The women's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 1 to 2 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.[1] Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim four lengths of the pool.
Australia's defending Olympic champion Kaylee McKeown and the USA's Regan Smith were the favourites going into the event, with other contenders including Canada's Kylie Masse and the USA's Phoebe Bacon. All four of those progressed through the heats and semifinals to qualify for the final.
McKeown won the final with a new Olympic record of 2:03.73, making her the first female athlete to win both backstroke events at consecutive Olympics, and the first Australian athlete to win four individual gold medals. Smith finished second with 2:04.26 and Masse finished third with 2:05.57, 0.04 seconds ahead of Bacon in fourth.
Other medal contenders were Canada's Kylie Masse, who won bronze at the 2016 Olympics and silver at the 2020 Olympics, and the USA's Phoebe Bacon, who finished fifth at the 2020 Olympics.[2] Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted McKeown would win gold, Smith would take silver and Bacon would take bronze.[2][3]
Two days prior to the start of the event, McKeown won the 100 metre backstroke and Smith took silver.[4]
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).[5] For this event, the OQT was 2:10.39. 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.[5][6] In total, 26 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, while 2 athletes qualified through universality places.[6]
Four heats took place on 1 August 2024, starting at 11:00.[a][7] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[8]China's Peng Xuwei won the third heat, qualifying with the fastest time of 2:08.29. Masse won the second heat with 2:08.54 to qualify with the second fastest time, and McKeown won the fourth heat with 2:08.89 to qualify in third.[9][7]
Two semifinals took place on 1 August, starting at 21:19.[10] The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[8] Bacon led the first semifinal from beginning to end, qualifying with the fastest time of 2:07.32. McKeown won the second semifinal with 2:07.57. Masse and Smith also qualified.[11][12]
The final took place at 20:37 on 2 August.[13] Masse led the field at the 50 metre mark, but by the 100 metre turn Smith had taken the lead. At the 150 metre mark Smith was still in the lead, but over the final 50 metres McKeown took the lead to finish in first place with a new Olympic record of 2:03.73. Smith finished in second with a time of 2:04.26 to claim silver, and Masse finished third with a time of 2:05.57 to claim bronze. Bacon finished fourth, 0.04 seconds behind Masse.[14][15]
McKeown's Olympic record beat Missy Franklin's 2:04.06 mark from the London 2012 Games.[16] Her win made her the first female to win both backstroke events at consecutive Olympics,[17][18] and the first Australian athlete to win four individual gold medals.[19]
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