Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metre freestyle

Women's 800 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Dates	August 2, 2012 (heats) August 3, 2012 (final)
Competitors	36 from 30 nations
Winning time	8:14.63 AM
Medalists
Katie Ledecky   United States Mireia Belmonte García   Spain Rebecca Adlington   Great Britain
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The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 2–3 August at the London Aquatics Centre ^[1] based at the Olympic park London.

Aged only 15, American Katie Ledecky narrowly missed the world record on the final lap to recapture the first Olympic title for the Americans since Brooke Bennett topped the podium in 2000. Strengthening her lead almost the entire race, she headed into the 750-metre turn under world-record pace, and pulled off a stunning upset from the rest of the field to post a personal best and smash Janet Evans' 23-year-old U.S. record in 8:14.63. ^[2] Spain's Mireia Belmonte García added a second silver to her Olympic hardware in a national record of 8:18.76. ^[3] Meanwhile, Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington, the reigning Olympic champion, tried to hold on with Ledecky earlier through the race, but faded down the stretch to pick up a bronze in 8:20.32. ^{[4] [5]}

New Zealand's Lauren Boyle produced a spectacular swim to finish with a fourth-place time and an Oceanian record in 8:22.72. ^[6] Meanwhile, Denmark's Lotte Friis, the defending bronze medalist, opened up the race with an early lead, but dropped back to fifth in 8:23.86 to hold off a fast-charging Hungarian Boglárka Kapás (8:23.89) on the final lap by almost a fingertip. France's Coralie Balmy (8:29.26) and Venezuela's Andreina Pinto (8:29.28) rounded out the field in one of the program's long-distance pool races. ^[5]

Records

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

World record	Rebecca Adlington  (GBR)	8:14.10	Beijing, China	16 August 2008	[7] [8]
Olympic record	Rebecca Adlington  (GBR)	8:14.10	Beijing, China	16 August 2008	[7] [8]

Results

Heats

^[9]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	4	Rebecca Adlington	Great Britain	8:21.78	Q
2	4	4	Lotte Friis	Denmark	8:21.89	Q
3	3	4	Katie Ledecky	United States	8:23.84	Q
4	3	5	Mireia Belmonte García	Spain	8:25.26	Q
5	5	6	Lauren Boyle	New Zealand	8:25.91	Q, NR
6	4	3	Boglárka Kapás	Hungary	8:26.43	Q
	4	8	Andreina Pinto	Venezuela		Q, NR
8	4	2	Coralie Balmy	France	8:27.15	Q
9	5	3	Shao Yiwen	China	8:27.78
10	5	2	Erika Villaecija García	Spain	8:27.99
11	3	1	Alexa Komarnycky	Canada	8:28.11
12	3	3	Wendy Trott	South Africa	8:28.98
13	3	2	Éva Risztov	Hungary	8:29.06
14	4	7	Kristel Köbrich	Chile	8:29.55
15	5	1	Savannah King	Canada	8:29.72
16	5	8	Cecilia Biagioli	Argentina	8:33.97	NR
17	2	4	Julia Hassler	Liechtenstein	8:35.18	NR
18	4	6	Kylie Palmer	Australia	8:35.75
19	2	2	Katya Bachrouche	Lebanon	8:35.88	NR
20	5	7	Jessica Ashwood	Australia	8:37.21
21	5	5	Kate Ziegler	United States	8:37.38
22	3	6	Ellie Faulkner	Great Britain	8:38.00
23	4	1	Camelia Potec	Romania	8:38.44
24	4	5	Xin Xin	China	8:40.88
25	2	5	Tjaša Oder	Slovenia	8:41.82
26	3	8	Yelena Sokolova	Russia	8:42.73
27	2	6	Patricia Castañeda Miyamoto	Mexico	8:44.44
28	2	3	Nina Dittrich	Austria	8:45.41
29	1	4	Samantha Arevalo	Ecuador	8:49.21	NR
30	2	7	Cai Lin Khoo	Malaysia	8:51.18
31	2	1	Lynette Lim	Singapore	8:52.92
32	2	8	Han Na-kyeong	South Korea	8:57.26
33	1	5	Pamela Benitez	El Salvador	9:02.66
34	1	6	Danielle van den Berg	Aruba	9:23.21
35	1	3	Simona Marinova	Macedonia	9:28.41
	3	7	Grainne Murphy	Ireland	DNS

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	3	Katie Ledecky	United States	8:14.63	AM
	6	Mireia Belmonte García	Spain	8:18.76	NR
	4	Rebecca Adlington	Great Britain	8:20.32
4	2	Lauren Boyle	New Zealand	8:22.72	OC
5	5	Lotte Friis	Denmark	8:23.86
6	7	Boglárka Kapás	Hungary	8:23.89	NR
7	8	Coralie Balmy	France	8:29.26
8	1	Andreina Pinto	Venezuela	8:29.28

References

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012 . NBC Olympics. 29 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
2. Brennan, Christine (4 August 2012). "Katie Ledecky, 15, wins 800 free, breaks Janet Evans' record". USA Today . Retrieved 10 July 2013.
3. Harris, Beth (3 August 2012). "Olympics 2012: Bethesda's Katie Ledecky, 15, wins 800 free". Washington Times . Retrieved 10 July 2013.
4. White, Duncan (3 August 2012). "Rebecca Adlington has to settle for bronze in 800m freestyle as 15-year-old American Katie Ledecky wins gold". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 10 July 2013.
5. "2012 London Olympics: Katie Ledecky, 15, Rattles World Record With American Record Victory in 800 Free; Mireia Belmonte Garcia, Rebecca Adlington Complete Podium". Swimming World Magazine. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
6. "Emotional Boyle 'proud' of fourth in 800m freestyle". TVNZ. 4 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
7. Lohn, John (15 August 2008). "We Loved You While You Lasted Janet, Rebecca Adlington Erases Longest Standing World Record With Evans' Mark in 800 Free". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
8. "Adlington storms to second gold". BBC Sport. 16 August 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
9. "Women's 800m Freestyle – Heats". London2012.com. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage