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

Women's 200 metre backstroke at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad
Venue	Sydney International Aquatic Centre
Date	September 21, 2000 (heats & semifinals) September 22, 2000 (final)
Competitors	36 from 29 nations
Winning time	2:08.16
Medalists
Diana Mocanu   Romania   Roxana Maracineanu   France   Miki Nakao   Japan

Swimming events at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men		women
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women

The women's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 21–22 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.^[1]

Diana Mocanu emerged as a newcomer on the international swimming, after effortlessly winning her second gold at these Games. She maintained a lead from start to finish, and posted a new Romanian record of 2:08.16, the third-fastest of all time, making her the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to strike a backstroke double, since Ulrike Richter did so in 1976, Rica Reinisch in 1980, and Krisztina Egerszegi, the three-time champion in the event, in 1992.^[2][3] France's world champion Roxana Maracineanu, born with Romanian heritage, seized off an early lead on the first length, but fell short only for the silver in 2:10.25. Japan's Miki Nakao powered home with the bronze in 2:11.05 to hold off her fast-pacing teammate Tomoko Hagiwara (2:11.21) by 16-hundredths of a second.^[4][5][6]

U.S. swimmer Amanda Adkins improved a lifetime best of 2:12.35 to move herself up from seventh to fifth spot on the final half, finishing ahead of Spain's Nina Zhivanevskaya (2:12.75), the bronze medalist in the 100 m backstroke five days earlier, by four-tenths of a second (0.40). Meanwhile, Germany's Antje Buschschulte (2:13.31) and Canada's Kelly Stefanyshyn (2:14.57) rounded out the finale.^[6]

Records

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

World record	Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN)	2:06.62	Athens, Greece	25 August 1991	[7]
Olympic record	Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN)	2:07.06	Barcelona, Spain	31 July 1992	[7]

No new records were set during this competition.

Results

Heats

^[7]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	5	Diana Mocanu	Romania	2:09.21	Q, NR
2	5	3	Roxana Maracineanu	France	2:11.01	Q, NR
3	5	4	Nina Zhivanevskaya	Spain	2:11.60	Q
4	4	4	Miki Nakao	Japan	2:11.69	Q
5	3	4	Tomoko Hagiwara	Japan	2:12.15	Q
6	4	6	Lindsay Benko	United States	2:12.72	Q
7	4	3	Joanna Fargus	Great Britain	2:12.99	Q
8	5	5	Antje Buschschulte	Germany	2:13.42	Q
9	5	6	Amanda Adkins	United States	2:13.54	Q
10	5	7	Louise Ørnstedt	Denmark	2:13.61	Q, NR
11	3	3	Cathleen Rund	Germany	2:13.87	Q
12	4	5	Helen Don-Duncan	Great Britain	2:14.18	Q
13	3	6	Kelly Stefanyshyn	Canada	2:14.28	Q
14	3	2	Clementine Stoney	Australia	2:14.61	Q
15	3	7	Ivette María	Spain	2:14.78	Q
16	3	1	Charlene Wittstock	South Africa	2:15.10	Q
17	2	2	Nadiya Beshevli	Ukraine	2:15.86	NR
18	4	7	Zhan Shu	China	2:15.97
19	4	1	Irina Raevskaya	Russia	2:16.13
20	4	8	Helen Norfolk	New Zealand	2:16.22
21	2	4	Anu Koivisto	Finland	2:16.23
22	5	8	Yseult Gervy	Belgium	2:16.67
23	5	1	Aleksandra Miciul	Poland	2:16.71
24	4	2	Dyana Calub	Australia	2:17.05
25	2	5	Aikaterini Bliamou	Greece	2:18.07
26	2	3	Ana Maria Gonzalez	Cuba	2:19.35
27	2	8	Jana Korbasová	Slovakia	2:19.37	NR
28	2	6	Annamária Kiss	Hungary	2:20.40
29	2	7	Şadan Derya Erke	Turkey	2:21.28
30	2	1	Chonlathorn Vorathamrong	Thailand	2:21.59
31	1	5	Marica Stražmešter	Yugoslavia	2:22.59
32	1	3	Kolbrún Yr Kristjánsdóttir	Iceland	2:24.33
33	1	6	Kuan Chia-hsien	Chinese Taipei	2:24.61
34	1	4	Petra Banović	Croatia	2:25.42
35	3	8	Choi Soo-min	South Korea	2:26.42
036	5	2	Yuliya Fomenko	Russia	DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Roxana Maracineanu	France	2:11.93	Q
2	5	Miki Nakao	Japan	2:12.49	Q
3	6	Antje Buschschulte	Germany	2:12.64	Q
4	3	Lindsay Benko	United States	2:13.73
5	7	Louise Ørnstedt	Denmark	2:14.24
6	1	Clementine Stoney	Australia	2:14.25
7	8	Charlene Wittstock	South Africa	2:14.95
8	2	Helen Don-Duncan	Great Britain	2:14.97

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Diana Mocanu	Romania	2:09.64	Q
2	3	Tomoko Hagiwara	Japan	2:11.02	Q
3	5	Nina Zhivanevskaya	Spain	2:11.93	Q
4	2	Amanda Adkins	United States	2:12.97	Q
5	1	Kelly Stefanyshyn	Canada	2:13.39	Q
6	6	Joanna Fargus	Great Britain	2:13.57
7	7	Cathleen Rund	Germany	2:13.85
8	8	Ivette María	Spain	2:15.11

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Diana Mocanu	Romania	2:08.16	NR
	3	Roxana Maracineanu	France	2:10.25	NR
	2	Miki Nakao	Japan	2:11.05
4	5	Tomoko Hagiwara	Japan	2:11.21
5	1	Amanda Adkins	United States	2:12.35
6	6	Nina Zhivanevskaya	Spain	2:12.75
7	7	Antje Buschschulte	Germany	2:13.31
8	8	Kelly Stefanyshyn	Canada	2:14.57

References

1. "Swimming schedule". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 September 2000. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
2. Harris, Beth (22 September 2000). "Bennett Wins Gold in 800m Freestyle". ABC News. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
3. Berlin, Peter (23 September 2000). "Tie in 50-Meter Freestyle Is Only the 2nd in the History of the Games : Ervin and Hall Strike Gold Together". New York Times. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
4. "Mocanu takes double". ABC News Australia. 22 September 2000. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
5. "Mocanu wins women's 200m Olympic backstroke gold". Sports Illustrated (CNN). 22 September 2000. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
6. Whitten, Phillip (22 September 2000). "Olympic Day 7 Finals (50 Free, 800 Free, 200 Back, 100 Fly)". Swimming World Magazine. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
7. "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Women's 200m Backstroke Heats" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. pp. 302–303. Retrieved 18 June 2013.

External links

• Official Olympic Report