# Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 31 July to 1 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim four lengths of the pool.

## Background

South Africa's Tatjana Smith was the defending Olympic champion in the event. She also won the event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and at the 2023 World Championships, and had the third fastest qualifying time of 2:20.80. The fastest qualifying time of 02:19:30 belonged to the USA's Kate Douglass, who also won silver at the 2023 and 2024 World Championships. Tes Schouten of the Netherlands won the event at the 2024 World Championships, where she swam the second fastest qualifying time of 02:19:81. The USA's Lilly King was the defending Olympic silver medallist and she held the fourth fastest qualifying time of 02:20:95.
SwimSwam predicted Smith would win and Douglass would take second, while Swimming World predicted it would be the other way around. Both predicted Schouten would take third.

## Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 2:23.91. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 2:24.63 for this event. In total, 16 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, three athletes qualified through universality places and four athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.
Top 10 fastest qualification times :
| Swimmer | Country | Time | Competition |
| Kate Douglass | United States | 02:19:30 | 2024 Pro Swim Series Knoxville |
| Tes Schouten | Netherlands | 02:19:81 | 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
| Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 02:20:80 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Lilly King | United States | 02:20:95 | 2023 United States National Championships |
| Thea Blomsterberg | Denmark | 02:22:42 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Mona McSharry | Ireland | 02:22:49 | 2024 Mel Zajac Jr. International |
| Ye Shiwen | China | 02:22:55 | 2024 Chinese Championships |
| Jenna Strauch | Australia | 02:22:83 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Kotryna Teterevkova | Lithuania | 02:22:86 | 2023 Summer World University Games |
| Ella Ramsay | Australia | 02:22:87 | 2024 Australian Olympic Trials |

## Heats

Three heats took place on 31 July 2024, starting at 11:00. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | 4 | Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 2:21.57 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | Tes Schouten | Netherlands | 2:23.08 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 4 | Kate Douglass | United States | 2:23.44 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | Ye Shiwen | China | 2:23.67 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | 6 | Kaylene Corbett | South Africa | 2:23.85 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 2 | Satomi Suzuki | Japan | 2:23.80 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | 5 | Mona McSharry | Ireland | 2:23.98 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 3 | Jenna Strauch | Australia | 2:24.38 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 7 | Jessica Vall | Spain | 2:24.52 | Q |
| 10 | 1 | 3 | Kotryna Teterevkova | Lithuania | 2:24.59 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 5 | Lilly King | United States | 2:24.91 | Q |
| 12 | 2 | 2 | Kelsey Wog | Canada | 2:25.11 | Q |
| 13 | 2 | 6 | Sydney Pickrem | Canada | 2:25.45 | Q |
| 14 | 3 | 6 | Ella Ramsay | Australia | 2:25.61 | Q |
| 15 | 3 | 7 | Francesca Fangio | Italy | 2:25.85 | Q |
| 16 | 1 | 2 | Kristýna Horská | Czech Republic | 2:26.28 | Q |
| 17 | 2 | 1 | Lisa Mamié | Switzerland | 2:26.39 | |
| 18 | 2 | 8 | Macarena Ceballos | Argentina | 2:26.55 | |
| 19 | 2 | 5 | Thea Blomsterberg | Denmark | 2:27.81 | |
| 20 | 1 | 1 | Sophie Hansson | Sweden | 2:28.10 | |
| 21 | 1 | 7 | Alina Zmushka | Individual Neutral Athletes | 2:28.19 | |
| 22 | 3 | 1 | Letitia Sim | Singapore | 2:29.46 | |
| 23 | 3 | 8 | Eneli Jefimova | Estonia | 2:30.68 | |

## Semifinals

Two semifinals took place on 31 July, starting at 22:03. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 5 | Kate Douglass | United States | 2:19.74 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 2:19.94 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | Tes Schouten | Netherlands | 2:22.74 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | 3 | Kaylene Corbett | South Africa | 2:22.87 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | 5 | Ye Shiwen | China | 2:23.13 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 7 | Lilly King | United States | 2:23.25 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | 2 | Kotryna Teterevkova | Lithuania | 2:23.42 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 3 | Satomi Suzuki | Japan | 2:23.54 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 1 | Sydney Pickrem | Canada | 2:24.03 | |
| 10 | 1 | 6 | Jenna Strauch | Australia | 2:24.05 | |
| 11 | 2 | 6 | Mona McSharry | Ireland | 2:24.48 | |
| 12 | 1 | 1 | Ella Ramsay | Australia | 2:24.56 | |
| 13 | 1 | 7 | Kelsey Wog | Canada | 2:24.82 | |
| 14 | 2 | 8 | Francesca Fangio | Italy | 2:25.39 | |
| 15 | 1 | 8 | Kristýna Horská | Czech Republic | 2:25.77 | |
| 16 | 2 | 2 | Jessica Vall | Spain | 2:26.22 | |

### Final

The final took place at 21:11 on 1 August 2024.
Results :
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Kate Douglass | United States | 2:19.24 | AM |
| | 5 | Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 2:19.60 | |
| | 3 | Tes Schouten | Netherlands | 2:21.05 | |
| 4 | 8 | Satomi Suzuki | Japan | 2:22.54 | |
| 5 | 1 | Kotryna Teterevkova | Lithuania | 2:23.75 | |
| 6 | 2 | Ye Shiwen | China | 2:24.31 | |
| 7 | 6 | Kaylene Corbett | South Africa | 2:24.46 | |
| 8 | 7 | Lilly King | United States | 2:25.91 | |
Statistics :
| Name | 50 metre split | 100 metre split | 150 metre split | Time | Stroke rate (strokes/min) |
| Kate Douglass | 00:31.83 | 01:07.09 | 01:42.90 | 2:19.24 | 34.9 |
| Tatjana Smith | 00:31.60 | 01:07.21 | 01:43.09 | 2:19.60 | 35.7 |
| Tes Schouten | 00:32.07 | 01:07.57 | 01:43.79 | 2:21.05 | 33.4 |
| Satomi Suzuki | 00:32.15 | 01:08.03 | 01:45.19 | 2:22.54 | 37.6 |
| Kotryna Teterevkova | 00:32.80 | 01:09.47 | 01:46.28 | 2:23.75 | 34.1 |
| Ye Shiwen | 00:32.85 | 01:09.26 | 01:46.54 | 2:24.31 | 36.7 |
| Kaylene Corbett | 00:32.66 | 01:08.95 | 01:45.86 | 2:24.46 | 41.0 |
| Lilly King | 00:32.25 | 01:08.62 | 01:46.70 | 2:25.91 | 41.8 |