eftimova 0.141 23.42 Wind: -0.2 m/s

Heat 4 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 3 Christine Mboma 0.275 22.11 , , 2 2 Gabrielle Thomas 0.172 22.20 3 5 Aminatou Seyni 0.144 22.72 , 4 8 Rhoda Njobvu 0.145 23.33 5 6 Jessica-Bianca Wessolly 0.176 23.41 6 4 Vitória Cristina Rosa 0.187 23.59 7 7 Dutee Chand 0.140 23.85 Wind: +0.7 m/s

Heat 5 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Anthonique Strachan 0.155 22.76 , = 2 6 Lorène Bazolo 0.130 23.21 3 7 Dalia Kaddari 0.144 23.26 (23.251) 4 2 Shericka Jackson 0.167 23.26 (23.255) 5 3 Ivet Lalova-Collio 0.158 23.39 6 5 Shanti Pereira 0.164 23.96 Wind: -0.3 m/s

Heat 6 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Crystal Emmanuel 0.157 22.74 , 2 8 Beth Dobbin 0.136 22.78 , = 3 5 Elaine Thompson-Herah 0.165 22.86 4 4 Imke Vervaet 0.138 23.05 , 5 7 Phil Healy 0.140 23.21 Wind: +0.4 m/s

Heat 7 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 2 Jenna Prandini 0.163 22.56 2 6 Gina Bass 0.158 22.74 3 7 Riley Day 0.155 22.94 4 5 Maja Mihalinec Zidar 0.145 23.62 5 4 Kristina Knott 0.133 23.80 8 Jamile Samuel Wind: +0.9 m/s

Semifinals Qualification rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 0.143 22.13 2 4 Beatrice Masilingi 0.181 22.40 , 3 5 Anthonique Strachan 0.153 22.56 (22.551) 4 9 Riley Day 0.147 22.56 (22.557) 5 7 Jenna Prandini 0.142 22.57 6 2 Dafne Schippers 0.151 23.03 7 8 Lorène Bazolo 0.138 23.20 8 3 Lisa Marie Kwayie 0.169 23.42 Wind: +0.3 m/s

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 9 Elaine Thompson-Herah 0.165 21.66 , = 2 4 Christine Mboma 0.212 21.97 , , 3 6 Gabrielle Thomas 0.156 22.01 4 5 Gina Bass 0.144 22.67 5 8 Beth Dobbin 0.145 22.85 6 7 Crystal Emmanuel 0.166 23.05 7 2 Gemima Joseph 0.168 23.19 8 1 Gloria Hooper 0.197 23.28 9 3 Rafaéla Spanoudaki-Hatziriga 0.117 23.38 Wind: +0.3 m/s

Semifinal 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Marie-Josée Ta Lou 0.178 22.11 , 2 5 Shaunae Miller-Uibo 0.154 22.14 3 7 Mujinga Kambundji 0.139 22.26 , = 4 9 Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha 0.172 22.47 = 5 8 Aminatou Seyni 0.156 22.54 6 4 Anavia Battle 0.167 23.02 7 2 Imke Vervaet 0.139 23.31 8 3 Dalia Kaddari 0.134 23.41 Wind: +0.1 m/s

Final Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 7 Elaine Thompson-Herah 0.173 21.53 5 Christine Mboma 0.169 21.81 , 3 Gabrielle Thomas 0.159 21.87 4 4 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 0.141 21.94 5 6 Marie-Josée Ta Lou 0.150 22.27 6 8 Beatrice Masilingi 0.166 22.28 7 2 Mujinga Kambundji 0.147 22.30 8 9 Shaunae Miller-Uibo 0.145 24.00 Wind: +0.8 m/s

References