The women's 200-metre individual medley event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held on 2 and 3 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.
In the final, McIntosh won with a new Olympic and world junior record of 2:06.56, while Douglass finished second with 2:06.92, Walsh finished third with 2:07.06 and McKeown finished fourth with 2:08.08. However, after the race Walsh was disqualified for doing an illegal backstroke to breaststroke turn, resulting in McKeown being awarded the bronze medal. McIntosh's win made her the first Canadian Olympian to win three gold medals at a single Games.
Background
Prior to the event, the world and Olympic records were held by Katinka Hosszú of Hungary, with times of 2:06.12 (2015) and 2:06.58 (2016), respectively.[1][2]
SwimSwam predicted McKeown would win, Douglass would come second and McIntosh would come third, while Swimming World predicted McIntosh would win, Douglass would come second and McKeown would come third.[3][6] Prior to the start of the event, Douglass, McKeown and McIntosh had all won gold medals in previous events, and Yanyan Li from SwimSwam believed that the event "looked to be an even higher-stakes race than expected".[7]
The event was held at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.[8]
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).[9] For this event, the OQT was 2:11.47. World Aquatics then filled the rest of the event places with athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[9][4] In total, 23 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, while 11 athletes qualified through universality places.[4]
Three heats (preliminary rounds) took place on 2 August 2024, starting at 11:17.[a][10] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[11] McIntosh qualified with the fastest time of 2:09.90. Walsh, Douglass and McKeown were also among those that qualified.[12][13]
Two semifinals took place on 2 August, starting at 21:31.[14] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[11]Canada's Sydney Pickrem won the first semifinal to qualify with the fifth fastest time of 2:09.65,[14] while Alex Walsh won the second semifinal to qualify with the fastest time of 2:07.45.[15] Douglass, McKeown, Great Britain's Abbie Wood, China's Yu Yiting and Australia's Ella Ramsay also qualified.[15] Ramsay later withdrew from the final due to illness, leaving only seven swimmers in the final.[16]
Japan's Yui Ohashi, who won the event at the previous Olympics, did not qualify.[17]South Africa's Rebecca Meder beat her country's national record with 2:10.67, but the time was not fast enough to qualify.[18]
The final took place at 21:08 on 3 August.[19] Walsh led for the first 150 metres of the race, but over the final 50 metres she was overtaken by McIntosh and Douglass.[20][21] McIntosh won with a new Olympic record, world junior record and national record of 2:06.56.[22][23] Douglass finished second with 2:06.92, Walsh finished third with 2:07.06 and McKeown finished fourth with 2:08.08.[20] After the race, Walsh was disqualified for doing a backstroke to breaststroke turn that was against the rules, leading to McKeown being awarded the bronze medal instead.[24][25]
McIntosh's Olympic record broke that of Katinka Hosszú's from the Rio 2016 Olympics.[26] Her win made her the first Canadian Olympian to win three gold medals at a single Games, and it was her fourth medal at the 2024 Games overall.[27]
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