Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held from 28 to 30 July 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.^[1] It was the event's twenty-third consecutive appearance, having been held at every edition since 1924.

Women's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Venue	Tokyo Aquatics Centre
Dates	28 July 2021 (heats) 29 July 2021 (semifinals) 30 July 2021 (final)
Competitors	31 from 24 nations
Winning time	2:18.95 WR
Medalists
Tatjana Schoenmaker  South Africa Lilly King  United States Annie Lazor  United States
← 2016 2024 →

Summary

South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker came from behind to become her nation's first Olympic champion in this event since Penny Heyns in 1996. Trailing the U.S.' Lilly King at the halfway mark, Schoenmaker moved through the field in the penultimate lap. Almost half a second ahead of world record pace at the final turn, Schoenmaker closed strongly to become the first woman to break the 2:19 barrier and win gold in a world record time of 2:18.95.

King, a 100 m breaststroke specialist over the years, established an early lead out of lane 2. However, King could not hold off Schoenmaker's ferocious charge over the back-half and settled for silver in 2:19.92. Meanwhile, King's teammate Annie Lazor (2:20.84) had the fastest final lap in the field, edging out ROC's Evgeniia Chikunova (2:20.88) by four one-hundredths of a second to claim bronze. More than a second back, Schoenmaker's teammate Kaylene Corbett (2:22.06) took fifth, while 2016 Olympian Molly Renshaw of Great Britain (2:22.65) and her teammate Abbie Wood (2:23.72) placed sixth and seventh. Belgium's Fanny Lecluyse (2:24.57) rounded out the championship field.

Records

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

World record	Rikke Møller Pedersen (DEN)	2:19.11	Barcelona, Spain	1 August 2013	[2]
Olympic record	Rebecca Soni (USA)	2:19.59	London, United Kingdom	2 August 2012	[3]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Record
July 28	Heat 4	Tatjana Schoenmaker	South Africa	2:19.16	OR
July 30	Final	Tatjana Schoenmaker	South Africa	2:18.95	WR

Qualification

Main article: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Qualification

The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event is 2:25.52. Up to two swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) can automatically qualify by swimming that time at an approved qualification event. The Olympic Selection Time is 2:29.89. Up to one swimmer per NOC meeting that time is eligible for selection, allocated by world ranking until the maximum quota for all swimming events is reached. NOCs without a female swimmer qualified in any event can also use their universality place.^[4]

Competition format

The competition consists of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advance to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.^[5]

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)^[1]

Date	Time	Round
28 July 2021	19:36	Heats
29 July 2021	11:54	Semifinals
30 July 2021	10:41	Final

Results

Heats

The swimmers with the top 16 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the semifinals.^[6]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	4	Tatjana Schoenmaker	South Africa	2:19.16	Q, OR, AF
2	3	5	Lilly King	United States	2:22.10	Q
3	4	5	Evgenia Chikunova	ROC	2:22.16	Q
4	2	7	Kaylene Corbett	South Africa	2:22.48	Q
5	3	4	Annie Lazor	United States	2:22.76	Q
6	2	4	Molly Renshaw	Great Britain	2:22.99	Q
7	2	3	Maria Temnikova	ROC	2:23.13	Q
8	2	1	Yu Jingyao	China	2:23.17	Q
9	4	2	Jenna Strauch	Australia	2:23.30	Q
10	3	2	Jessica Vall	Spain	2:23.31	Q
11	2	2	Fanny Lecluyse	Belgium	2:23.42	Q
12	4	8	Sophie Hansson	Sweden	2:23.82	Q
13	2	6	Francesca Fangio	Italy	2:23.89	Q
14	4	3	Lisa Mamié	Switzerland	2:23.91	Q
15	2	5	Abbie Wood	Great Britain	2:24.13	Q
16	4	6	Kelsey Wog	Canada	2:24.27	Q
17	4	7	Abbey Harkin	Australia	2:24.41
18	3	6	Kanako Watanabe	Japan	2:24.73
19	1	4	Kristýna Horská	Czech Republic	2:25.03	NR
20	1	6	Mona McSharry	Ireland	2:25.08	NR
21	4	1	Martina Carraro	Italy	2:26.17
22	3	7	Marina García Urzainqui	Spain	2:26.21
23	1	2	Kotryna Teterevkova	Lithuania	2:26.82
24	1	3	Melissa Rodríguez	Mexico	2:26.87
25	1	5	Eszter Békési	Hungary	2:26.89
26	3	1	Alina Zmushka	Belarus	2:27.59
27	1	7	Eneli Jefimova	Estonia	2:27.87
28	2	8	Anastasia Gorbenko	Israel	2:28.41
29	3	8	Julia Sebastián	Argentina	2:29.55
30	1	1	Andrea Podmaníková	Slovakia	2:29.56
31	1	8	Phee Jinq En	Malaysia	2:32.57
	3	3	Sydney Pickrem	Canada	DNS

Semifinals

The swimmers with the best 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final.^[7]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	2	4	Tatjana Schoenmaker	South Africa	2:19.33	Q
2	2	5	Evgenia Chikunova	ROC	2:20.57	Q
3	2	3	Annie Lazor	United States	2:21.94	Q
4	1	5	Kaylene Corbett	South Africa	2:22.08	Q
5	1	4	Lilly King	United States	2:22.27	Q
6	2	8	Abbie Wood	Great Britain	2:22.35	Q
7	1	3	Molly Renshaw	Great Britain	2:22.70	Q
8	2	7	Fanny Lecluyse	Belgium	2:23.73	Q
9	2	2	Jenna Strauch	Australia	2:24.25
10	1	7	Sophie Hansson	Sweden	2:24.28
11	2	6	Maria Temnikova	ROC	2:24.69
12	1	6	Yu Jingyao	China	2:24.76
13	1	2	Jessica Vall	Spain	2:24.87
14	1	1	Lisa Mamié	Switzerland	2:25.11
15	2	1	Francesca Fangio	Italy	2:27.56
	1	8	Kelsey Wog	Canada	DSQ

Final

^[8]

Rank	Lane	Name	Nation	Time	Notes
	4	Tatjana Schoenmaker	South Africa	2:18.95	WR
	2	Lilly King	United States	2:19.92
	3	Annie Lazor	United States	2:20.84
4	5	Evgenia Chikunova	ROC	2:20.88
5	6	Kaylene Corbett	South Africa	2:22.06
6	1	Molly Renshaw	Great Britain	2:22.65
7	7	Abbie Wood	Great Britain	2:23.72
8	8	Fanny Lecluyse	Belgium	2:24.57