Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates	10 August 2016 (heats & semifinals) 11 August 2016 (final)
Competitors	30 from 22 nations
Winning time	2:20.30
Medalists
Rie Kaneto   Japan   Yuliya Yefimova   Russia   Shi Jinglin   China

Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Qualification
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men		women
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women
Marathon
10 km		men		women

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 10–11 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.^[1]

Japan's Rie Kaneto pulled away from a tightly-packed field over a wide margin to become the country's third gold medalist in the event's history, since Hideko Maehata topped the podium in 1936, and Kyoko Iwasaki in 1992. She scorched her way through the final lap to a decisive gold-medal triumph in 2:20.30, but fell short of her attempt to overhaul a sub-2:20 range at the Games.^[2][3] Shaking off a usual start by another set of loud boos, Russia's Yuliya Yefimova launched a late charge on the home stretch to get her second silver of the meet in 2:21.97.^[4] Meanwhile, China's Shi Jinglin rebounded from an out-of-medal feat in the 100 m breaststroke three days earlier to earn the bronze with a 2:22.28, beating Great Britain's Chloe Tutton (2:22.34) by just six hundredths of a second.^[5][6]

Australia's Taylor McKeown seized a substantial lead through the initial half of the race, but slipped shortly off the podium to fifth in 2:22.43.^[7] Tutton's teammate Molly Renshaw, who scratched the existing British record earlier in the semifinals, picked up a sixth spot in 2:22.72.^[8] Outside the 2:22 club, Canada's Kierra Smith (2:23.19) and Denmark's world-record holder Rikke Møller Pedersen (2:23.74) rounded out the field.^[6]

American tandem Molly Hannis and Lilly King, the newly-crowned Olympic champion of the 100 m breaststroke, had put the U.S. medal hunt to an end in this event, as neither of them advanced to the final for the first time since 1992.^[9] Other notable swimmers missed the top eight roster, featuring Japan's Kanako Watanabe, the 2015 world champion, and Turkey's Viktoriya Zeynep Güneş, the fastest pre-race seed headed to the Games.^[10]

Records

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

World record	Rikke Møller Pedersen (DEN)	2:19.11	Barcelona, Spain	1 August 2013
Olympic record	Rebecca Soni (USA)	2:19.59	London, United Kingdom	2 August 2012

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	5	Rikke Møller Pedersen	Denmark	2:22.72	Q
2	3	4	Rie Kaneto	Japan	2:22.86	Q
3	3	5	Taylor McKeown	Australia	2:23.00	Q
4	3	3	Chloe Tutton	Great Britain	2:23.34	Q
5	2	6	Molly Renshaw	Great Britain	2:23.37	Q
6	4	6	Kierra Smith	Canada	2:23.69	Q
7	4	4	Viktoriya Zeynep Güneş	Turkey	2:23.83	Q
8	4	5	Yuliya Yefimova	Russia	2:23.90	Q
9	4	3	Shi Jinglin	China	2:24.33	Q
10	3	6	Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir	Iceland	2:24.43	Q
11	2	3	Jessica Vall	Spain	2:24.55	Q
12	4	7	Molly Hannis	United States	2:24.74	Q
13	2	4	Kanako Watanabe	Japan	2:24.77	Q
14	4	1	Jenna Laukkanen	Finland	2:25.52	Q
15	2	2	Lilly King	United States	2:25.89	Q
16	2	7	Sofiya Andreeva	Russia	2:26.58	Q
17	4	2	Fanny Lecluyse	Belgium	2:27.16
18	3	1	Martina Moravčíková	Czech Republic	2:27.51
19	3	8	Dalma Sebestyén	Hungary	2:27.94
20	2	8	Anna Sztankovics	Hungary	2:27.97
21	1	4	Julia Sebastián	Argentina	2:27.98
22	3	2	Georgia Bohl	Australia	2:28.24
23	3	7	Martha McCabe	Canada	2:28.62
24	4	8	Yu Jingyao	China	2:28.65
25	1	3	Fiona Doyle	Ireland	2:29.76
26	1	2	Sophie Hansson	Sweden	2:30.59
27	1	7	Aļona Ribakova	Latvia	2:30.82
28	1	6	Amit Ivry	Israel	2:31.49
29	2	1	Back Su-yeon	South Korea	2:32.79
30	1	5	Yvette Kong	Hong Kong	DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Rie Kaneto	Japan	2:22.11	Q
2	6	Yuliya Yefimova	Russia	2:22.52	Q
3	5	Chloe Tutton	Great Britain	2:22.71	Q
4	3	Kierra Smith	Canada	2:22.87	Q
5	2	Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir	Iceland	2:24.41
6	1	Jenna Laukkanen	Finland	2:25.14	NR
7	8	Sofiya Andreeva	Russia	2:25.90
8	7	Molly Hannis	United States	2:26.80

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Taylor McKeown	Australia	2:21.69	Q
2	3	Molly Renshaw	Great Britain	2:22.33	Q, NR
3	2	Shi Jinglin	China	2:22.37	Q
4	4	Rikke Møller Pedersen	Denmark	2:22.45	Q
5	6	Viktoriya Zeynep Güneş	Turkey	2:23.49
6	7	Jessica Vall	Spain	2:24.22
7	8	Lilly King	United States	2:24.59
8	1	Kanako Watanabe	Japan	2:25.10

Final

Medal ceremony. Shi Jinglin has received her bronze, Yulia Yefimova waits the silver, and gold medalist Rie Kaneto interacts with the audience.

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
01 !	5	Rie Kaneto	Japan	2:20.30
02 !	7	Yuliya Yefimova	Russia	2:21.97
03 !	6	Shi Jinglin	China	2:22.28
4	1	Chloe Tutton	Great Britain	2:22.34
5	4	Taylor McKeown	Australia	2:22.43
6	3	Molly Renshaw	Great Britain	2:22.72
7	8	Kierra Smith	Canada	2:23.19
8	2	Rikke Møller Pedersen	Denmark	2:23.74

References