# Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 13–15 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
U.S. swimmer Rebecca Soni pulled away over the final lap to capture gold and set a new world record of 2:20.22. Australia's world record holder and top favorite Leisel Jones enjoyed a strong lead in the first 100 metres, but ended up only with a silver in 2:22.05, almost two seconds behind Soni. Meanwhile, Sara Nordenstam earned Norway's second Olympic medal in swimming, as she powered home with a bronze in a European record of 2:23.02.
Austria's Mirna Jukić finished outside the medals in fourth place at 2:23.24, while Russia's Yuliya Yefimova set a national record of 2:23.76 to hold off Canada's Annamay Pierse (2:23.77) for a fifth spot by a hundredth of a second (0.01). Japanese duo Rie Kaneto (2:25.14) and Megumi Taneda (2:25.23) closed out the field.
Notable swimmers failed to reach the top 8 final, featuring Germany's Anne Poleska, bronze medalist in Athens four years earlier. Competing at her fourth Olympics, defending champion Amanda Beard placed eighteenth in 2:27.70, but missed the semifinals by 0.42 seconds.
Earlier in the prelims, Soni posted a top-seeded time of 2:22.17 to lead the heats, cutting off Beard's Olympic record by exactly two-tenths of a second (0.20).

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Leisel Jones (AUS) | 2:20.54 | Melbourne, Australia | 1 February 2006 | |
| Olympic record | Amanda Beard (USA) | 2:23.37 | Athens, Greece | 19 August 2004 | - |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 13 | Heat 5 | Rebecca Soni | United States | 2:22.17 | OR |
| August 15 | Final | Rebecca Soni | United States | 2:20.22 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Rebecca Soni | United States | 2:22.17 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 6 | 4 | Leisel Jones | Australia | 2:23.81 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 5 | Mirna Jukić | Austria | 2:24.39 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 1 | Sara Nordenstam | Norway | 2:24.47 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 6 | Rie Kaneto | Japan | 2:24.62 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 5 | Megumi Taneda | Japan | 2:24.75 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 5 | Annamay Pierse | Canada | 2:25.01 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 4 | Yuliya Yefimova | Russia | 2:25.07 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 7 | Suzaan van Biljon | South Africa | 2:25.51 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 3 | Sally Foster | Australia | 2:25.54 | Q |
| 11 | 6 | 3 | Jung Seul-ki | South Korea | 2:25.95 | Q |
| 12 | 6 | 6 | Joline Höstman | Sweden | 2:26.00 | Q |
| 13 | 6 | 2 | Qi Hui | China | 2:26.16 | Q |
| 14 | 5 | 2 | Anne Poleska | Germany | 2:26.74 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 8 | Elise Matthysen | Belgium | 2:27.04 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 1 | Jeong Da-rae | South Korea | 2:27.28 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | 7 | Inna Kapishina | Belarus | 2:27.34 | NR |
| 18 | 4 | 3 | Amanda Beard | United States | 2:27.70 | |
| 19 | 2 | 2 | Siow Yi Ting | Malaysia | 2:27.80 | |
| 20 | 4 | 2 | Olga Detenyuk | Russia | 2:27.87 | |
| 20 | 5 | 1 | Kirsty Balfour | Great Britain | 2:27.87 | |
| 22 | 3 | 4 | Adriana Marmolejo | Mexico | 2:28.10 | NR |
| 23 | 6 | 8 | Yuliya Pidlisna | Ukraine | 2:28.84 | |
| 24 | 4 | 7 | Mireia Belmonte García | Spain | 2:29.46 | |
| 25 | 2 | 4 | Alia Atkinson | Jamaica | 2:29.53 | |
| 26 | 6 | 7 | Luo Nan | China | 2:29.67 | |
| 27 | 3 | 1 | Katalin Bor | Hungary | 2:29.95 | |
| 28 | 3 | 2 | Sara El Bekri | Morocco | 2:30.04 | |
| 29 | 3 | 3 | Diana Gomes | Portugal | 2:30.18 | |
| 30 | 5 | 8 | Sophie de Ronchi | France | 2:30.93 | |
| 31 | 2 | 7 | Marina Kuč | Montenegro | 2:31.24 | NR |
| 32 | 2 | 3 | Dilara Buse Günaydin | Turkey | 2:31.86 | |
| 33 | 3 | 6 | Nađa Higl | Serbia | 2:32.78 | |
| 34 | 2 | 6 | Smiljana Marinović | Croatia | 2:32.80 | |
| 35 | 1 | 5 | Raminta Dvariškytė | Lithuania | 2:33.32 | |
| 36 | 2 | 5 | Nicolette Teo | Singapore | 2:34.60 | |
| 37 | 3 | 8 | Agustina de Giovanni | Argentina | 2:34.94 | |
| 38 | 3 | 5 | Angeliki Exarchou | Greece | 2:36.83 | |
| 39 | 1 | 3 | Noora Laukkanen | Finland | 2:38.97 | |
| 40 | 1 | 4 | Tatiane Sakemi | Brazil | 2:39.13 | |
| | 5 | 6 | Sarah Poewe | Germany | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Leisel Jones | Australia | 2:23.04 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Sara Nordenstam | Norway | 2:23.79 | Q, EU |
| 3 | 6 | Yuliya Yefimova | Russia | 2:24.00 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Megumi Taneda | Japan | 2:25.42 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Sally Foster | Australia | 2:26.33 | |
| 6 | 1 | Anne Poleska | Germany | 2:26.71 | |
| 7 | 7 | Joline Höstman | Sweden | 2:27.14 | |
| 8 | 8 | Jeong Da-rae | South Korea | 2:28.28 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Rebecca Soni | United States | 2:22.64 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Mirna Jukić | Austria | 2:23.76 | Q, EU |
| 3 | 6 | Annamay Pierse | Canada | 2:23.94 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Rie Kaneto | Japan | 2:25.65 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Jung Seul-ki | South Korea | 2:26.83 | |
| 6 | 1 | Qi Hui | China | 2:27.63 | |
| 7 | 2 | Suzaan van Biljon | South Africa | 2:28.45 | |
| 8 | 8 | Elise Matthysen | Belgium | 2:29.64 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Rebecca Soni | United States | 2:20.22 | WR |
| | 5 | Leisel Jones | Australia | 2:22.05 | |
| | 6 | Sara Nordenstam | Norway | 2:23.02 | EU |
| 4 | 3 | Mirna Jukić | Austria | 2:23.24 | NR |
| 5 | 7 | Yuliya Yefimova | Russia | 2:23.76 | NR |
| 6 | 2 | Annamay Pierse | Canada | 2:23.77 | NR |
| 7 | 1 | Rie Kaneto | Japan | 2:25.14 | |
| 8 | 8 | Megumi Taneda | Japan | 2:25.23 | |