# Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre backstroke

The women's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 19 and 20.
Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry added gold to her silver and bronze medals by a storming victory in this event, breaking an African record time of 2:09.19. Russia's Stanislava Komarova took home the silver at 2:09.72, while Japan's Reiko Nakamura and Germany's Antje Buschschulte shared their triumph for the bronze medal, in a joint time of 2:09.88. British swimmer and world champion Katy Sexton, on the other hand, finished outside the medals in seventh place, with a time of 2:12.11. Since Zimbabwe made its official debut in 1980, Coventry also became the nation's first athlete in its history to claim an individual Olympic medal.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) | 2:06.62 | Athens, Greece | 25 August 1991 |
| Olympic record | Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) | 2:07.06 | Barcelona, Spain | 31 July 1992 |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | Stanislava Komarova | Russia | 2:10.71 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | Reiko Nakamura | Japan | 2:11.14 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | Kirsty Coventry | Zimbabwe | 2:12.49 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 4 | Margaret Hoelzer | United States | 2:12.55 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 6 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany | 2:12.96 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 2 | Jennifer Fratesi | Canada | 2:13.00 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | Louise Ørnstedt | Denmark | 2:13.05 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 5 | Katy Sexton | Great Britain | 2:13.25 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 1 | Hannah McLean | New Zealand | 2:13.33 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Aya Terakawa | Japan | 2:13.55 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 2 | Melissa Morgan | Australia | 2:14.06 | Q |
| 12 | 2 | 2 | Evelyn Verrasztó | Hungary | 2:14.07 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Nicole Hetzer | Germany | 2:14.42 | Q |
| 14 | 5 | 5 | Iryna Amshennikova | Ukraine | 2:14.49 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 1 | Frances Adcock | Australia | 2:14.85 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 8 | Sanja Jovanović | Croatia | 2:15.01 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 2 | Kristen Caverly | United States | 2:15.34 | |
| 18 | 3 | 7 | Elizabeth Warden | Canada | 2:15.77 | |
| 19 | 2 | 6 | Kateřina Pivoňková | Czech Republic | 2:16.08 | |
| 20 | 4 | 3 | Karen Lee | Great Britain | 2:16.10 | |
| 21 | 3 | 8 | Alessia Filippi | Italy | 2:17.29 | |
| 21 | 2 | 7 | Şadan Derya Erke | Turkey | 2:17.29 | |
| 23 | 5 | 7 | Anja Čarman | Slovenia | 2:17.62 | |
| 24 | 2 | 1 | Lin Man-hsu | Chinese Taipei | 2:17.68 | |
| 25 | 2 | 5 | Lee Da-hye | South Korea | 2:17.73 | |
| 26 | 2 | 3 | Gisela Morales | Guatemala | 2:18.23 | |
| 27 | 5 | 8 | Alexandra Putra | France | 2:19.75 | |
| 28 | 1 | 4 | Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai | Hong Kong | 2:19.83 | |
| 29 | 2 | 8 | Chonlathorn Vorathamrong | Thailand | 2:21.11 | |
| 30 | 2 | 4 | Eirini Karastergiou | Greece | 2:21.93 | |
| 31 | 1 | 5 | Gretchen Gotay Cordero | Puerto Rico | 2:23.39 | |
| 32 | 1 | 3 | Saida Iskandarova | Uzbekistan | 2:26.17 | |
| 33 | 3 | 3 | Zhan Shu | China | 2:31.56 | |
| | 3 | 6 | Chen Xiujun | China | DSQ | |
| | 4 | 7 | Alenka Kejžar | Slovenia | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Reiko Nakamura | Japan | 2:10.14 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Margaret Hoelzer | United States | 2:11.68 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Aya Terakawa | Japan | 2:12.21 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Katy Sexton | Great Britain | 2:12.62 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Jennifer Fratesi | Canada | 2:12.64 | |
| 6 | 8 | Sanja Jovanović | Croatia | 2:13.76 | |
| 7 | 7 | Evelyn Verrasztó | Hungary | 2:13.98 | |
| 8 | 1 | Iryna Amshennikova | Ukraine | 2:14.83 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Stanislava Komarova | Russia | 2:09.62 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Kirsty Coventry | Zimbabwe | 2:10.04 | Q, AF |
| 3 | 3 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany | 2:10.66 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Louise Ørnstedt | Denmark | 2:11.77 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Hannah McLean | New Zealand | 2:12.87 | |
| 6 | 1 | Nicole Hetzer | Germany | 2:13.01 | |
| 7 | 7 | Melissa Morgan | Australia | 2:13.34 | |
| 8 | 8 | Frances Adcock | Australia | 2:15.69 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 5 | Kirsty Coventry | Zimbabwe | 2:09.19 | AF |
| | 4 | Stanislava Komarova | Russia | 2:09.72 | |
| | 3 | Reiko Nakamura | Japan | 2:09.88 | |
| | 6 | Antje Buschschulte | Germany | 2:09.88 | |
| 5 | 2 | Margaret Hoelzer | United States | 2:10.70 | |
| 6 | 7 | Louise Ørnstedt | Denmark | 2:11.15 | |
| 7 | 8 | Katy Sexton | Great Britain | 2:12.11 | |
| 8 | 1 | Aya Terakawa | Japan | 2:12.90 | |