# Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre butterfly

The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19–20 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
U.S. swimmer Misty Hyman stunned Australia's defending champion Susie O'Neill to claim the Olympic title in front of a raucous home crowd. Seen as almost a lock victory for O'Neill, Hyman seized off a powerful lead and held a full body length over the champion at the 150-metre turn to maintain her relentless pace and touch the wall first in one of the oldest Olympic records in the book. She improved a sterling lifetime best of 2:05.88 to erase Mary T. Meagher's 1984 record by 1.02 seconds, but her time was just a 0.07-margin closer to O'Neill's world record. In a signature race, O'Neill ended up with only a silver in 2:06.58, adding it to her gold from Atlanta in 1996 and bronze from Barcelona in 1992. Meanwhile, Petria Thomas took home the bronze in 2:07.12, handing the entire medal lock for the Aussies with a two–three finish.
Danish star Mette Jacobsen, competing in her fourth Olympics, finished off the podium by over a second in 2:08.24, while Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak posted a fifth-place time of 2:08.48. Racing next to her teammate Hyman in lane seven, Kaitlin Sandeno picked up a sixth spot with a time of 2:08.81. Japanese duo Yuko Nakanishi (2:09.66) and Maki Mita (2:10.72) closed out the field.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Susie O'Neill (AUS) | 2:05.81 | Sydney, Australia | 17 May 2000 |
| Olympic record | Mary T. Meagher (USA) | 2:06.90 | Los Angeles, United States | 4 August 1984 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 20 September | Final | Misty Hyman | United States | 2:05.88 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 5 | Misty Hyman | United States | 2:07.87 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | Susie O'Neill | Australia | 2:07.97 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | Petria Thomas | Australia | 2:08.70 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 2:08.70 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | Mette Jacobsen | Denmark | 2:09.30 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 5 | Maki Mita | Japan | 2:09.85 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | Kaitlin Sandeno | United States | 2:09.92 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 3 | Yuko Nakanishi | Japan | 2:10.22 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 3 | Cécile Jeanson | France | 2:10.78 | Q, NR |
| 10 | 5 | 6 | Mireia García | Spain | 2:10.96 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 2 | Georgina Lee | Great Britain | 2:11.09 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 2 | Éva Risztov | Hungary | 2:11.32 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 2 | Sophia Skou | Denmark | 2:11.35 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 7 | Mandy Loots | South Africa | 2:11.38 | Q, AF |
| 15 | 4 | 6 | Margaretha Pedder | Great Britain | 2:11.59 | Q |
| 16 | 3 | 8 | Elizabeth van Welie | New Zealand | 2:11.62 | Q, NR |
| 17 | 3 | 7 | Jen Button | Canada | 2:11.74 | |
| 18 | 3 | 1 | Yekaterina Vinogradova | Russia | 2:11.94 | |
| 19 | 4 | 1 | Liu Limin | China | 2:12.32 | |
| 20 | 2 | 1 | Mirjana Boševska | Macedonia | 2:12.59 | NR |
| 21 | 5 | 1 | Liu Yin | China | 2:12.79 | |
| 22 | 4 | 3 | Jessica Deglau | Canada | 2:12.86 | |
| 23 | 2 | 4 | Petra Zahrl | Austria | 2:13.29 | NR |
| 24 | 2 | 5 | Zhanna Lozumyrska | Ukraine | 2:14.47 | |
| 25 | 5 | 7 | María Peláez | Spain | 2:14.66 | |
| 26 | 5 | 8 | Anna Uryniuk | Poland | 2:14.87 | |
| 27 | 2 | 6 | Raquel Felgueiras | Portugal | 2:15.19 | |
| 28 | 3 | 6 | Franziska van Almsick | Germany | 2:15.68 | |
| 29 | 4 | 8 | Hsieh Shu-tzu | Chinese Taipei | 2:16.23 | |
| 30 | 2 | 7 | Natalia Roubina | Cyprus | 2:17.01 | |
| 31 | 2 | 2 | Zampia Melachroinou | Greece | 2:17.60 | |
| 32 | 2 | 8 | Christel Bouvron | Singapore | 2:17.62 | |
| 33 | 1 | 3 | Chan Wing Suet | Hong Kong | 2:19.86 | |
| 34 | 1 | 5 | Tinka Dančević | Croatia | 2:21.02 | |
| 35 | 1 | 4 | Ana Carolina Aguilera | Argentina | 2:21.23 | |
| 36 | 1 | 6 | Hana Majaj | Jordan | 2:31.78 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Susie O'Neill | Australia | 2:07.57 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Petria Thomas | Australia | 2:07.63 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Maki Mita | Japan | 2:09.88 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Yuko Nakanishi | Japan | 2:09.89 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Mireia García | Spain | 2:10.24 | |
| 6 | 1 | Mandy Loots | South Africa | 2:10.58 | AF |
| 7 | 8 | Elizabeth van Welie | New Zealand | 2:11.68 | |
| 8 | 7 | Éva Risztov | Hungary | 2:11.83 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 2:07.81 | Q, EU |
| 2 | 4 | Misty Hyman | United States | 2:07.96 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Mette Jacobsen | Denmark | 2:08.11 | Q, NR |
| 4 | 6 | Kaitlin Sandeno | United States | 2:09.40 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Georgina Lee | Great Britain | 2:10.33 | NR |
| 6 | 8 | Margaretha Pedder | Great Britain | 2:10.49 | |
| 7 | 2 | Cécile Jeanson | France | 2:10.78 | =NR |
| 8 | 1 | Sophia Skou | Denmark | 2:11.07 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 6 | Misty Hyman | United States | 2:05.88 | OR* |
| | 4 | Susie O'Neill | Australia | 2:06.58 | |
| | 5 | Petria Thomas | Australia | 2:07.12 | |
| 4 | 2 | Mette Jacobsen | Denmark | 2:08.24 | |
| 5 | 3 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 2:08.48 | |
| 6 | 7 | Kaitlin Sandeno | United States | 2:08.81 | |
| 7 | 8 | Yuko Nakanishi | Japan | 2:09.66 | |
| 8 | 1 | Maki Mita | Japan | 2:10.72 | |
* Also an American record.