Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 20–21 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.^[1]

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad
Venue	Sydney International Aquatic Centre
Date	September 20, 2000 (heats & semifinals) September 21, 2000 (final)
Competitors	36 from 30 nations
Winning time	2:24.35
Medalists
Ágnes Kovács  Hungary Kristy Kowal  United States Amanda Beard  United States
← 1996 2004 →

Charging back from third at the 150-metre turn, Hungary's Ágnes Kovács edged out U.S. swimmer Kristy Kowal on the final stretch to capture the gold in 2:24.35.^[2][3] Kowal, who seized off a powerful lead from the start, took home the silver in a new American record of 2:24.56. Her teammate Amanda Beard, silver medalist in Atlanta four years earlier, gave the Americans a further reason to celebrate as she enjoyed the race to move up from eighth after the semifinals for the bronze in 2:25.35, holding off a fast-pacing Qi Hui of China (2:25.36) by a hundredth of a second (0.01).^[4][5]

Qi was followed in fifth by Russia's Olga Bakaldina (2:25.47) and in sixth by South Africa's Sarah Poewe (2:25.72), fourth-place finalist in the 100 m breaststroke. Japan's Masami Tanaka (2:26.98) and Qi's teammate Luo Xuejuan (2:27.33) closed out the field.^[5]

World record holder Penny Heyns missed a chance to defend her Olympic title in the event, after helplessly winding up a twentieth-place effort in the prelims at 2:30.17.^[6] Shortly after the Games, she made a decision to officially announce her retirement from international swimming.^[7][8]

Earlier, Kovacs established a new Olympic standard of 2:24.92 on the morning prelims to clear a 2:25-barrier and cut off Heyns' record by almost half a second (0.50).^[6] Following by an evening session, she eventually lowered it to 2:24.03 in the semifinals.^[9][10]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:

World record	Penny Heyns (RSA)	2:23.64	Sydney, Australia	27 August 1999	[11]
Olympic record	Penny Heyns (RSA)	2:25.41	Atlanta, United States	23 July 1996	[11]

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
20 September	Heat 5	Ágnes Kovács	Hungary	2:24.92	OR
20 September	Semifinal 1	Ágnes Kovács	Hungary	2:24.03	OR

Results

Heats

^[11]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	5	Ágnes Kovács	Hungary	2:24.92	Q, OR
2	3	4	Kristy Kowal	United States	2:26.73	Q
3	4	5	Qi Hui	China	2:26.76	Q
4	4	2	Karine Brémond	France	2:27.13	Q, NR
5	4	4	Masami Tanaka	Japan	2:27.39	Q
6	4	3	Beatrice Câșlaru	Romania	2:27.59	Q, WD
7	4	6	Caroline Hildreth	Australia	2:27.60	Q
8	3	3	Amanda Beard	United States	2:27.83	Q
9	3	5	Sarah Poewe	South Africa	2:27.84	Q
10	5	3	Olga Bakaldina	Russia	2:28.19	Q
11	4	8	Ku Hyo-jin	South Korea	2:28.21	Q, NR
12	4	7	Rebecca Brown	Australia	2:28.24	Q
13	5	6	Luo Xuejuan	China	2:28.43	Q
14	5	1	Christin Petelski	Canada	2:29.11	Q
15	3	6	Anne Poleska	Germany	2:29.15	Q
16	5	7	Alicja Pęczak	Poland	2:29.45	Q
17	5	2	Junko Isoda	Japan	2:29.60	Q
18	3	2	Ina Hüging	Germany	2:30.00
19	4	1	Elvira Fischer	Austria	2:30.05
20	5	4	Penny Heyns	South Africa	2:30.17
21	3	1	Brigitte Becue	Belgium	2:31.27
22	5	8	Agata Czaplicki	Switzerland	2:32.98
23	3	7	Jaime King	Great Britain	2:33.10
24	2	8	İlkay Dikmen	Turkey	2:33.34	NR
25	1	5	Isabel Ceballos	Colombia	2:34.09
26	2	4	Inna Nikitina	Ukraine	2:34.20
27	2	2	Siow Yi Ting	Malaysia	2:34.52	NR
28	2	3	Margarita Kalmikova	Latvia	2:35.69
29	2	5	Adriana Marmolejo	Mexico	2:36.93
30	2	7	Nicolette Teo	Singapore	2:37.39
31	1	4	Jenny Rose Guerrero	Philippines	2:38.10
32	2	6	Íris Edda Heimisdóttir	Iceland	2:38.52
33	1	3	Olga Moltchanova	Kyrgyzstan	2:41.43
34	2	1	Imaday Nuñez Gonzalez	Cuba	2:41.97
35	1	6	Anastasiya Korolyova	Uzbekistan	2:43.23
	3	8	Lourdes Becerra	Spain	DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Kristy Kowal	United States	2:25.46	Q
2	6	Sarah Poewe	South Africa	2:25.54	Q
3	7	Luo Xuejuan	China	2:25.86	Q
4	5	Karine Brémond	France	2:27.86
5	3	Caroline Hildreth	Australia	2:28.30
6	2	Ku Hyo-Jin	South Korea	2:28.50
7	1	Anne Poleska	Germany	2:28.99
8	8	Junko Isoda	Japan	2:31.71

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Ágnes Kovács	Hungary	2:24.03	Q, OR, NR
2	5	Qi Hui	China	2:24.21	Q, NR
3	2	Olga Bakaldina	Russia	2:25.41	Q, NR
4	3	Masami Tanaka	Japan	2:26.24	Q
5	6	Amanda Beard	United States	2:26.62	Q
6	1	Christin Petelski	Canada	2:29.43
7	7	Rebecca Brown	Australia	2:29.90
8	8	Alicja Pęczak	Poland	2:30.02

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Ágnes Kovács	Hungary	2:24.35
	6	Kristy Kowal	United States	2:24.56	AM
	8	Amanda Beard	United States	2:25.35
4	5	Qi Hui	China	2:25.36
5	3	Olga Bakaldina	Russia	2:25.47
6	2	Sarah Poewe	South Africa	2:25.72
7	1	Masami Tanaka	Japan	2:26.98
8	7	Luo Xuejuan	China	2:27.33