The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the

Beijing National Aquatics Center The National Aquatics Centre (), and colloquially known as the Water Cube () and the Ice Cube (), is an aquatics center at the Olympic Green in Beijing, China. The facility was originally constructed to host the aquatics competitions at the ...

Beijing, China } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. Australia's

Stephanie Rice Stephanie Louise Rice, OAM (born 17 June 1988) is an Australian former competitive swimmer. She won three gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2009. On 9 April 2 ...

became the third swimmer in Olympic history to strike a medley double, since

Michelle Smith Michelle Smith de Bruin (born 16 December 1969 in Rathcoole) is an Irish lawyer and retired Olympic swimmer. She won three gold medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, for the 400 m individual medley, 400 m freestyle and 20 ...

did so in 1996 and

Yana Klochkova Yana Oleksandrivna Klochkova ( uk, Яна Олександрівна Клочкова; born 7 August 1982) is a Ukrainian swimmer, who has won five Olympic medals in her career, with four of them being gold. She is Merited Master of Sports (19 ...

in 2000 and 2004. She established a sterling time of 2:08.45 to lower her world record from the Olympic trials by almost half a second (0.50). Zimbabwe's

Kirsty Coventry Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (born 16 September 1983) is a Zimbabwean swimmer and politician currently serving as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe since September 2018. A former Olympic swimmer and wo ...

added a third silver to her collection, finishing with an African record of 2:08.59. U.S. swimmer

Natalie Coughlin Natalie Anne Coughlin Hall (born August 23, 1982) is an American former competition swimmer and twelve-time Olympic medalist. While attending the University of California, Berkeley, she became the first woman ever to swim the 100-meter backstro ...

, who held the lead on the backstroke leg, picked up a bronze medal in 2:10.34. Completing the second half of a difficult double, American

Katie Hoff Kathryn Elise Hoff (born June 3, 1989) is a former American competitive swimmer, she is an Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. Hoff was known for her success in the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley. She represented the Un ...

produced the same result from the 200 m freestyle, as she finished again in fourth place with a time of 2:10.68. Australia's Alicia Coutts placed fifth in 2:11.43, while Japan's

Asami Kitagawa (born October 3, 1987) is a Japanese Olympic and Nation Record holding swimmer. She swam for Japan at the 2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an ...

swam the outside lane to finish the race in sixth place at 2:11.56. On the strength of the breaststroke leg, Kitagawa won a swimoff for the last slot in the top 8 final over Hungary's

Evelyn Verrasztó Evelyn Verrasztó (born 17 July 1989) is a Hungarian Swimming (sport), swimmer, who competed for her native country at the Summer Olympics in Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004, Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008, Swimming at the ...

. Canada's Julia Wilkinson (2:12.43) and Poland's Katarzyna Baranowska (2:13.36) closed out the field. Earlier in the semifinals, Coventry established an Olympic standard of 2:09.53 to cut off

's eight-year record by a 1.15-second deficit.

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.

Results

Heats

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Swimoff

Final

References

External links

Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's 200 Metre Individual Medley Women's individual medley 200 metre 2008 in women's swimming Women's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics