The women's

marathon swimming Marathon swimming is a class of open water swimming defined by long distances (at least ) and traditional rules based in English Channel swimming. Unlike marathon foot-races which have a specifically defined distance, ''marathon swims'' vary in ...

over a distance of 10 kilometres at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

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took place on 15 August at

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Summary

Sharon van Rouwendaal Sharon van Rouwendaal (born 9 September 1993) is a Dutch swimmer and the Olympic gold medalist in the 10 km open water marathon at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She grew up in Soest, and later moved to France with her parents. In 2009 ...

of Netherlands won the gold medal,

Rachele Bruni Rachele Bruni (born 4 November 1990) is an Italian swimmer, specialising in open water long-distance races. She won the silver medal in the 10 km marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. She competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in 10 km open ...

of Italy was runner-up, and

Poliana Okimoto Poliana Okimoto (born March 8, 1983) is a Brazilian long-distance swimmer. Career She was at the 2002 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) in Moscow, where she finished 18th in the 800-metre freestyle. She won the Travessia dos Fortes in 20 ...

of Brazil finished third. The original silver medalist was Aurelie Muller of France, who managed to overcome Bruni in the last second of the race. However, a video replay showed Muller forcibly holding Bruni down with her right arm while trying to touch the finishing board, thus being disqualified from the race.

Qualification

The women's 10 km open water marathon at the 2016 Olympics featured a field of 26 swimmers: *10: the top-10 finishers in the 10 km races at the 2015 World Championships *9: the top-9 finishers at the 2016 Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier (June 11–12, 2016 in Setúbal, Portugal) *5: one representative from each FINA continent (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania). (These have been selected based on the finishes at the qualifying race in Setúbal.) *1: from the host nation (Brazil) if not qualified by other means. If Brazil already contained a qualifier in the race, this spot had been allocated back into the general pool from the 2016 Olympic qualifier race.

Competition format

Unlike all of the other swimming events in the pool, the men's and women's marathon 10 kilometre races are held in open water. No preliminary heats are held, with only the single mass-start race being contested. This race is held using

freestyle swimming Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most commo ...

, with a lack of stroke regulations.

Results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics - Women's marathon 10 kilometre Women's 10000 metre marathon

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

2016 in women's swimming Women's events at the 2016 Summer Olympics