Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre butterfly
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The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July and 1 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.[1]
Women's 200 metre butterfly at the Games of the XXX Olympiad | |||||||||||||
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Venue | London Aquatics Centre | ||||||||||||
Date | July 31, 2012 (heats & semifinals) August 1, 2012 (final) | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 28 from 21 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 2:04.06 OR | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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China's Jiao Liuyang stormed home on the final stretch to upgrade her silver from Beijing four years earlier with an Olympic title in the event. She produced a striking effort on the last lap to come from behind and demolish the field with a gold-medal time and a new Olympic record in 2:04.06, shaving 0.12 seconds off the standard set by teammate Liu Zige.[2][3] Meanwhile, Mireia Belmonte García made an Olympic milestone to become Spain's first ever female medalist and fourth overall in swimming, as she brought home the silver in 2:05.25, the ninth-fastest of all time.[4][5] Japan's Natsumi Hoshi added a sixth bronze to her swimming squad at these Games, in a sterling time of 2:05.48.[6][7]
Leading through the prelims and the semifinals, U.S. swimmer Kathleen Hersey finished off the podium with a fourth-place time in 2:05.78, a full second ahead of her teammate Cammile Adams (2:06.78).[8] Great Britain's Jemma Lowe (2:06.80), Hungary's Zsuzsanna Jakabos (2:07.33) and defending champion Liu Zige (2:07.77) rounded out the field.[7][9]
Notable swimmers missed the final roster featuring Australia's Jessicah Schipper, a former world record holder; and Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, a 2004 Olympic champion, both of whom placed thirteenth (2:08.21) and sixteenth (2:13.09) respectively in the semifinals.[10]