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

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
Rebecca Soni   United States   Satomi Suzuki   Japan   Yuliya Yefimova   Russia

Swimming at the 2012 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
Marathon
10 km		men		women

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 1–2 August 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 Luthersdóttir	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

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 31 July 2012. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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". London 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage