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


The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19–20 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
U.S. swimmer Misty Hyman stunned Australia's defending champion Susie O'Neill to claim the Olympic title in front of a raucous home crowd. Seen as almost a lock victory for O'Neill, Hyman seized off a powerful lead and held a full body length over the champion at the 150-metre turn to maintain her relentless pace and touch the wall first in one of the oldest Olympic records in the book. She improved a sterling lifetime best of 2:05.88 to erase Mary T. Meagher's 1984 record by 1.02 seconds, but her time was just a 0.07-margin closer to O'Neill's world record. In a signature race, O'Neill ended up with only a silver in 2:06.58, adding it to her gold from Atlanta in 1996 and bronze from Barcelona in 1992. Meanwhile, Petria Thomas took home the bronze in 2:07.12, handing the entire medal lock for the Aussies with a two–three finish.
Danish star Mette Jacobsen, competing in her fourth Olympics, finished off the podium by over a second in 2:08.24, while Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak posted a fifth-place time of 2:08.48. Racing next to her teammate Hyman in lane seven, Kaitlin Sandeno picked up a sixth spot with a time of 2:08.81. Japanese duo Yuko Nakanishi and Maki Mita closed out the field.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
20 SeptemberFinalMisty Hyman2:05.88

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
135Misty Hyman2:07.87Q
254Susie O'Neill2:07.97Q
344Petria Thomas2:08.70Q
345Otylia Jędrzejczak2:08.70Q
534Mette Jacobsen2:09.30Q
655Maki Mita2:09.85Q
753Kaitlin Sandeno2:09.92Q
833Yuko Nakanishi2:10.22Q
923Cécile Jeanson2:10.78Q, NR
1056Mireia García2:10.96Q
1132Georgina Lee2:11.09Q
1242Éva Risztov2:11.32Q
1352Sophia Skou2:11.35Q
1447Mandy Loots2:11.38Q, AF
1546Margaretha Pedder2:11.59Q
1638Elizabeth van Welie2:11.62Q, NR
1737Jen Button2:11.74
1831Yekaterina Vinogradova2:11.94
1941Liu Limin2:12.32
2021Mirjana Boševska2:12.59NR
2151Liu Yin2:12.79
2243Jessica Deglau2:12.86
2324Petra Zahrl2:13.29NR
2425Zhanna Lozumyrska2:14.47
2557María Peláez2:14.66
2658Anna Uryniuk2:14.87
2726Raquel Felgueiras2:15.19
2836Franziska van Almsick2:15.68
2948Hsieh Shu-tzu2:16.23
3027Natalia Roubina2:17.01
3122Zampia Melachroinou2:17.60
3228Christel Bouvron2:17.62
3313Chan Wing Suet2:19.86
3415Tinka Dančević2:21.02
3514Ana Carolina Aguilera2:21.23
3616Hana Majaj2:31.78

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

* Also an American record.