# Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre butterfly

The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 12–14 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
In front of a large home crowd inside the Water Cube, Liu Zige powered past the entire field to capture a first gold medal for the host nation in swimming. She set a new world record of 2:04.18 to cut off a 1.32-second standard set by Australia's Jessicah Schipper at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She also enjoyed her teammate Jiao Liuyang handing an entire medal haul for China with a one–two finish. Jiao earned a silver medal as she overhauled Schipper on the final lap, and touched the wall in 2:04.72. Meanwhile, Schipper added a second bronze to her hardware from the 100 m butterfly, outside the record time of 2:06.26.
Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, the defending Olympic champion, finished outside the medals in fourth place at 2:07.02. Having won a bronze medal from Athens four years earlier, Japan's Yuko Nakanishi earned a fifth spot in 2:07.32, holding off France's Aurore Mongel (2:07.36) to sixth by four hundredths of a second (0.04). Americans Elaine Breeden (2:07.57) and Kathleen Hersey (2:08.23) closed out the field.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Jessicah Schipper (AUS) | 2:05.40 | Victoria, Canada | 17 August 2006 | |
| Olympic record | Misty Hyman (USA) | 2:05.88 | Sydney, Australia | 20 September 2000 | - |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 14 | Final | Liu Zige | China | 2:04.18 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 2 | Liu Zige | China | 2:06.46 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | 5 | Aurore Mongel | France | 2:06.49 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Yuko Nakanishi | Japan | 2:06.62 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | Jiao Liuyang | China | 2:06.89 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 4 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 2:06.91 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 6 | Natsumi Hoshi | Japan | 2:07.02 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 6 | Kathleen Hersey | United States | 2:07.65 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 7 | Micha Østergaard | Denmark | 2:07.77 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 5 | 3 | Elaine Breeden | United States | 2:07.92 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Jemma Lowe | Great Britain | 2:08.07 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 4 | Jessicah Schipper | Australia | 2:08.11 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 3 | Audrey Lacroix | Canada | 2:08.54 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 2 | Samantha Hamill | Australia | 2:08.83 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 8 | Petra Granlund | Sweden | 2:08.97 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 2 | Ellen Gandy | Great Britain | 2:08.98 | Q |
| 16 | 2 | 6 | Kathryn Meaklim | South Africa | 2:09.41 | Q, AF |
| 17 | 2 | 4 | Nina Dittrich | Austria | 2:09.85 | NR |
| 18 | 5 | 7 | Beatrix Boulsevicz | Hungary | 2:10.00 | |
| 19 | 2 | 5 | Sara Oliveira | Portugal | 2:10.14 | NR |
| 20 | 3 | 8 | Stephanie Horner | Canada | 2:10.33 | |
| 21 | 3 | 7 | Paola Cavallino | Italy | 2:10.46 | |
| 22 | 5 | 8 | Joanna Melo | Brazil | 2:10.64 | |
| 23 | 5 | 1 | Choi Hye-ra | South Korea | 2:11.42 | |
| 24 | 2 | 8 | Tetyana Khala | Ukraine | 2:12.16 | |
| 25 | 4 | 1 | Yana Martynova | Russia | 2:12.47 | |
| 26 | 2 | 7 | Tao Li | Singapore | 2:12.63 | NR |
| 27 | 3 | 5 | Emese Kovács | Hungary | 2:12.73 | |
| 28 | 3 | 1 | Magali Rousseau | France | 2:13.12 | |
| 29 | 2 | 2 | Yang Chin-Kuei | Chinese Taipei | 2:13.26 | |
| 30 | 1 | 5 | Eleftheria Evgenia Efstathiou | Greece | 2:13.27 | |
| 31 | 2 | 1 | Denisa Smolenová | Slovakia | 2:13.81 | |
| 32 | 1 | 6 | Gülşah Günenç | Turkey | 2:14.44 | NR |
| 33 | 1 | 4 | Ingvild Snildal | Norway | 2:14.53 | |
| 34 | 1 | 3 | Kristina Lennox-Silva | Puerto Rico | 2:17.27 | |
| | 2 | 3 | Georgina Bardach | Argentina | DNS | |
| | 3 | 3 | Sara Isakovič | Slovenia | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Jiao Liuyang | China | 2:06.42 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Aurore Mongel | France | 2:07.21 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Jemma Lowe | Great Britain | 2:07.87 | |
| 4 | 3 | Natsumi Hoshi | Japan | 2:07.93 | |
| 5 | 6 | Micha Østergaard | Denmark | 2:09.29 | |
| 6 | 7 | Audrey Lacroix | Canada | 2:09.74 | |
| 7 | 1 | Petra Granlund | Sweden | 2:09.79 | |
| 8 | 8 | Kathryn Meaklim | South Africa | 2:11.74 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Liu Zige | China | 2:06.25 | Q, AS |
| 2 | 7 | Jessicah Schipper | Australia | 2:06.34 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 2:06.78 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Yuko Nakanishi | Japan | 2:06.96 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Kathleen Hersey | United States | 2:06.96 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | Elaine Breeden | United States | 2:07.73 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | Samantha Hamill | Australia | 2:09.58 | |
| 8 | 8 | Ellen Gandy | Great Britain | 2:10.60 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Liu Zige | China | 2:04.18 | WR |
| | 3 | Jiao Liuyang | China | 2:04.72 | |
| | 5 | Jessicah Schipper | Australia | 2:06.26 | |
| 4 | 6 | Otylia Jędrzejczak | Poland | 2:07.02 | |
| 5 | 2 | Yuko Nakanishi | Japan | 2:07.32 | |
| 6 | 1 | Aurore Mongel | France | 2:07.36 | |
| 7 | 8 | Elaine Breeden | United States | 2:07.57 | |
| 8 | 7 | Kathleen Hersey | United States | 2:08.23 | |