Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre freestyle
Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 2 Bronte Barratt Australia 1:56.08 Q
2 4 Allison Schmitt United States 1:56.15 Q
3 7 Camille Muffat France 1:56.18 Q
4 5 Veronika Popova Russia 1:56.84 Q , NR
5 3 Barbara Jardin Canada 1:57.91
6 6 Sarah Sjöström Sweden 1:58.12
7 8 Sara Isaković Slovenia 1:58.47
8 1 Wang Shijia China 1:58.63
Results -- Semifinals
The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 30-31 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom. U.S. swimmer Allison Schmitt blasted a new Olympic record with a stunning effort to capture the gold medal in the event for the first time, since Nicole Haislett topped the podium in 1992. She pulled away from a tightly-packed field on the final lap to hit the wall first in a sterling time of 1:53.61, shaving 1.21 seconds off the record set by Italy's Federica Pellegrini from Beijing in 2008. After defeating Schmitt in a close duel to grab the 400 m freestyle title two days earlier, France's Camille Muffat trailed behind her rival by almost a body length for the silver in 1:55.58. Meanwhile, Australia's Bronte Barratt produced a striking touch to take home the bronze in 1:55.81, edging out American teenage star Missy Franklin by a hundredth of a second. Franklin missed a chance to add her third career medal with a fourth-place time in 1:55.82, while Pellegrini, the defending Olympic champion, dropped off the podium to fifth in 1:56.73. Russia's Veronika Popova (1:57.25), Great Britain's home favorite Caitlin McClatchey (1:57.60) and Barratt's teammate Kylie Palmer (1:57.68) closed out the field. Notable swimmers failed to reach the top-eight final roster including Slovenia's Sara Isaković, the defending silver medalist, who placed fourteenth (1:58.47) in the semifinals; and Romania's Camelia Potec, a four-time Olympian and 2004 Olympic champion, who posted a twenty-fifth place time (2:01.15) on the morning prelims.