The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 13–15 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 ...

. Germany's

Britta Steffen Britta Steffen (; born 16 November 1983) is a German competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle sprint events. Biography In 1999, Steffen won six titles at the European Junior Championships, and won a medal as a member of Germany's rel ...

blasted a new Olympic record to claim a gold medal in the event. Coming from eighth place in the turn, she posted a time of 53.12 to edge out Australia's world record holder and top favorite

Lisbeth Trickett Lisbeth Constance Trickett, OAM (; born 28 January 1985) is a retired Australian swimmer. She was a gold medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was the world record holder in the shor ...

by 0.04 of a second. Swimming in lane eight, Trickett earned a silver with an outside record time of 53.16. She narrowly reached the final as the eighth seed, when China's

Pang Jiaying Pang Jiaying (; born January 6, 1985, in Shanghai) is a female Chinese freestyle swimmer who competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Pang is one of the best Chinese women in middle and long-d ...

was disqualified for a false start in the semifinals. Meanwhile, 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 ...

powered home with a bronze in a matching American record of 53.39 for the second consecutive Olympics. It was Coughlin's fifth medal of these Games, matching her total from Athens four years earlier. Competing at her third straight Olympics with Steffen, Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppälä finished outside the medals in fourth place at 53.97. Earlier, she posted a top-seeded time of 53.60 from the sixth heat to lead the prelims. She was followed in fifth place by Denmark's

Jeanette Ottesen Jeanette Ottesen (born 30 December 1987) is a Danish competitive swimmer who participated at the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. In total she has won 50 international medals. Records She currently holds the Danish record in the ...

(54.06), and host nation China's

Zhu Yingwen Zhu Yingwen (; born September 9, 1981, in Shanghai) is a female Olympic medal-winning swimmer from the People's Republic of China, who competed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Along with Xu Yanwei, Yang Yu, and Pang Jiaying Pang Jiayi ...

, who shared a sixth-place tie with the Netherlands'

Marleen Veldhuis Magdalena Johanna Maria "Marleen" Veldhuis (born 29 June 1979) is a retired swimmer from the Netherlands. She was world record holder in four events (one individual event and three relay events). Veldhuis won eight world championships gold medals ...

in 54.21. Great Britain's

Francesca Halsall Francesca Jean Halsall (born 12 April 1990) is a retired English competitive swimmer who has represented Great Britain at the Olympics, FINA world championships, and European championships, and England at the Commonwealth Games. She competed ...

(54.29) 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. * Olympic record split from the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

Results

Heats

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Note: Lisbeth Trickett advanced to the final only when Chinese swimmer Pang Jiaying, who had finished first in the semifinals, was disqualified for a false start.

Final

References

External links

Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's 100 Metre Freestyle Women's freestyle 100 metre 2008 in women's swimming Women's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics