Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

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Women's 200 metre breaststroke
at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue London Aquatics Centre
DateAugust 1, 2012 (heats &
semifinals)
August 2, 2012 (final)
Competitors34 from 27 nations
Winning time2:19.59 WR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Rebecca Soni Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Silver medal icon.svg Satomi Suzuki Flag of Japan.svg  Japan
Bronze medal icon.svg Yuliya Yefimova Flag of Russia.svg  Russia
  2008
2016  

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 1–2 August 2012 at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom. [1]

U.S. swimmer Rebecca Soni cleared a 2:20-barrier in a remarkable world record to defend her Olympic title for the first time in the event's history. Dominating the race from the start, she threw down a stunning time of 2:19.59 to open up a full-body length gap over the rest of the field on the final stretch. [2] [3] Meanwhile, Japan's Satomi Suzuki powered home with silver in a scorching time of 2:20.72 to match an Asian record previously held by Rie Kaneto in 2009. [4] Russia's Yuliya Yefimova, who trained with Soni at the Trojan Swim Club, snatched the bronze medal with an astonishing European record in 2:20.92. [5] [6]

Denmark's Rikke Pedersen fell short of the podium by almost a full second with a fourth-place time in 2:21.65, and was followed in fifth by Canada's Martha McCabe (2:23.16) and sixth by Soni's teammate Micah Lawrence (2:23.27). [7] South Africa's Suzaan van Biljon got off to a flying start in the first length, but dropped back to seventh in 2:23.72, while Australia's Sally Foster rounded out the field to eighth in 2:26.00. [6] [8]

Before the breakthrough finale, Soni scorched the field with a world-record time in 2:20.00 to pick up a top seed in the semifinals, slicing 0.12 seconds off the standard set by Canada's Annamay Pierse in a since-banned high tech bodysuit from the 2009 World Championships. [9] [10]

Other notable swimmers missed the final roster featuring Serbia's Nađa Higl, the 2009 world champion; Norway's Sara Nordenstam, the defending bronze medalist; and Jamaica's Alia Atkinson, fourth-place finalist in the 100 m breaststroke. [11]

Records

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

World recordFlag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Annamay Pierse  (CAN)2:20.12 Rome, Italy 30 July 2009 [12] [13]
Olympic recordFlag of the United States.svg  Rebecca Soni  (USA)2:20.22 Beijing, China 15 August 2008 [14]

The following records were established during the competition:

DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
August 1Semifinal 2 Rebecca Soni Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:20.00 WR
August 2Final Rebecca Soni Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:19.59 WR

Results

Heats

[15]

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
154 Rebecca Soni Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:21.40Q
256 Rikke Pedersen Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 2:22.69Q, NR
334 Satomi Suzuki Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 2:23.22Q
455 Micah Lawrence Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:24.50Q
553 Anastasia Chaun Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 2:25.39Q
641 Joline Höstman Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 2:25.44Q
733 Ji Liping Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 2:25.76Q
31 Back Su-yeon Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea Q
932 Suzaan van Biljon Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 2:25.94Q
1036 Sally Foster Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 2:26.04Q
1137 Sara El Bekri Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco 2:26.05Q, NR
1245 Kanako Watanabe Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 2:26.38Q
1346 Martha McCabe Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 2:26.39Q
1444 Yuliya Yefimova Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 2:26.83Q
47 Jeong Da-rae Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea Q
1651 Tessa Wallace Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 2:26.94Q
1725 Ganna Dzerkal Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 2:27.09 NR
1848 Stacey Tadd Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 2:27.18
1957 Fanny Lecluyse Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 2:27.30
2052 Marina Garcia Urzainqui Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 2:27.57
2135 Tera van Beilen Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 2:27.70
2258 Chiara Boggiatto Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 2:27.74
2338 Sara Nordenstam Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 2:27.90
2443 Sun Ye Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 2:27.94
2542 Nađa Higl Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 2:28.38
2626 Martina Moravčíková Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 2:28.54
2715 Alia Atkinson Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica 2:28.77 NR
2824 Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 2:29.60
2914 Anna Sztankovics Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 2:29.67
3027 Dilara Buse Günaydin Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 2:30.64
3121 Sarra Lajnef Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 2:31.15
3222 Jenna Laukkanen Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 2:31.23
3323 Tanja Šmid Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 2:32.19
3413 Dariya Talanova Flag of Kyrgyzstan (1992-2023).svg  Kyrgyzstan 2:38.01

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
14 Rikke Pedersen Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 2:22.23Q, NR
21 Yuliya Yefimova Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 2:23.02Q
35 Micah Lawrence Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:23.39Q
42 Sally Foster Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 2:24.46Q
56 Back Su-Yeon Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea 2:24.67
63 Joline Höstman Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 2:24.77
77 Kanako Watanabe Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 2:27.32
88 Tessa Wallace Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 2:27.38

Semifinal 2

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
14 Rebecca Soni Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:20.00Q, WR
25 Satomi Suzuki Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 2:22.40Q
32 Suzaan van Biljon Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 2:23.21Q, AF
41 Martha McCabe Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 2:24.09Q
57 Sara El Bekri Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco 2:25.86 NR
63 Anastasia Chaun Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 2:26.08
76 Ji Liping Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 2:27.26
88 Jeong Da-Rae Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea 2:28.74

Final

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg4 Rebecca Soni Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:19.59 WR
Silver medal icon.svg3 Satomi Suzuki Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 2:20.72= AS
Bronze medal icon.svg6 Yuliya Yefimova Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 2:20.92 EU
45 Rikke Pedersen Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 2:21.65 NR
51 Martha McCabe Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 2:23.16
67 Micah Lawrence Flag of the United States.svg  United States 2:23.27
72 Suzaan van Biljon Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 2:23.72
88 Sally Foster Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 2:26.00

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