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

Women's 200 metre breaststroke
at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Women's 200 metre breaststroke; at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Date	August 1, 2012 (heats &; semifinals); August 2, 2012 (final)
Competitors	34 from 27 nations
Winning time	2:19.59 WR
Medalists
	← 2008 2016 →

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

U.S. swimmer Rebecca Soni cleared a 2:20-barrier in a remarkable world record to defend her Olympic title for the first time in the event's history. Dominating the race from the start, she threw down a stunning time of 2:19.59 to open up a full-body length gap over the rest of the field on the final stretch.^[2]^[3] Meanwhile, Japan's Satomi Suzuki powered home with silver in a scorching time of 2:20.72 to match an Asian record previously held by Rie Kaneto in 2009.^[4] Russia's Yuliya Yefimova, who trained with Soni at the Trojan Swim Club, snatched the bronze medal with an astonishing European record in 2:20.92.^[5]^[6]

Denmark's Rikke Pedersen fell short of the podium by almost a full second with a fourth-place time in 2:21.65, and was followed in fifth by Canada's Martha McCabe (2:23.16) and sixth by Soni's teammate Micah Lawrence (2:23.27).^[7] South Africa's Suzaan van Biljon got off to a flying start in the first length, but dropped back to seventh in 2:23.72, while Australia's Sally Foster rounded out the field to eighth in 2:26.00.^[6]^[8]

Before the breakthrough finale, Soni scorched the field with a world-record time in 2:20.00 to pick up a top seed in the semifinals, slicing 0.12 seconds off the standard set by Canada's Annamay Pierse in a since-banned high tech bodysuit from the 2009 World Championships.^[9]^[10]

Other notable swimmers missed the final roster featuring Serbia's Nađa Higl, the 2009 world champion; Norway's Sara Nordenstam, the defending bronze medalist; and Jamaica's Alia Atkinson, fourth-place finalist in the 100 m breaststroke.^[11]

Records

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

World record	Annamay Pierse (CAN)	2:20.12	Rome, Italy	30 July 2009	^[12]^[13]
Olympic record	Rebecca Soni (USA)	2:20.22	Beijing, China	15 August 2008	^[14]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
August 1	Semifinal 2	Rebecca Soni	United States	2:20.00	WR
August 2	Final	Rebecca Soni	United States	2:19.59	WR

Results

Heats

^[15]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	4	Rebecca Soni	United States	2:21.40	Q
2	5	6	Rikke Pedersen	Denmark	2:22.69	Q, NR
3	3	4	Satomi Suzuki	Japan	2:23.22	Q
4	5	5	Micah Lawrence	United States	2:24.50	Q
5	5	3	Anastasia Chaun	Russia	2:25.39	Q
6	4	1	Joline Höstman	Sweden	2:25.44	Q
7	3	3	Ji Liping	China	2:25.76	Q
7	3	1	Back Su-yeon	South Korea	2:25.76	Q
9	3	2	Suzaan van Biljon	South Africa	2:25.94	Q
10	3	6	Sally Foster	Australia	2:26.04	Q
11	3	7	Sara El Bekri	Morocco	2:26.05	Q, NR
12	4	5	Kanako Watanabe	Japan	2:26.38	Q
13	4	6	Martha McCabe	Canada	2:26.39	Q
14	4	4	Yuliya Yefimova	Russia	2:26.83	Q
14	4	7	Jeong Da-rae	South Korea	2:26.83	Q
16	5	1	Tessa Wallace	Australia	2:26.94	Q
17	2	5	Ganna Dzerkal	Ukraine	2:27.09	NR
18	4	8	Stacey Tadd	Great Britain	2:27.18
19	5	7	Fanny Lecluyse	Belgium	2:27.30
20	5	2	Marina Garcia Urzainqui	Spain	2:27.57
21	3	5	Tera van Beilen	Canada	2:27.70
22	5	8	Chiara Boggiatto	Italy	2:27.74
23	3	8	Sara Nordenstam	Norway	2:27.90
24	4	3	Sun Ye	China	2:27.94
25	4	2	Nađa Higl	Serbia	2:28.38
26	2	6	Martina Moravčíková	Czech Republic	2:28.54
27	1	5	Alia Atkinson	Jamaica	2:28.77	NR
28	2	4	Hrafnhildur Lúthersdóttir	Iceland	2:29.60
29	1	4	Anna Sztankovics	Hungary	2:29.67
30	2	7	Dilara Buse Günaydin	Turkey	2:30.64
31	2	1	Sarra Lajnef	Tunisia	2:31.15
32	2	2	Jenna Laukkanen	Finland	2:31.23
33	2	3	Tanja Šmid	Slovenia	2:32.19
34	1	3	Dariya Talanova	Kyrgyzstan	2:38.01

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Rikke Pedersen	Denmark	2:22.23	Q, NR
2	1	Yuliya Yefimova	Russia	2:23.02	Q
3	5	Micah Lawrence	United States	2:23.39	Q
4	2	Sally Foster	Australia	2:24.46	Q
5	6	Back Su-Yeon	South Korea	2:24.67
6	3	Joline Höstman	Sweden	2:24.77
7	7	Kanako Watanabe	Japan	2:27.32
8	8	Tessa Wallace	Australia	2:27.38

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Rebecca Soni	United States	2:20.00	Q, WR
2	5	Satomi Suzuki	Japan	2:22.40	Q
3	2	Suzaan van Biljon	South Africa	2:23.21	Q, AF
4	1	Martha McCabe	Canada	2:24.09	Q
5	7	Sara El Bekri	Morocco	2:25.86	NR
6	3	Anastasia Chaun	Russia	2:26.08
7	6	Ji Liping	China	2:27.26
8	8	Jeong Da-Rae	South Korea	2:28.74

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Rebecca Soni	United States	2:19.59	WR
	3	Satomi Suzuki	Japan	2:20.72	=AS
	6	Yuliya Yefimova	Russia	2:20.92	EU
4	5	Rikke Pedersen	Denmark	2:21.65	NR
5	1	Martha McCabe	Canada	2:23.16
6	7	Micah Lawrence	United States	2:23.27
7	2	Suzaan van Biljon	South Africa	2:23.72
8	8	Sally Foster	Australia	2:26.00

References

^ "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 31 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
^ Auerbach, Nicole (2 August 2012). "Rebecca Soni sets world record in winning gold". USA Today. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "Rebecca Soni breaks 200 breast world record again, wins gold". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 3 August 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "Swimmers Irie, Suzuki add silver to Japan's medal count". The Japan Times. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "US swimmer Rebecca Soni sets another world record in the 200-meter breaststroke". Fox News. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ ^a ^b "2012 London Olympics: Rebecca Soni Clears 2:20 In Remarkable World Record Swim to Defend 200 Breast Title; Satomi Suzuki, Yuliya Efimova Round Out Podium; Micah Lawrence Sixth". Swimming World Magazine. 2 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "McCabe finishes fifth; Hayden fails to advance". The Vancouver Sun. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "Van Biljon falls short in final". Sport24. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "2012 London Olympics: USA's Rebecca Soni Throws Down World Record in 200 Breast Semis; Micah Lawrence Makes Finals". Swimming World Magazine. 1 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "Soni sets world record in 200 breast semifinals". Gillette News-Record. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "2012 London Olympics: Rebecca Soni Surges to Olympic Textile Best in 200 Breast; Micah Lawrence Fourth". Swimming World Magazine. 1 August 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "Pierse sets world breaststroke record". CBC Sports. 30 July 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "Canadian Pierse sets world swim record". CBC Sports. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
^ "Rebecca Soni breaks 200m breaststroke record". France 24. 15 August 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2013.
^ "Women's 200m Breaststroke – Heats". London2012.com. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

NBC Olympics Coverage

[Swimming_schedule-1] "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 31 July 2012. Archived from the original on 3 July 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2013.

[2] Auerbach, Nicole (2 August 2012). "Rebecca Soni sets world record in winning gold". USA Today. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[3] "Rebecca Soni breaks 200 breast world record again, wins gold". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 3 August 2012. Archived from the original on 11 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[4] "Swimmers Irie, Suzuki add silver to Japan's medal count". The Japan Times. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[5] "US swimmer Rebecca Soni sets another world record in the 200-meter breaststroke". Fox News. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[200breast-6] "2012 London Olympics: Rebecca Soni Clears 2:20 In Remarkable World Record Swim to Defend 200 Breast Title; Satomi Suzuki, Yuliya Efimova Round Out Podium; Micah Lawrence Sixth". Swimming World Magazine. 2 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[7] "McCabe finishes fifth; Hayden fails to advance". The Vancouver Sun. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[8] "Van Biljon falls short in final". Sport24. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[9] "2012 London Olympics: USA's Rebecca Soni Throws Down World Record in 200 Breast Semis; Micah Lawrence Makes Finals". Swimming World Magazine. 1 August 2012. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[10] "Soni sets world record in 200 breast semifinals". Gillette News-Record. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[11] "2012 London Olympics: Rebecca Soni Surges to Olympic Textile Best in 200 Breast; Micah Lawrence Fourth". Swimming World Magazine. 1 August 2012. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[12] "Pierse sets world breaststroke record". CBC Sports. 30 July 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[13] "Canadian Pierse sets world swim record". CBC Sports. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2013.

[14] "Rebecca Soni breaks 200m breaststroke record". France 24. 15 August 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2013.

[15] "Women's 200m Breaststroke – Heats". London2012.com. London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

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