Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre backstroke

The women's 200-metre backstroke event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 2–3 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.^[1]

Women's 200 metre backstroke at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Dates	August 2, 2012 (heats & semifinals) August 3, 2012 (final)
Competitors	37 from 31 nations
Winning time	2:04.06 WR
Medalists
Missy Franklin  United States Anastasia Zuyeva  Russia Elizabeth Beisel  United States
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U.S. teenage sensation Missy Franklin blistered the field with a remarkable world record in textile to strike a backstroke double for the first time, since Romania's Diana Mocanu did so in 2000. Dominating the race from the start, she threw down a sterling time of 2:04.06 to broaden a full-body length gap over the rest of the field and to slice three-quarters of a second (0.75) off the previous record set by Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry in a now-banned polyurethane bodysuit from the 2009 World Championships.^[2][3] Russia's Anastasia Zuyeva cleared a 2:06-barrier to take the silver in 2:05.92, while Franklin's teammate Elizabeth Beisel snatched the bronze in 2:06.55, handing over an entire medal haul for the Americans with a one-three finish.^[4][5]

Backed by a raucous home crowd, Great Britain's Elizabeth Simmonds fell short of the podium with a fourth-place time in 2:07.26.^[6] Australia's Meagan Nay finished fifth in 2:07.43, while Coventry, a two-time Olympic champion, missed a chance to produce another historic three-peat as she claimed a distant sixth spot in 2:08.18.^[7][8] France's Alexianne Castel (2:08.43) and Canada's Sinead Russell (2:09.86) closed out the championship field.^[5]

Records

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

World record	Kirsty Coventry (ZIM)	2:04.81	Rome, Italy	1 August 2009	[9][10]
Olympic record	Kirsty Coventry (ZIM)	2:05.24	Beijing, China	16 August 2008	[11]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
August 3	Final	Missy Franklin	United States	2:04.06	WR

Results

Heats

^[12]

Missy Franklin during the heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	4	Missy Franklin	United States	2:07.54	Q
2	3	5	Elizabeth Beisel	United States	2:07.82	Q
3	5	2	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:08.14	Q
4	5	5	Meagen Nay	Australia	2:08.40	Q
5	4	4	Belinda Hocking	Australia	2:08.75	Q
6	3	6	Alexianne Castel	France	2:08.92	Q
7	3	3	Sinead Russell	Canada	2:09.04	Q
8	3	4	Anastasia Zuyeva	Russia	2:09.36	Q
9	4	3	Daryna Zevina	Ukraine	2:09.40	Q
10	4	7	Duane da Rocha	Spain	2:09.72	Q
11	5	7	Stephanie Proud	Great Britain	2:10.01	Q
12	2	6	Simona Baumrtová	Czech Republic	2:10.03	Q, NR
13	3	1	Karin Prinsloo	South Africa	2:10.34	Q
14	4	5	Elizabeth Simmonds	Great Britain	2:10.37	Q
15	4	6	Jenny Mensing	Germany	2:10.54	Q
16	5	3	Sharon van Rouwendaal	Netherlands	2:10.60	Q
17	4	1	Melissa Ingram	New Zealand	2:10.63
18	4	2	Hilary Caldwell	Canada	2:10.75
19	3	7	Bai Anqi	China	2:11.26
20	5	8	Eygló Ósk Gústafsdóttir	Iceland	2:11.31	NR
21	2	4	Miyu Otsuka	Japan	2:11.65
22	5	1	Yao Yige	China	2:12.14
23	3	2	Alessia Filippi	Italy	2:12.40
24	2	5	María Fernanda González	Mexico	2:12.75
25	2	7	Anja Čarman	Slovenia	2:13.01
26	1	4	Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên	Vietnam	2:13.35
27	1	6	Carolina Colorado Henao	Colombia	2:13.64	NR
28	2	2	Mie Nielsen	Denmark	2:13.89
29	3	8	Alicja Tchórz	Poland	2:14.02
30	5	6	Laure Manaudou	France	2:14.29
31	1	2	Ham Chan-mi	South Korea	2:15.30
32	4	8	Ekaterina Avramova	Bulgaria	2:15.44
33	2	1	Kim Daniela Pavlin	Croatia	2:15.67
34	2	3	Melanie Nocher	Ireland	2:16.29
35	1	3	Dorina Szekeres	Hungary	2:18.16
36	2	8	Hoi Shun Stephanie Au	Hong Kong	2:18.47
37	1	5	Yulduz Kuchkarova	Uzbekistan	2:18.60

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Elizabeth Beisel	United States	2:06.18	Q
2	5	Meagen Nay	Australia	2:07.42	Q
3	6	Anastasia Zuyeva	Russia	2:07.88	Q
4	3	Alexianne Castel	France	2:08.24	Q
5	1	Elizabeth Simmonds	Great Britain	2:08.48	Q
6	8	Sharon van Rouwendaal	Netherlands	2:09.50
7	2	Duane da Rocha	Spain	2:09.88
8	7	Simona Baumrtová	Czech Republic	2:10.18

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Missy Franklin	United States	2:06.84	Q
2	5	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:08.32	Q
3	6	Sinead Russell	Canada	2:08.76	Q
4	7	Stephanie Proud	Great Britain	2:09.04
5	3	Belinda Hocking	Australia	2:09.35
6	2	Daryna Zevina	Ukraine	2:09.70
7	8	Jenny Mensing	Germany	2:10.68
8	1	Karin Prinsloo	South Africa	2:11.42

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Missy Franklin	United States	2:04.06	WR
	6	Anastasia Zuyeva	Russia	2:05.92
	4	Elizabeth Beisel	United States	2:06.55
4	1	Elizabeth Simmonds	Great Britain	2:07.26
5	3	Meagen Nay	Australia	2:07.43
6	7	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:08.18
7	2	Alexianne Castel	France	2:08.43
8	8	Sinead Russell	Canada	2:09.86