# Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre breaststroke

The women's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 28 to 29 July 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, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

## Background

China's Tang Qianting won the event at the 2024 World Championships, and had the fastest qualifying time of 1:04.39. Lithuania's Rūta Meilutytė won the event at the 2023 Championships, where she swam the fastest qualifying time of 1:04.62. She had had a foot surgery in February, and SwimSwam commented that it "put a question mark on her form".
The USA's Lilly King won the event at the 2016 Olympics, and she had the third fastest qualifying time of 1:04.75, while Italy's Benedetta Pilato won it at the 2022 World Championships, and she had the fourth fastest qualifying time of 1:05.44. South Africa's Tatjana Smith won silver at the 2020 Olympics, and she won another silver at the 2023 World Championships.
Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Qianting would win gold. SwimSwam predicted Smith would win silver and King would take bronze, while Swimming World predicted it would be the other way around.

## 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 1:06.79 seconds. 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 1:07.12 for this event. In total, 23 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, twelve athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.
Top 10 fastest qualification times :
| Swimmer | Country | Time | Competition |
| Tang Qianting | China | 01:04:39 | 2024 Chinese Championships |
| Rūta Meilutytė | Lithuania | 01:04:62 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Lilly King | United States | 01:04:75 | 2023 United States National Championships |
| Benedetta Pilato | Italy | 01:05:44 | 2024 Sette Colli Trophy |
| Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 01:05:53 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Angharad Evans | Great Britain | 01:05:54 | 2024 AP Race London International |
| Mona McSharry | Ireland | 01:05:55 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Tes Schouten | Netherlands | 01:05:71 | 2024 Eindhoven Qualification Meet |
| Reona Aoki | Japan | 01:05:76 | 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials |
| Sophie Hansson | Sweden | 01:05:83 | 2024 Stockholm Open |

## Heats

Five heats took place on 28 July 2024, starting at 11:27. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 5 | Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 1:05.00 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | Tang Qianting | China | 1:05.63 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 3 | Mona McSharry | Ireland | 1:05.74 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | Satomi Suzuki | Japan | 1:06.04 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | Lilly King | United States | 1:06.10 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 5 | Benedetta Pilato | Italy | 1:06.19 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 2 | Anastasia Gorbenko | Israel | 1:06.22 | Q, WD |
| 8 | 5 | 7 | Eneli Jefimova | Estonia | 1:06.24 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 4 | Rūta Meilutytė | Lithuania | 1:06.34 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 1 | Alina Zmushka | Individual Neutral Athletes | 1:06.37 | Q |
| 10 | 3 | 6 | Lisa Angiolini | Italy | 1:06.37 | Q |
| 12 | 3 | 5 | Angharad Evans | Great Britain | 1:06.38 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Sophie Hansson | Sweden | 1:06.66 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 3 | Tes Schouten | Netherlands | 1:06.69 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 2 | Kotryna Teterevkova | Lithuania | 1:06.76 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 8 | Macarena Ceballos | Argentina | 1:06.89 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 7 | Yang Chang | China | 1:06.91 | q |
| 18 | 5 | 8 | Sophie Angus | Canada | 1:06.93 | |
| 19 | 3 | 3 | Reona Aoki | Japan | 1:06.98 | |
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Anna Elendt | Germany | 1:07.00 | |
| 21 | 5 | 1 | Dominika Sztandera | Poland | 1:07.22 | |
| 22 | 2 | 4 | Jenna Strauch | Australia | 1:07.27 | |
| 23 | 3 | 8 | Lisa Mamié | Switzerland | 1:07.65 | |
| 23 | 4 | 2 | Emma Weber | United States | 1:07.65 | |
| 25 | 3 | 7 | Letitia Sim | Singapore | 1:07.75 | |
| 26 | 2 | 3 | Ida Hulkko | Finland | 1:08.73 | |
| 27 | 2 | 5 | Jessica Vall | Spain | 1:08.78 | |
| 28 | 2 | 6 | Kristýna Horská | Czech Republic | 1:08.96 | |
| 29 | 2 | 2 | Stefanía Gómez | Colombia | 1:09.16 | |
| 30 | 2 | 7 | Emily Santos | Panama | 1:09.94 | |
| 31 | 2 | 1 | Lynn El Hajj | Lebanon | 1:10.27 | |
| 32 | 2 | 8 | Lanihei Connolly | Cook Islands | 1:10.45 | |
| 33 | 1 | 4 | Rouxin Tan | Malaysia | 1:12.50 | |
| 34 | 1 | 5 | Imane El Barodi | Morocco | 1:14.57 | |
| 35 | 1 | 3 | Ellie Shaw | Antigua and Barbuda | 1:14.78 | |
| 36 | 1 | 6 | Aminata Barrow | The Gambia | 1:15.12 | |
| 37 | 1 | 2 | Lara Dashti | Kuwait | 1:15.67 | |

## Semifinals

Two semifinals took place on 28 July, starting at 21:10. The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 1:05.00 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 5 | Mona McSharry | Ireland | 1:05.51 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 2 | 3 | Lilly King | United States | 1:05.64 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | 4 | Tang Qianting | China | 1:05.83 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | 2 | Alina Zmushka | Individual Neutral Athletes | 1:05.93 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 2 | 7 | Angharad Evans | Great Britain | 1:05.99 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | 3 | Benedetta Pilato | Italy | 1:06.12 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 6 | Eneli Jefimova | Estonia | 1:06.23 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | 6 | Lisa Angiolini | Italy | 1:06.39 | |
| 10 | 2 | 1 | Tes Schouten | Netherlands | 1:06.56 | |
| 11 | 2 | 2 | Rūta Meilutytė | Lithuania | 1:06.89 | |
| 12 | 1 | 5 | Satomi Suzuki | Japan | 1:06.90 | |
| 13 | 1 | 7 | Sophie Hansson | Sweden | 1:06.96 | |
| 14 | 1 | 8 | Yang Chang | China | 1:07.20 | |
| 15 | 2 | 8 | Macarena Ceballos | Argentina | 1:07.31 | |
| 16 | 1 | 1 | Kotryna Teterevkova | Lithuania | 1:07.48 | |

## Final

The final took place at 21:34 on 29 July.
Results :
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time |
| | 4 | Tatjana Smith | South Africa | 1:05.28 |
| | 6 | Tang Qianting | China | 1:05.54 |
| | 5 | Mona McSharry | Ireland | 1:05.59 |
| 4 | 1 | Benedetta Pilato | Italy | 1:05.60 |
| 4 | 3 | Lilly King | United States | 1:05.60 |
| 6 | 7 | Angharad Evans | Great Britain | 1:05.85 |
| 7 | 8 | Eneli Jefimova | Estonia | 1:06.50 |
| 8 | 2 | Alina Zmushka | Individual Neutral Athletes | 1:06.54 |
Statistics :
| Name | 15 metre split (s) | 50 metre split (s) | 50–65 metre split (s) | Time (s) | Stroke rate (strokes/min) |
| Tatjana Smith | 7.18 | 30.62 | 9.98 | 1:05.28 | 47.1 |
| Tang Qianting | 6.95 | 29.94 | 10.03 | 1:05.54 | 52.5 |
| Mona McSharry | 7.50 | 30.56 | 9.84 | 1:05.59 | 50.3 |
| Benedetta Pilato | 7.07 | 30.62 | 9.84 | 1:05.60 | 45.7 |
| Lilly King | 7.13 | 31.00 | 9.79 | 1:05.60 | 49.1 |
| Angharad Evans | 7.53 | 30.61 | 10.13 | 1:05.85 | 44.9 |
| Eneli Jefimova | 7.47 | 30.69 | 10.08 | 1:06.50 | 53.0 |
| Alina Zmushka | 7.33 | 31.12 | 9.98 | 1:06.54 | 50.9 |