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Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics

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Field	Value
event	Swimming
games	2012 Summer
image	Swimming, London 2012.png
image_size	150px
venue	Aquatics Centre (pool)
Hyde Park (open water)
dates	28 July – 4 August 2012 (pool)
9–10 August 2012 (open water)
competitors	900 (pool), 50 (open water)
nations	166
prev	2008
next	2016

Hyde Park (open water) 9–10 August 2012 (open water)

The swimming competitions at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London took place from 28 July to 4 August at the Aquatics Centre. The open-water competition took place from 9 to 10 August in Hyde Park.

Swimming featured 34 events (17 male, 17 female), including two 10 km open-water marathons in Hyde Park's Serpentine Lake. The remaining 32 were contested in a 50 m long course pool within the Olympic Park.

The United States claimed a total of 31 medals (16 golds, 9 silver, and 6 bronze) in the leaderboard to maintain its supremacy as the most successful nation in swimming. Brought by an unprecedented sporting domination, Michael Phelps emerged as the most decorated Olympian of all time after winning six more medals at these Games to bring his total after the 2012 games to 22 (18 golds, 2 silver, and 2 bronze). Battling against the Americans for an overall medal count, China mounted to an unexpected second-place effort on the leaderboard with a tally of 10 medals (five golds, three silver, and bronze) after striking a superb double from Sun Yang in long-distance freestyle (both 400 and 1500 m) and Ye Shiwen in the individual medley (both 200 and 400 m). Meanwhile, France ended on a spectacular fashion in third spot with a total of seven medals (four golds, two silver, and one bronze), followed by the Netherlands with four, including two golds from Ranomi Kromowidjojo in sprint freestyle (both 50 and 100 m), and South Africa with three.

For the first time since 1992, Australia delivered an underwhelming performance with only a single triumph in the freestyle relay, but managed to bring home a total of ten medals. After not winning a gold in swimming since 2000, Japan produced the most medals in the post-war era to build a tally of eleven (three silver and eight bronze).

A total of nine world records and twenty five Olympic records were set during the competition.

Events

Similar to the program's format in 2008, swimming featured a total of 34 events (17 each for men and women) including two 10 km open-water marathons. The following events were contested (all pool events were long course, and distances are in metres unless stated):

Freestyle: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 (women), and 1500 (men);
Backstroke: 100 and 200;
Breaststroke: 100 and 200;
Butterfly: 100 and 200;
Individual medley: 200 and 400;
Relays: 4 × 100 free, 4 × 200 free; 4 × 100 medley
Marathon: 10 kilometres

Schedule

Similar to the previous Olympics since 2000, with the exception of 2008, swimming program schedule occurred in two segments. For the pool events, prelims were held in the morning, with semifinals and final in the following evening session.

Date →		colspan="2"	28 Jul		colspan="2"	29 Jul		colspan="2"	30 Jul		colspan="2"	31 Jul		colspan="2"	1 Aug		colspan="2"	2 Aug		colspan="2"	3 Aug		colspan="2"	4 Aug		colspan="2"	10 Aug	Event ↓		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E
50 m freestyle
100 m freestyle
200 m freestyle
400 m freestyle	H
1500 m freestyle
100 m backstroke
200 m backstroke
100 m breaststroke	H
200 m breaststroke
100 m butterfly
200 m butterfly
200 m individual medley
400 m individual medley	H
4 × 100 m freestyle relay
4 × 200 m freestyle relay
4 × 100 m medley relay
10 km open water

Date →		colspan="2"	28 Jul		colspan="2"	29 Jul		colspan="2"	30 Jul		colspan="2"	31 Jul		colspan="2"	1 Aug		colspan="2"	2 Aug		colspan="2"	3 Aug		colspan="2"	4 Aug		colspan="2"	9 Aug	Event ↓		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E		M		E
50 m freestyle
100 m freestyle
200 m freestyle
400 m freestyle
800 m freestyle
100 m backstroke
200 m backstroke
100 m breaststroke
200 m breaststroke
100 m butterfly	H
200 m butterfly
200 m individual medley
400 m individual medley	H
4 × 100 m freestyle relay	H
4 × 200 m freestyle relay
4 × 100 m medley relay
10 km open water

Qualification

Main article: Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Qualification

FINA By-Law BL 9.3.6.4 (swimming) and BL 9.3.7.5.3 (open water) lays out the qualification procedures for the "Swimming" competition at the Olympics. Each country is allowed to enter up to two swimmers per individual event (provided they qualify), and one entry per relay; and a country may not have more than 26 males and 26 females (52 total) on its team.

Swimming – individual events

On 11 November 2010, FINA posted the qualifying times for individual events for the 2012 Olympics. The time standards consist of two time standards, an "Olympic Qualifying Time" and an "Olympic invitation time". Each country was able to enter up to two swimmers per event, provided both swimmers met the (faster) qualifying time. A country was able to enter one swimmer per event that met the invitation standard. Any swimmer who met the "qualifying" time was entered in the event for the Games; a swimmer meeting the "invitation" standard was eligible for entry, and their entry was allotted/filled in by ranking.

If a country has no swimmers meeting either qualifying standard, it may enter one male and one female. A country that does not receive an allocation spot but has at least one swimmer who meets a qualifying standard may enter the swimmer with the highest ranking.

Swimming – relay events

Each relay event featured 16 teams, composed of:

12: the top-12 finishers at the 2011 World Championships in each relay event.
4: the 4 fastest non-qualified teams, based on times in the 15-months preceding the Olympics.

Open-water swimming

The men's and women's 10 km races at the 2012 Olympics each featured 25 swimmers:

10: the top-10 finishers in the 10 km races at the 2011 World Championships
9: the top-9 finishers at the 2012 Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier (8–9 June 2012 in Setúbal, Portugal).
5: one representative from each FINA continent (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania). (These were selected based on the finishes at the qualifying race in Setúbal.)
1: from the host nation (Great Britain) if not qualified by other means. If Great Britain already had a qualifier in the race, this spot was allocated back into the general pool from the 2012 qualifying race.

Participating nations

FINA announced in early July 2012 that 631 athletes from 166 nations would compete in swimming events at the 2012 Olympics (note: all nations qualified for the 10 km races also had at least 1 swimmer qualified for the pool portion). 59 nations qualified via the A cut (OQT), 12 via the B cut (OST) and 95 via Universality. Brunei, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Togo, and Tonga made their official debut in swimming. Meanwhile, Grenada, Iraq, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines returned to the sport after an eight-year absence. Nations with swimmers at the Games are (team size in parentheses):

Medal table

Note: There were ties for silver in the men's 200 m freestyle and men's 100 m butterfly events.

Results

Men's events

: Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Women's events

: Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Olympic and world records broken

Men

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record	Day
Men's 400 m freestyle	28 July	Final	Sun Yang	CHN	3:40.14	OR	1
Men's 100 m breaststroke	28 July	Semifinal	Cameron van der Burgh	RSA	58.83	OR	1
Men's 100 m breaststroke	29 July	Final	Cameron van der Burgh	RSA	58.46	WR	2
Men's 100 m backstroke	30 July	Final	Matt Grevers	USA	52.16	OR	3
Men's 200 m breaststroke	1 August	Final	Dániel Gyurta	HUN	2:07.28	WR	5
Men's 200 m backstroke	2 August	Final	Tyler Clary	USA	1:53.41	OR	6
Men's 1500 m freestyle	4 August	Final	Sun Yang	CHN	14:31.02	WR	8

Women

Event	Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record	Day
Women's 100 m butterfly	28 July	Heats	Dana Vollmer	USA	56.25	OR	1
Women's 400 m individual medley	28 July	Final	Ye Shiwen	CHN	4:28.43	WR	1
Women's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay	28 July	Final	Alicia Coutts (53.90) Cate Campbell (53.19) Brittany Elmslie (53.41) Melanie Schlanger (52.65)	AUS	3:33.15	OR	1
Women's 100 m backstroke	29 July	Heats	Emily Seebohm	AUS	58.23	OR	2
Women's 100 m butterfly	29 July	Final	Dana Vollmer	USA	55.98	WR	2
Women's 400 m freestyle	29 July	Final	Camille Muffat	FRA	4:01.45	OR	2
Women's 200 m individual medley	30 July	Semifinal	Ye Shiwen	CHN	2:08.39	OR	3
Women's 200 m freestyle	31 July	Final	Allison Schmitt	USA	1:53.61	OR	4
Women's 200 m individual medley	31 July	Final	Ye Shiwen	CHN	2:07.57	OR	4
Women's 100 m freestyle	1 August	Semifinal	Ranomi Kromowidjojo	NED	53.05	OR	5
Women's 200 m butterfly	1 August	Final	Jiao Liuyang	CHN	2:04.06	OR	5
Women's 200 m breaststroke	1 August	Semifinal	Rebecca Soni	USA	2:20.00	WR	5
Women's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay	1 August	Final	Missy Franklin (1:55.96) Dana Vollmer (1:56.02) Shannon Vreeland (1:56.85) Allison Schmitt (1:54.09)	USA	7:42.92	OR	5
Women's 200 m breaststroke	2 August	Final	Rebecca Soni	USA	2:19.59	WR	6
Women's 100 m freestyle	2 August	Final	Ranomi Kromowidjojo	NED	53.00	OR	6
Women's 200 m backstroke	3 August	Final	Missy Franklin	USA	2:04.06	WR	7
Women's 50 m freestyle	4 August	Final	Ranomi Kromowidjojo	NED	24.05	OR	8
Women's 4 × 100 m medley relay	4 August	Final	Missy Franklin (58.50) Rebecca Soni (1:04.82) Dana Vollmer (55.48) Allison Schmitt (53.25)	USA	3:52.05	WR	8

All world records (WR) are subsequently Olympic records (OR).

Derya Büyükuncu and Lars Frölander were the first swimmers to participate in six consecutive Olympic Games (1992-2012).

Controversies

In the women's 400-metre individual medley, Chinese Ye Shiwen won in a world-record time of 4:28.43. After the race, Ye had allegations against her suggesting the use of drugs that drew comment from the International Olympic Committee and FINA who defended Ye. Ye has never tested positive of any performance-enhancing drugs. Some claim the accusations were a result of xenophobia towards the Chinese.

In the final of the 100-metre breaststroke, South African Cameron van der Burgh won in a world-record time of 58.46, bettering the previous record of 58.58 held by Brenton Rickard of Australia. After the race however, underwater camera footage showed winner van der Burgh did three illegal butterfly kicks on the underwater pullout (rules allow for one kick). Van der Burgh later admitted to the illegal move and justified the act by saying if he was not doing it, "you are falling behind or giving yourself a disadvantage."

Gallery of the medalists

Some of the Olympic medalists in London: File:YANNICK AGNEL a.jpg|Yannick Agnel, winner of the 200-metre freestyle and 4 × 100-metre freestyle relay. File:Cameron van der Burgh.jpg|Cameron van der Burgh, winner of the 100-metre breaststroke. File:Tylerclary.jpg|Tyler Clary, winner of the 200-metre backstroke. File:Chad le Clos.jpg|Chad le Clos, winner of the 200-metre butterfly. File:Missy Franklin London 2012 200m Backstroke Heats.jpeg|Missy Franklin, winner of the 100-metre backstroke, 200-metre backstroke, 4 × 200-metre freestyle, and 4 × 100-metre medley. File:Matt Grevers.jpg|Matt Grevers, winner of the 100-metre backstroke and 4 × 100-metre medley. File:Ranomi Kromowidjojo (2008-08-25).jpg|Ranomi Kromowidjojo, winner of the 50-metre and 100-metre freestyle. File:Ryan Lochte cropped.jpg|Ryan Lochte, winner of the 400-metre individual medley and 4 × 200-metre freestyle. File:Florent Manaudou 2012.jpg|Florent Manaudou, winner of the 50-metre freestyle. File:Rūta Meilutytė portrait.jpg|Rūta Meilutytė, winner of the 100-metre breaststroke. File:Oussama Mellouli 1.jpg|Oussama Mellouli, winner of the 10-kilometre marathon. File:Camille Muffat.jpg|Camille Muffat, winner of the 400-metre freestyle. File:Michael Phelps 2009.jpg|Michael Phelps, winner of the 100-metre butterfly, 200-metre individual medley, 4 × 200-metre freestyle, and 4 × 100-metre medley. File:Emily Jane Seebohm - Peking 2008.jpg|Emily Seebohm, member of the winning 4 × 100-metre freestyle. File:Rebecca soni cropped.jpg|Rebecca Soni, winner of the 200-metre breaststroke and 4 × 100-metre medley.

References

"Olympedia – Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics".
"Olympic sports: Swimming". [[London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games]].
(4 August 2012). "Swimming day 8 – USA end on a high note, Phelps retires with 22 medals!". [[FINA]].
(5 August 2012). "2012 London Olympics: Michael Phelps Leads All Swimmers With Six Medals".
Tan, Jingjing. (3 July 2013). "Great breakthrough for Chinese swimming in Olympic pool". [[Xinhua News Agency]].
Hoy, Greg. (3 July 2013). "Swimmers outraged over pre-Games treatment". [[ABC News Australia]].
Akutsu, Atsushi. (3 July 2013). "Olympics/Swimming: Japan fails to strike gold but medal haul points to bright future". [[The Asahi Shimbun]].
"Swimming: Results and Schedule". [[NBC Olympics]].
"FINA By Law 9". [[FINA]].
"764 Qualifying times for London Olympic Games 2012". [[FINA]].
(14 December 2010). "FINA Press Release 2010–79: FINA Bureau Meeting in Dubai (UAE)". [[FINA]].
(6 July 2012). "London 2012 – Swimming – Qualified Swimmers". [[FINA]].
(31 July 2011). "Illegal Triple-Dolphin Kicks Seen in World Record Breaststroke Swim". SwimSwam.
(4 August 2012). "South African Cameron van der Burgh admits using illegal dolphin kicks to win gold medal". The Australian.

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