Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre backstroke
Template:Short description Template:Infobox Olympic event Template:Sidebar games events
The women's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 15 and 16.<ref name="Swimming schedule">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin won the gold medal in this event, outside the record time of 1:00.37. The silver medal was awarded to Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, who finished behind Coughlin by 0.13 of a second, breaking an African record of 1:00.50. France's Laure Manaudou, who won the gold in the 400 m freestyle on the previous day, took home the bronze medal, with a time of 1:00.88.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In the semifinals, Coughlin lowered an Olympic record time of 1:00.21, set by Romania's Diana Mocanu in Sydney (2000), to 1:00.17.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 15 | Semifinal 2 | Natalie Coughlin | Template:FlagIOC | 1:00.17 | Template:OlyR |
Results
Heats
Semifinals
Semifinal 1
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Antje Buschschulte | Template:FlagIOC | 1:00.94 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Kirsty Coventry | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.21 | Q, AF |
| 3 | 4 | Reiko Nakamura | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.24 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Giaan Rooney | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.41 | OC |
| 5 | 6 | Stanislava Komarova | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.63 | |
| 6 | 7 | Katy Sexton | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.96 | |
| 7 | 8 | Zhan Shu | Template:FlagIOC | 1:02.10 | |
| 8 | 1 | Sarah Price | Template:FlagIOC | 1:02.48 |
Semifinal 2
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Natalie Coughlin | Template:FlagIOC | 1:00.17 | Q, Template:OlyR |
| 2 | 4 | Laure Manaudou | Template:FlagIOC | 1:00.88 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Louise Ørnstedt | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.12 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Haley Cope | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.13 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Nina Zhivanevskaya | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.19 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | Noriko Inada | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.74 | |
| 7 | 2 | Ilona Hlaváčková | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.81 | |
| 8 | 8 | Gao Chang | Template:FlagIOC | 1:02.17 |
Final
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Gold01 | 4 | Natalie Coughlin | Template:FlagIOC | 1:00.37 | |
| Template:Silver02 | 1 | Kirsty Coventry | Template:FlagIOC | 1:00.50 | AF |
| Template:Bronze03 | 5 | Laure Manaudou | Template:FlagIOC | 1:00.88 | |
| 4 | 8 | Reiko Nakamura | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.05 | |
| 5 | 7 | Nina Zhivanevskaya | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.12 | |
| 6 | 3 | Antje Buschschulte | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.39 | |
| 7 | 6 | Louise Ørnstedt | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.51 | |
| 8 | 2 | Haley Cope | Template:FlagIOC | 1:01.76 |