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

The women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 18–19 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Yana Klochkova, Ukraine's swimming pride and three-time European champion, became the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to strike a medley double, since Claudia Kolb did so in 1968, Tracy Caulkins in 1984, and Michelle Smith in 1996. Leading from start to finish, she established a sterling time of 2:10.68 to cut off Lin Li's eight-year Olympic record by a comfortable margin of 0.95 seconds. Romania's Beatrice Câșlaru, who shared the European title with Klochkova in the event, raced to silver with a national record of 2:12.57 on the rear of a dominant breaststroke leg. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Cristina Teuscher took home the bronze in 2:13.32 to touch out Canada's Marianne Limpert (2:13.44) by 12-hundredths of a second.
Limpert was followed in fifth by her teammate Joanne Malar (2:13.70) and in sixth by Russia's Oxana Verevka (2:13.88). Previously competed for Brazil in Atlanta four years earlier, Gabrielle Rose finished seventh in 2:14.82, while Japan's Tomoko Hagiwara rounded out the field with an eighth-place time of 2:15.64.
Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring China's Chen Yan, who recorded the second fastest time ever in the event's history but faded badly to place ninth (2:15.27); and Australia's home favorite Elli Overton, who finished her semifinal run with an eleventh-place effort (2:15.74).

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Wu Yanyan (CHN) | 2:09.72 | Shanghai, China | 17 October 1997 |
| Olympic record | Lin Li (CHN) | 2:11.65 | Barcelona, Spain | 30 July 1992 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 19 September | Final | Yana Klochkova | Ukraine | 2:10.68 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 7 | Oxana Verevka | Russia | 2:13.48 | Q, NR |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | Beatrice Câșlaru | Romania | 2:13.72 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 4 | Yana Klochkova | Ukraine | 2:13.83 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 5 | Joanne Malar | Canada | 2:13.92 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | Cristina Teuscher | United States | 2:14.17 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Marianne Limpert | Canada | 2:15.07 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 4 | Tomoko Hagiwara | Japan | 2:15.16 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 6 | Gabrielle Rose | United States | 2:15.55 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 2 | Chen Yan | China | 2:16.01 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 1 | Federica Biscia | Italy | 2:16.09 | Q, NR |
| 11 | 4 | 6 | Sue Rolph | Great Britain | 2:16.43 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 8 | Yseult Gervy | Belgium | 2:16.51 | Q |
| 13 | 4 | 2 | Zhan Shu | China | 2:16.63 | Q |
| 14 | 5 | 3 | Elli Overton | Australia | 2:16.76 | Q |
| 15 | 3 | 3 | Nicole Hetzer | Germany | 2:16.98 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 6 | Sabine Herbst | Germany | 2:17.18 | Q |
| 17 | 2 | 3 | Hana Černá | Czech Republic | 2:17.58 | NR |
| 18 | 3 | 8 | Kirsty Coventry | Zimbabwe | 2:17.73 | AF |
| 19 | 2 | 5 | Alenka Kejžar | Slovenia | 2:18.33 | NR |
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Helen Norfolk | New Zealand | 2:18.90 | |
| 21 | 5 | 8 | Vered Borochovski | Israel | 2:18.99 | |
| 22 | 2 | 4 | Carolyn Adel | Suriname | 2:19.17 | |
| 23 | 4 | 1 | Joscelin Yeo | Singapore | 2:19.18 | |
| 24 | 5 | 7 | Kathryn Evans | Great Britain | 2:19.41 | |
| 25 | 4 | 7 | Anna Windsor | Australia | 2:19.44 | |
| 26 | 3 | 2 | Yasuko Tajima | Japan | 2:21.65 | |
| 27 | 2 | 2 | Nam Yoo-sun | South Korea | 2:22.53 | |
| 28 | 1 | 3 | Marina Mulyayeva | Kazakhstan | 2:22.72 | |
| 29 | 2 | 1 | María Virginia Garrone | Argentina | 2:22.98 | |
| 30 | 2 | 6 | Aikaterini Sarakatsani | Greece | 2:23.05 | |
| 31 | 2 | 8 | Sia Wai Yen | Malaysia | 2:23.31 | |
| 32 | 1 | 5 | Alexandra Zertsalova | Kyrgyzstan | 2:24.09 | |
| 33 | 2 | 7 | Smiljana Marinović | Croatia | 2:25.24 | |
| 34 | 3 | 5 | Diana Mocanu | Romania | 2:29.58 | |
| 35 | 1 | 4 | Meritxell Sabaté | Andorra | 2:30.41 | |
| 36 | 1 | 6 | Fernanda Cuadra | Nicaragua | 2:38.25 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Beatrice Câșlaru | Romania | 2:13.31 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Joanne Malar | Canada | 2:13.59 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Marianne Limpert | Canada | 2:13.90 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Gabrielle Rose | United States | 2:14.40 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Federica Biscia | Italy | 2:15.71 | NR |
| 6 | 1 | Elli Overton | Australia | 2:15.74 | |
| 7 | 7 | Yseult Gervy | Belgium | 2:17.19 | |
| 8 | 8 | Sabine Herbst | Germany | 2:17.51 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Yana Klochkova | Ukraine | 2:13.08 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Cristina Teuscher | United States | 2:13.47 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Oxana Verevka | Russia | 2:14.04 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Tomoko Hagiwara | Japan | 2:15.09 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Chen Yan | China | 2:15.27 | |
| 6 | 7 | Sue Rolph | Great Britain | 2:15.98 | |
| 7 | 1 | Zhan Shu | China | 2:16.58 | |
| 8 | 8 | Nicole Hetzer | Germany | 2:18.08 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Yana Klochkova | Ukraine | 2:10.68 | OR, ER |
| | 5 | Beatrice Câșlaru | Romania | 2:12.57 | NR |
| | 3 | Cristina Teuscher | United States | 2:13.32 | |
| 4 | 2 | Marianne Limpert | Canada | 2:13.44 | |
| 5 | 6 | Joanne Malar | Canada | 2:13.70 | |
| 6 | 7 | Oxana Verevka | Russia | 2:13.88 | |
| 7 | 1 | Gabrielle Rose | United States | 2:14.82 | |
| 8 | 8 | Tomoko Hagiwara | Japan | 2:15.64 | |