The women's 200 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 19 and 20.[1]
| Women's 200 metre backstroke at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre | ||||||||||||||||
| Date | August 19, 2004 (heats & semifinals) August 20, 2004 (final) | ||||||||||||||||
| Competitors | 35 from 27 nations | ||||||||||||||||
| Winning time | 2:09.19 AF | ||||||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry added gold to her silver and bronze medals by a storming victory in this event, breaking an African record time of 2:09.19. Russia's Stanislava Komarova took home the silver at 2:09.72, while Japan's Reiko Nakamura and Germany's Antje Buschschulte shared their triumph for the bronze medal, in a joint time of 2:09.88.[2] British swimmer and world champion Katy Sexton, on the other hand, finished outside the medals in seventh place, with a time of 2:12.11. Since Zimbabwe made its official debut in 1980, Coventry also became the nation's first athlete in its history to claim an individual Olympic medal.[3]
Records
editPrior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record |  Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) | 2:06.62 | Athens, Greece | 25 August 1991 |
| Olympic record |  Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) | 2:07.06 | Barcelona, Spain | 31 July 1992 |
Results
editHeats
edit
Semifinals
editSemifinal 1
edit| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Reiko Nakamura |  Japan | 2:10.14 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Margaret Hoelzer |  United States | 2:11.68 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Aya Terakawa | Japan | 2:12.21 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Katy Sexton |  Great Britain | 2:12.62 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Jennifer Fratesi |  Canada | 2:12.64 | |
| 6 | 8 | Sanja Jovanović |  Croatia | 2:13.76 | |
| 7 | 7 | Evelyn Verrasztó | Hungary | 2:13.98 | |
| 8 | 1 | Iryna Amshennikova |  Ukraine | 2:14.83 |
Semifinal 2
edit| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Stanislava Komarova |  Russia | 2:09.62 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Kirsty Coventry |  Zimbabwe | 2:10.04 | Q, AF |
| 3 | 3 | Antje Buschschulte |  Germany | 2:10.66 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Louise Ørnstedt |  Denmark | 2:11.77 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Hannah McLean |  New Zealand | 2:12.87 | |
| 6 | 1 | Nicole Hetzer | Germany | 2:13.01 | |
| 7 | 7 | Melissa Morgan |  Australia | 2:13.34 | |
| 8 | 8 | Frances Adcock | Australia | 2:15.69 |
Final
edit| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 5 | Kirsty Coventry | Zimbabwe | 2:09.19 | AF |
 | 4 | Stanislava Komarova | Russia | 2:09.72 | |
 | 3 | Reiko Nakamura | Japan | 2:09.88 | |
| 6 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany | |||
| 5 | 2 | Margaret Hoelzer | United States | 2:10.70 | |
| 6 | 7 | Louise Ørnstedt | Denmark | 2:11.15 | |
| 7 | 8 | Katy Sexton | Great Britain | 2:12.11 | |
| 8 | 1 | Aya Terakawa | Japan | 2:12.90 |
References
edit- ^ "Swimming schedule". BBC Sport. 5 August 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
- ^ "Coventry takes backstroke". BBC Sport. 20 August 2004. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ "Zimbabwe puts aside racial tensions to give hero's welcome to triple medal winner". USA Today. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 21 March 2013.