Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 18 and 19.<ref name="Swimming schedule">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

U.S. swimmer and world-record holder Amanda Beard completed a full set of medals in the event, adding a gold to her silver from Atlanta (1996) and bronze from Sydney (2000). She posted an Olympic record of 2:23.37, holding off Australia's Leisel Jones by 0.23 of a second for a silver medal in 2:23.60.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=200breast>Template:Cite news</ref> Anne Poleska, who had been seventh at the halfway mark, moved quickly into the field and finished strongly with a bronze in a personal best of 2:25.82, earning Germany's first individual medal of the meet since its reunification in 1990.<ref name=200breast/>

Hungary's Ágnes Kovács, the gold medalist from Sydney, finished outside the medals in fifth place behind Japan's Masami Tanaka with a time of 2:26.12.<ref name=200breast/>

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were: Template:World Olympic Record

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
19 August	Final	Amanda Beard	Template:FlagIOC	2:23.37	Template:OlyR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	4	Leisel Jones	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.02	Q
2	3	3	Anne Poleska	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.48	Q
3	5	4	Amanda Beard	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.61	Q
4	5	2	Ágnes Kovács	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.90	Q
5	4	3	Masami Tanaka	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.91	Q
6	4	5	Brooke Hanson	Template:FlagIOC	2:27.38	Q
7	3	5	Birte Steven	Template:FlagIOC	2:27.42	Q
8	5	6	Caroline Bruce	Template:FlagIOC	2:27.82	Q
9	3	4	Mirna Jukić	Template:FlagIOC	2:28.28	Q
10	5	5	Qi Hui	Template:FlagIOC	2:28.66	Q
11	4	6	Kirsty Balfour	Template:FlagIOC	2:29.78	Q
12	3	2	Chiara Boggiatto	Template:FlagIOC	2:30.32	Q
13	2	3	Marina Kuč	Template:FlagIOC	2:30.39	Q
14	4	2	Lauren van Oosten	Template:FlagIOC	2:30.44	Q
15	4	8	Inna Kapishina	Template:FlagIOC	2:31.26	Q
16	5	7	Elena Bogomazova	Template:FlagIOC	2:31.49	Q
17	4	1	Smiljana Marinović	Template:FlagIOC	2:32.52
18	4	7	Alenka Kejžar	Template:FlagIOC	2:32.64
19	2	5	Ilkay Dikmen	Template:FlagIOC	2:32.69
20	1	3	Jaclyn Pangilinan	Template:FlagIOC	2:33.38	NR
21	5	8	Siow Yi Ting	Template:FlagIOC	2:33.79
22	1	5	Eeva Saarinen	Template:FlagIOC	2:34.17
23	3	7	Diana Gomes	Template:FlagIOC	2:34.23
24	5	1	Lee Ji-young	Template:FlagIOC	2:34.55
25	2	7	Majken Thorup	Template:FlagIOC	2:35.29
26	2	6	Agustina de Giovanni	Template:FlagIOC	2:35.94
27	2	4	Adriana Marmolejo	Template:FlagIOC	2:36.10
28	2	2	Imaday Nuñez Gonzalez	Template:FlagIOC	2:36.40
29	3	8	Iryna Maystruk	Template:FlagIOC	2:37.42
30	1	4	Nicolette Teo	Template:FlagIOC	2:38.17
31	3	1	Athina Tzavella	Template:FlagIOC	2:40.18
Template:Hs	3	6	Diana Remenyi	Template:FlagIOC	Template:Abbr
Template:Hs	5	3	Luo Xuejuan	Template:FlagIOC	Template:Abbr

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Brooke Hanson	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.43	Q
2	4	Anne Poleska	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.59	Q
3	5	Ágnes Kovács	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.63	Q
4	2	Qi Hui	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.75	Q
5	6	Caroline Bruce	Template:FlagIOC	2:27.60
6	8	Elena Bogomazova	Template:FlagIOC	2:30.35
7	1	Lauren van Oosten	Template:FlagIOC	2:30.39
8	7	Chiara Boggiatto	Template:FlagIOC	2:30.76

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Amanda Beard	Template:FlagIOC	2:25.62	Q
2	3	Masami Tanaka	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.38	Q
3	4	Leisel Jones	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.71	Q
4	2	Mirna Jukić	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.95	Q
5	7	Kirsty Balfour	Template:FlagIOC	2:28.92
6	6	Birte Steven	Template:FlagIOC	2:29.22
7	1	Marina Kuč	Template:FlagIOC	2:31.77
Template:Hs	8	Inna Kapishina	Template:FlagIOC	Template:Abbr

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
Template:Gold01	4	Amanda Beard	Template:FlagIOC	2:23.37	Template:OlyR
Template:Silver02	7	Leisel Jones	Template:FlagIOC	2:23.60
Template:Bronze03	6	Anne Poleska	Template:FlagIOC	2:25.82
4	5	Masami Tanaka	Template:FlagIOC	2:25.87
5	2	Ágnes Kovács	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.12
6	1	Qi Hui	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.35
7	8	Mirna Jukić	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.36
8	3	Brooke Hanson	Template:FlagIOC	2:26.39

External links

• Official Olympic Report