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Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre backstroke

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Field	Value
event	Women's 200 metre backstroke
games	2008 Summer
venue	Beijing National Aquatics Center
date	August 14, 2008 (heats)
August 15, 2008 (semifinals)
August 16, 2008 (final)
competitors	35
nations	24
win_value	2:05.24
gold	Kirsty Coventry
goldNOC	ZIM
silver	Margaret Hoelzer
silverNOC	USA
bronze	Reiko Nakamura
bronzeNOC	JPN
prev	2004
next	2012

August 15, 2008 (semifinals) August 16, 2008 (final)

The women's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 14–16 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

After claiming three silver medals at these Games, Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry stormed home on the final lap to defend her Olympic title in the event. She posted a time of 2:05.24 to crush a world record set by U.S. swimmer Margaret Hoelzer from the Olympic trials one month earlier. Meanwhile, Hoelzer added a silver to her hardware from the 100 m backstroke, when she touched the wall in 2:06.23, the second-fastest effort of her career. Japan's Reiko Nakamura managed to repeat a bronze from Athens four years earlier, in an Asian record of 2:07.13.

Russia's top favorite Anastasia Zuyeva finished fourth with a time of 2:07.88, and was followed in the fifth spot by American teenager Elizabeth Beisel, aged 16, in 2:08.23. Elizabeth Simmonds set a new British record of 2:08.51 to earn a sixth spot, while Aussies Meagan Nay (2:08.84) and Belinda Hocking (2:10.12) closed out the field. Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Russia's Stanislava Komarova, silver medalist in Athens, and British top favorite Gemma Spofforth.

Before her breakthrough final, Coventry broke one of the oldest Olympic records earlier in the prelims. She posted a top-seeded time of 2:06.76 to lead 34 other swimmers in the race, slashing four-tenths of a second (0.40) off the record set by Hungary's three-time Olympic champion Krisztina Egerszegi from Barcelona in 1992.

Records

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

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
August 14	Heat 4	Kirsty Coventry	ZIM	2:06.76
August 16	Final	Kirsty Coventry	ZIM	2:05.24

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	4	Kirsty Coventry	ZIM	2:06.76	Q, OR
2	5	6	Elizabeth Simmonds	GBR	2:08.66	Q, NR
3	4	3	Meagen Nay	AUS	2:08.79	Q
4	3	5	Zhao Jing	CHN	2:08.97	Q
5	3	3	Anastasia Zuyeva	RUS	2:09.01	Q
6	5	5	Elizabeth Beisel	USA	2:09.02	Q
7	5	4	Margaret Hoelzer	USA	2:09.12	Q
8	4	2	Melissa Ingram	NZL	2:09.34	Q
9	4	5	Alexianne Castel	FRA	2:09.37	Q
10	3	4	Laure Manaudou	FRA	2:09.39	Q
11	3	6	Belinda Hocking	AUS	2:09.54	Q
12	5	3	Reiko Nakamura	JPN	2:09.77	Q
13	5	7	Stanislava Komarova	RUS	2:09.93	Q
14	4	6	Hanae Ito	JPN	2:10.05	Q
15	3	1	Anja Čarman	SLO	2:10.49	Q, NR
16	3	2	Gemma Spofforth	GBR	2:10.58	Q
17	3	7	Evelyn Verrasztó	HUN	2:11.02
18	5	2	Nikolett Szepesi	HUN	2:11.47
19	4	8	Chen Yanyan	CHN	2:11.95
20	2	7	Melanie Nocher	IRL	2:12.29	NR
21	2	6	Zuzanna Mazurek	POL	2:12.46	NR
22	4	7	Melissa Corfe	RSA	2:12.64
5	8	Kateryna Zubkova	UKR
24	5	1	Escarlata Bernard	ESP	2:12.86
25	2	4	Lydia Morant	ESP	2:13.87
26	1	3	Kang Yeong-seo	KOR	2:14.52
27	1	5	Gisela Morales	GUA	2:14.54
28	2	8	Fernanda González	MEX	2:14.64
29	2	1	Stella Boumi	GRE	2:14.73
30	3	8	Lindsay Seemann	CAN	2:15.07
31	2	3	Sanja Jovanović	CRO	2:15.57
32	1	4	Erin Volcán	VEN	2:15.58
33	4	1	Iryna Amshennikova	UKR	2:15.78
34	2	5	Christin Zenner	GER	2:20.28
	2	2	Julia Wilkinson	CAN	DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Elizabeth Beisel	USA	2:07.90	Q
2	7	Reiko Nakamura	JPN	2:08.21	Q, NR
3	4	Elizabeth Simmonds	GBR	2:08.96	Q
4	8	Gemma Spofforth	GBR	2:09.19
5	5	Zhao Jing	CHN	2:09.59
6	6	Melissa Ingram	NZL	2:09.70
7	1	Hanae Ito	JPN	2:09.86
8	2	Laure Manaudou	FRA	2:12.04

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Kirsty Coventry	ZIM	2:07.76	Q
2	5	Meagen Nay	AUS	2:08.09	Q, OC
3	6	Margaret Hoelzer	USA	2:08.25	Q
4	7	Belinda Hocking	AUS	2:08.80	Q
5	3	Anastasia Zuyeva	RUS	2:09.07	Q
6	2	Alexianne Castel	FRA	2:10.04
7	1	Stanislava Komarova	RUS	2:10.50
8	8	Anja Čarman	SLO	2:12.46

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Kirsty Coventry	ZIM	2:05.24
	2	Margaret Hoelzer	USA	2:06.23
	6	Reiko Nakamura	JPN	2:07.13	AS
4	8	Anastasia Zuyeva	RUS	2:07.88
5	5	Elizabeth Beisel	USA	2:08.23
6	1	Elizabeth Simmonds	GBR	2:08.51	NR
7	3	Meagen Nay	AUS	2:08.84
8	7	Belinda Hocking	AUS	2:10.12

References

(9 August 2008). "Olympic Swimming Schedule". [[USA Today]].
Evans, Simon. (15 August 2008). "Coventry's silver mine seeded with gold". [[Reuters]].
(15 August 2008). "Margaret Hoelzer gets Olympic silver in 200 backstroke". [[United States Olympic Committee.
Kelley, Steve. (16 August 2008). "Margaret Hoelzer wins silver in backstroke". [[The Seattle Times]].
Lohn, John. (15 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Kirsty Coventry Wins 200 Back in World Record Fashion". [[Swimming World Magazine]].
Paxinos, Stathi. (16 August 2008). "Coventry wins backstroke gold". [[Sydney Morning Herald]].
Lohn, John. (14 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Kirsty Coventry Dominates 200 Back Prelims, Sets Olympic Record". [[Swimming World Magazine]].
Harris, Beth. (16 August 2008). "Americans Hoff, Ziegler fail in 800 free heats". [[USA Today]].
Borzi, Pat. (6 July 2008). "As records change by the minute, the women's 800 stays standing". [[The New York Times]].

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