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

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 18 and 19.
U.S. swimmer and world-record holder Amanda Beard completed a full set of medals in the event, adding a gold to her silver from Atlanta (1996) and bronze from Sydney (2000). She posted an Olympic record of 2:23.37, holding off Australia's Leisel Jones by 0.23 of a second for a silver medal in 2:23.60. Anne Poleska, who had been seventh at the halfway mark, moved quickly into the field and finished strongly with a bronze in a personal best of 2:25.82, earning Germany's first individual medal of the meet since its reunification in 1990.
Hungary's Ágnes Kovács, the gold medalist from Sydney, finished outside the medals in fifth place behind Japan's Masami Tanaka with a time of 2:26.12.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
| World record | Amanda Beard (USA) | 2:22.44 | Long Beach, United States | 12 July 2004 |
| Olympic record | Ágnes Kovács (HUN) | 2:24.03 | Sydney, Australia | 20 September 2000 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 19 August | Final | Amanda Beard | United States | 2:23.37 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | Leisel Jones | Australia | 2:26.02 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 3 | Anne Poleska | Germany | 2:26.48 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 4 | Amanda Beard | United States | 2:26.61 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 2 | Ágnes Kovács | Hungary | 2:26.90 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 3 | Masami Tanaka | Japan | 2:26.91 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 5 | Brooke Hanson | Australia | 2:27.38 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 5 | Birte Steven | Germany | 2:27.42 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 6 | Caroline Bruce | United States | 2:27.82 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | 4 | Mirna Jukić | Austria | 2:28.28 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 5 | Qi Hui | China | 2:28.66 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 6 | Kirsty Balfour | Great Britain | 2:29.78 | Q |
| 12 | 3 | 2 | Chiara Boggiatto | Italy | 2:30.32 | Q |
| 13 | 2 | 3 | Marina Kuč | Serbia and Montenegro | 2:30.39 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 2 | Lauren van Oosten | Canada | 2:30.44 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 8 | Inna Kapishina | Belarus | 2:31.26 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 7 | Elena Bogomazova | Russia | 2:31.49 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 1 | Smiljana Marinović | Croatia | 2:32.52 | |
| 18 | 4 | 7 | Alenka Kejžar | Slovenia | 2:32.64 | |
| 19 | 2 | 5 | Ilkay Dikmen | Turkey | 2:32.69 | |
| 20 | 1 | 3 | Jaclyn Pangilinan | Philippines | 2:33.38 | NR |
| 21 | 5 | 8 | Siow Yi Ting | Malaysia | 2:33.79 | |
| 22 | 1 | 5 | Eeva Saarinen | Finland | 2:34.17 | |
| 23 | 3 | 7 | Diana Gomes | Portugal | 2:34.23 | |
| 24 | 5 | 1 | Lee Ji-young | South Korea | 2:34.55 | |
| 25 | 2 | 7 | Majken Thorup | Denmark | 2:35.29 | |
| 26 | 2 | 6 | Agustina de Giovanni | Argentina | 2:35.94 | |
| 27 | 2 | 4 | Adriana Marmolejo | Mexico | 2:36.10 | |
| 28 | 2 | 2 | Imaday Nuñez Gonzalez | Cuba | 2:36.40 | |
| 29 | 3 | 8 | Iryna Maystruk | Ukraine | 2:37.42 | |
| 30 | 1 | 4 | Nicolette Teo | Singapore | 2:38.17 | |
| 31 | 3 | 1 | Athina Tzavella | Greece | 2:40.18 | |
| | 3 | 6 | Diana Remenyi | Hungary | DNS | |
| | 5 | 3 | Luo Xuejuan | China | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Brooke Hanson | Australia | 2:26.43 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Anne Poleska | Germany | 2:26.59 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Ágnes Kovács | Hungary | 2:26.63 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Qi Hui | China | 2:26.75 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Caroline Bruce | United States | 2:27.60 | |
| 6 | 8 | Elena Bogomazova | Russia | 2:30.35 | |
| 7 | 1 | Lauren van Oosten | Canada | 2:30.39 | |
| 8 | 7 | Chiara Boggiatto | Italy | 2:30.76 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Amanda Beard | United States | 2:25.62 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Masami Tanaka | Japan | 2:26.38 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Leisel Jones | Australia | 2:26.71 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Mirna Jukić | Austria | 2:26.95 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Kirsty Balfour | Great Britain | 2:28.92 | |
| 6 | 6 | Birte Steven | Germany | 2:29.22 | |
| 7 | 1 | Marina Kuč | Serbia and Montenegro | 2:31.77 | |
| | 8 | Inna Kapishina | Belarus | DSQ | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Amanda Beard | United States | 2:23.37 | OR |
| | 7 | Leisel Jones | Australia | 2:23.60 | |
| | 6 | Anne Poleska | Germany | 2:25.82 | |
| 4 | 5 | Masami Tanaka | Japan | 2:25.87 | |
| 5 | 2 | Ágnes Kovács | Hungary | 2:26.12 | |
| 6 | 1 | Qi Hui | China | 2:26.35 | |
| 7 | 8 | Mirna Jukić | Austria | 2:26.36 | |
| 8 | 3 | Brooke Hanson | Australia | 2:26.39 | |