# Swimming at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 100 metre backstroke

The Women's 100m Backstroke event at the 10th FINA World Aquatics Championships swam on 21–22 July 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. Preliminary heats swam during the morning session on July 21, with the top-16 finishers advancing to Semifinals that evening. The top-8 finishers then advanced to swim again in the Final the next evening.
At the start of the event, the World (WR) and Championship (CR) records were:
* WR: 59.58 swum by Natalie Coughlin (USA) on August 13, 2002 in Fort Lauderdale, USA.
* CR: 1:00.16 swum by Cihong He (China) on September 10, 1994 in Rome, Italy

## Results
### Final

| Place | Swimmer | Nation | Time |
| 1 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany | 1:00.50 |
| 2 | Louise Ørnstedt | Denmark | 1:00.86 |
| 2 | Katy Sexton | Great Britain | 1:00.86 |
| 4 | Nina Zhivanevskaya | Spain | 1:01.18 |
| 5 | Stanislava Komarova | Russia | 1:01.36 |
| 6 | Iryna Amshennikova | Ukraine | 1:01.43 |
| 7 | Mai Nakamura | Japan | 1:01.51 |
| 8 | Sarah Price | Great Britain | 1:01.63 |

### Seminfinals

| Rank | Heat + Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | S2 L4 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany | 1:00.61 | q |
| 2 | S2 L5 | Nina Zhivanevskaya | Spain | 1:00.74 | q |
| 3 | S1 L3 | Katy Sexton | Great Britain | 1:01.32 | q |
| 4 | S2 L6 | Iryna Amshennikova | Ukraine | 1:01.39 | q |
| 5 | S1 L5 | Stanislava Komarova | Russia | 1:01.42 | q |
| 6 | S1 L4 | Mai Nakamura | Japan | 1:01.47 | q |
| 7 | S1 L2 | Louise Ørnstedt | Denmark | 1:01.59 | q |
| 8 | S2 L2 | Sarah Price | Great Britain | 1:01.61 | q |
| 9 | S2 L3 | Reiko Nakamura | Japan | 1:01.64 | |
| 10 | S2 L1 | Shu Zhan | China | 1:01.78 | |
| 11 | S1 L7 | Laure Manaudou | France | 1:02.42 | |
| 12 | S1 L8 | Sanja Jovanović | Croatia | 1:02.47 | |
| 12 | S1 L6 | Hannah McLean | New Zealand | 1:02.47 | |
| 14 | S2 L7 | Ilona Hlaváčková | Czech Republic | 1:02.80 | |
| 15 | S2 L8 | Jennifer Carroll | Canada | 1:03.08 | |
| 16 | S1 L1 | Xiujun Chen | China | 1:03.19 | |

### Prelims

| Rank | Heat+Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | H6 L5 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany | 1:01.16 | q |
| 2 | H7 L3 | Mai Nakamura | Japan | 1:01.18 | q |
| 2 | H8 L5 | Nina Zhivanevskaya | Spain | 1:01.18 | q |
| 4 | H6 L3 | Stanislava Komarova | Russia | 1:01.44 | q |
| 5 | H6 L6 | Reiko Nakamura | Japan | 1:01.57 | q |
| 6 | H7 L4 | Katy Sexton | Great Britain | 1:01.78 | q |
| 7 | H6 L1 | Iryna Amshennikova | Ukraine | 1:01.90 | q |
| 8 | H6 L7 | Hannah McLean | New Zealand | 1:02.15 | q |
| 9 | H6 L4 | Sarah Price | Great Britain | 1:02.21 | q |
| 10 | H7 L5 | Louise Ørnstedt | Denmark | 1:02.23 | q |
| 11 | H7 L8 | Ilona Hlaváčková | Czech Republic | 1:02.43 | q |
| 12 | H7 L6 | Laure Manaudou | France | 1:02.61 | q |
| 12 | H8 L6 | Shu Zhan | China | 1:02.61 | q |
| 14 | H6 L2 | Xiujun Chen | China | 1:02.69 | q |
| 15 | H7 L1 | Jennifer Carroll | Canada | 1:02.71 | q |
| 16 | H8 L7 | Sanja Jovanović | Croatia | 1:02.72 | q |
| 17 | H1 L2 | Min Ji Shim | South Korea | 1:02.87 | |
| 18 | H7 L2 | Erin Gammel | Canada | 1:02.93 | |
| 19 | H8 L2 | Kirsty Coventry | Zimbabwe | 1:03.09 | |
| 20 | H8 L1 | Alessandra Cappa | Italy | 1:03.13 | |
| 21 | H5 L6 | Hanna-Maria Seppälä | Finland | 1:03.16 | |
| 22 | H8 L4 | Natalie Coughlin | United States | 1:03.18 | |
| 23 | H7 L7 | Giaan Rooney | Australia | 1:03.30 | |
| 24 | H6 L8 | Hinkelien Schreuder | Netherlands | 1:03.40 | |
| 25 | H8 L3 | Haley Cope | United States | 1:03.45 | |
| 26 | H8 L8 | Melissa Morgan | Australia | 1:03.52 | |
| 27 | H5 L5 | Sherry Tsai | Hong Kong | 1:03.93 | |
| 28 | H5 L3 | Eirini Karastergiou | Greece | 1:04.14 | |
| 29 | H5 L4 | Anna Gostomelsky | Israel | 1:04.94 | |
| 30 | H5 L7 | Dominique Diezi | Switzerland | 1:05.30 | |
| 31 | H5 L2 | Chonlathorn Vorathamrong | Thailand | 1:05.34 | |
| 32 | H5 L1 | Derya Erke | Turkey | 1:05.36 | |
| 33 | H4 L3 | Serrana Fernández | Uruguay | 1:05.51 | |
| 34 | H3 L6 | Anja Rikey Jakobsdóttir | Iceland | 1:05.80 | |
| 35 | H4 L1 | Kiera Aitken | Bermuda | 1:06.07 | |
| 36 | H5 L8 | Susannah Moonan | Sweden | 1:06.27 | |
| 37 | H4 L4 | Talita Ribeiro | Brazil | 1:06.28 | |
| 38 | H4 L5 | Marie-Lizza Toinette Danila | Philippines | 1:06.83 | |
| 39 | H1 L3 | Berit Aljand | Estonia | 1:06.86 | |
| 39 | H4 L6 | Edith Van der Schilden | Luxembourg | 1:06.86 | |
| 41 | H3 L5 | Shikha Tandon | India | 1:07.82 | |
| 42 | H4 L2 | Danijela Djikanovic | FR Yugoslavia | 1:07.96 | |
| 43 | H3 L4 | Agnese Ozolina | Latvia | 1:07.97 | |
| 44 | H4 L7 | Saida Iskandarova | Uzbekistan | 1:08.50 | |
| 45 | H3 L7 | Ayeisha Collymore | Trinidad and Tobago | 1:08.79 | |
| 46 | H4 L8 | Marianella Marin | Costa Rica | 1:09.32 | |
| 47 | H3 L2 | Khadija Ciss | Senegal | 1:09.64 | |
| 48 | H3 L3 | Valeria Silva | Peru | 1:09.83 | |
| 49 | H3 L1 | Susan Anchia | Costa Rica | 1:11.84 | |
| 50 | H2 L4 | Olga Gnedovskaya | Uzbekistan | 1:13.49 | |
| 51 | H2 L3 | Krystle Babao | Papua New Guinea | 1:13.73 | |
| 52 | H2 L5 | Ana Galindo | Honduras | 1:15.97 | |
| 53 | H2 L6 | Kiran Khan | Pakistan | 1:16.04 | |
| 54 | H2 L2 | Jakie Wellman | Zambia | 1:17.85 | |
| 55 | H2 L7 | Binta Zahra Diop | Senegal | 1:19.39 | |
| 56 | H3 L8 | Helena Rojkova | Turkmenistan | 1:20.16 | |
| 57 | H2 L1 | Monika Bakale | Republic of the Congo | 1:20.50 | |
| 58 | H1 L5 | Tojohanitra Andriamanjatoarimanana | Madagascar | 1:23.66 | |
| 59 | H1 L4 | N. Ravojanahary | Madagascar | 1:26.61 | |
| 60 | H1 L6 | Aminath Rouya Hussain | Maldives | 1:31.91 | |
| - | - | Sivranjani Vaidyanathan | India | DNS | |