Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre backstroke

The women's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 17–18 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.^[1]

Women's 100 metre backstroke at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad
Venue	Sydney International Aquatic Centre
Date	September 17, 2000 (heats & semifinals) September 18, 2000 (final)
Competitors	47 from 40 nations
Winning time	1:00.21 OR
Medalists
Diana Mocanu  Romania Mai Nakamura  Japan Nina Zhivanevskaya  Spain
← 1996 2004 →

At only 16 years of age, Diana Mocanu made an Olympic milestone to become Romania's first ever gold medalist in swimming. She fought off a head-to-head sprint challenge from Japan's Mai Nakamura on the final stretch to hit the wall first in a new Olympic standard of 1:00.21, the second-fastest of all time, cutting off Krisztina Egerszegi's 1992 record by nearly half a second (0.50).^[2][3] Meanwhile, Nakamura seized off an early lead under a world-record pace (29.17), but ended up only with a silver medal in a Japanese record of 1:00.55.^[4] Competing previously for the Unified Team and Russia in two Olympics (1992 and 1996), Nina Zhivanevskaya made a surprise packet with a bronze for Spain in a sterling time of 1:00.89.^[5][6]

France's Roxana Maracineanu finished off the podium in fourth place at 1:01.10, and was followed in fifth by Nakamura's teammate Noriko Inada in 1:01.14.^[4] Coming from second at the final turn, U.S. swimmer Barbara Bedford faded down the stretch to pick up the sixth spot with a time of 1:01.47. Aussie favorite Dyana Calub (1:01.61) and Denmark's Louise Ørnstedt (1:02.02) closed out the field.^[6]

Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Germany's Antje Buschschulte, a pre-Olympic medal contender; South Africa's Charlene Wittstock, who eventually married to Albert II, Prince of Monaco in 2010; and Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, who later emerged as one of the world's top backstroke swimmers in her decade.^[7]

Records

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

World record	He Cihong (CHN)	1:00.16	Rome, Italy	10 September 1994	[8]
Olympic record	Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN)	1:00.68	Barcelona, Spain	28 July 1992	[8]

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

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
18 September	Final	Diana Mocanu	Romania	1:00.21	OR

Results

Heats

^[8]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	6	4	Mai Nakamura	Japan	1:00.88	Q
2	6	3	Diana Mocanu	Romania	1:01.18	Q, NR
3	4	2	Roxana Maracineanu	France	1:01.66	Q, NR
4	4	3	Barbara Bedford	United States	1:01.70	Q
5	4	4	Nina Zhivanevskaya	Spain	1:01.97	Q
6	6	6	Louise Ørnstedt	Denmark	1:01.98	Q
7	5	6	Zhan Shu	China	1:02.19	Q
	6	5	Noriko Inada	Japan		Q
9	5	4	Antje Buschschulte	Germany	1:02.23	Q
10	4	5	Dyana Calub	Australia	1:02.46	Q
11	5	3	Katy Sexton	Great Britain	1:02.67	Q
12	5	2	Kelly Stefanyshyn	Canada	1:02.78	Q
13	5	5	Sandra Völker	Germany	1:02.88	Q
14	6	1	Michelle Lischinsky	Canada	1:02.89	Q
15	4	1	Lu Donghua	China	1:02.91	Q
16	3	6	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	1:03.05	Q, NR
17	4	7	Charlene Wittstock	South Africa	1:03.18
18	6	2	Courtney Shealy	United States	1:03.19
19	5	7	Giaan Rooney	Australia	1:03.20
	3	3	Shim Min-ji	South Korea		NR
21	4	6	Sarah Price	Great Britain	1:03.22
22	6	7	Ilona Hlaváčková	Czech Republic	1:03.28
23	5	1	Anu Koivisto	Finland	1:03.44
24	6	8	Fabíola Molina	Brazil	1:03.68
25	5	8	Aleksandra Miciul	Poland	1:04.51
26	3	5	Monique Robins	New Zealand	1:04.52
27	3	7	Sofie Wolfs	Belgium	1:04.66
	3	1	Nadiya Beshevli	Ukraine
29	3	2	Irina Raevskaya	Russia	1:04.76
30	3	4	Ana María González	Cuba	1:04.95
31	2	4	Camilla Johansson	Sweden	1:04.99
32	3	8	Aikaterini Bliamou	Greece	1:05.09
33	2	2	Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai	Hong Kong	1:05.28
34	4	8	Brenda Starink	Netherlands	1:05.93
35	2	3	Chonlathorn Vorathamrong	Thailand	1:05.98
36	2	6	Annamária Kiss	Hungary	1:06.12
37	1	6	Marie-Lizza Danila	Philippines	1:06.48
38	2	8	Elsa Manora Nasution	Indonesia	1:06.57
	2	1	Serrana Fernández	Uruguay
40	2	7	Kuan Chia-hsien	Chinese Taipei	1:07.18
41	1	4	Marica Stražmešter	FR Yugoslavia	1:07.21
42	1	3	Şadan Derya Erke	Turkey	1:07.26
43	1	5	Kolbrún Ýr Kristjánsdóttir	Iceland	1:07.28
44	1	2	Anjelika Solovieva	Kyrgyzstan	1:07.63
45	1	7	Andrea Prono	Paraguay	1:08.11
46	1	1	Monika Bakale	Republic of the Congo	1:16.36
	2	5	Tessa Solomon	Netherlands Antilles	DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Diana Mocanu	Romania	1:00.70	Q, NR
2	5	Barbara Bedford	United States	1:01.61	Q
3	3	Louise Ørnstedt	Denmark	1:01.69	Q, NR
4	2	Dyana Calub	Australia	1:01.86	Q
5	7	Kelly Stefanyshyn	Canada	1:02.35
6	8	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	1:02.54	NR
7	1	Michelle Lischinsky	Canada	1:02.55
8	6	Zhan Shu	China	1:02.92

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Mai Nakamura	Japan	1:01.07	Q
2	6	Noriko Inada	Japan	1:01.25	Q
3	3	Nina Zhivanevskaya	Spain	1:01.41	Q
4	5	Roxana Maracineanu	France	1:01.61	Q, NR
5	2	Antje Buschschulte	Germany	1:01.91
6	7	Katy Sexton	Great Britain	1:02.35
7	1	Sandra Völker	Germany	1:03.01
8	8	Lu Donghua	China	1:03.31

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Diana Mocanu	Romania	1:00.21	OR, ER
	5	Mai Nakamura	Japan	1:00.55	NR
	6	Nina Zhivanevskaya	Spain	1:00.89	NR
4	7	Roxana Maracineanu	France	1:01.10	NR
5	3	Noriko Inada	Japan	1:01.14
6	2	Barbara Bedford	United States	1:01.47
7	8	Dyana Calub	Australia	1:01.61
8	1	Louise Ørnstedt	Denmark	1:02.02