# Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 50 metre freestyle

The women's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 22–23 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Dutch rising star Inge de Bruijn added a third gold to her medal tally in swimming at these Games. She powered past the field to touch the wall first in 24.32, the second-fastest of all-time. Earlier in the semifinals, she blasted her own world record of 24.13 to snatch a top seed for the final. Sweden's Therese Alshammar captured the silver in 24.51, while U.S. legend Dara Torres powered home with the bronze in a new American record of 24.63, edging out defending Olympic champion Amy Van Dyken (25.04) by 41-hundredths of a second. The podium placements also replicated the results of the 100 m freestyle (with the exception of Jenny Thompson), held on the sixth night of the Games.
Slovakia's Martina Moravcová finished off the podium in fifth place at 25.24, and was followed in the sixth spot by Germany's Sandra Völker in 25.27. Great Britain's Alison Sheppard (25.45) and Japan's Sumika Minamoto (25.65) closed out the field.
Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Australia's overwhelming favorite Susie O'Neill; Völker's teammate Katrin Meissner, who shared bronze medals with Jill Sterkel in the event's inception in 1988 as a member of the former East German squad; and Estonia's Jana Kolukanova, who grabbed the final spot from the prelims after winning a three-person swimoff.
One of the most popular highlights in the event took place in the first heat. Dubbed as the Crawler, Paula Barila Bolopa had finally completed a unique double for Equatorial Guinea, as she swam the slowest ever race by a female in Olympic history with a time of 1:03.97.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Inge de Bruijn (NED) | 24.39 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 10 June 2000 |
| Olympic record | Yang Wenyi (CHN) | 24.79 | Barcelona, Spain | 31 July 1992 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 22 September | Heat 10 | Inge de Bruijn | Netherlands | 24.46 | OR |
| 22 September | Semifinal 2 | Inge de Bruijn | Netherlands | 24.13 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 10 | 4 | Inge de Bruijn | Netherlands | 24.46 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 8 | 4 | Dara Torres | United States | 24.96 | Q |
| 3 | 10 | 5 | Amy Van Dyken | United States | 25.04 | Q |
| 4 | 9 | 4 | Therese Alshammar | Sweden | 25.24 | Q |
| 5 | 10 | 7 | Martina Moravcová | Slovakia | 25.39 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 9 | 5 | Sandra Völker | Germany | 25.44 | Q |
| 7 | 10 | 3 | Sumika Minamoto | Japan | 25.52 | Q |
| 7 | 10 | 1 | Vivienne Rignall | New Zealand | 25.52 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 8 | 5 | Alison Sheppard | Great Britain | 25.53 | Q |
| 10 | 10 | 2 | Katrin Meissner | Germany | 25.64 | Q |
| 11 | 10 | 6 | Olga Mukomol | Ukraine | 25.67 | Q |
| 12 | 8 | 7 | Susie O'Neill | Australia | 25.73 | Q, OC |
| 13 | 8 | 6 | Anna-Karin Kammerling | Sweden | 25.79 | Q |
| 14 | 9 | 3 | Wilma van Rijn | Netherlands | 25.81 | Q |
| 15 | 6 | 6 | Rania Elwani | Egypt | 25.87 | Q, NR |
| 16 | 6 | 7 | Mette Jacobsen | Denmark | 25.96 | QSO |
| 16 | 7 | 8 | Jana Kolukanova | Estonia | 25.96 | QSO |
| 16 | 9 | 7 | Ana Belén Palomo | Spain | 25.96 | QSO |
| 19 | 8 | 2 | Cristina Chiuso | Italy | 25.99 | |
| 20 | 8 | 3 | Sue Rolph | Great Britain | 26.00 | |
| 21 | 9 | 1 | Han Xue | China | 26.01 | |
| 22 | 8 | 8 | Nadine Rolland | Canada | 26.04 | |
| 23 | 8 | 1 | Sarah Ryan | Australia | 26.05 | |
| 23 | 6 | 1 | Leah Martindale | Barbados | 26.05 | |
| 25 | 9 | 8 | Helene Muller | South Africa | 26.07 | |
| 26 | 7 | 6 | Alena Popchanka | Belarus | 26.10 | |
| 27 | 9 | 2 | Eileen Coparropa | Panama | 26.19 | |
| 28 | 7 | 4 | Liesbet Dreesen | Belgium | 26.21 | |
| 28 | 7 | 7 | Hanna-Maria Seppälä | Finland | 26.21 | |
| 30 | 7 | 5 | Ivana Walterová | Slovakia | 26.23 | |
| 31 | 9 | 6 | Judith Draxler | Austria | 26.26 | |
| 32 | 6 | 3 | Siobhan Cropper | Trinidad and Tobago | 26.36 | |
| 33 | 7 | 3 | Yekaterina Kibalo | Russia | 26.37 | |
| 34 | 6 | 5 | Lara Heinz | Luxembourg | 26.55 | |
| 35 | 6 | 8 | Caroline Pickering | Fiji | 26.57 | |
| 36 | 6 | 2 | Kirsty Coventry | Zimbabwe | 26.58 | |
| 37 | 7 | 1 | Joscelin Yeo | Singapore | 26.71 | |
| 38 | 10 | 8 | Jenna Gresdal | Canada | 26.79 | |
| 39 | 1 | 4 | Moe Thu Aung | Myanmar | 26.80 | |
| 40 | 5 | 2 | Chiang Tzu-ying | Chinese Taipei | 26.84 | |
| 41 | 6 | 4 | Chang Hee-jin | South Korea | 26.88 | |
| 41 | 4 | 3 | Yekaterina Tochenaya | Kyrgyzstan | 26.88 | NR |
| 43 | 7 | 2 | Athina Bochori | Greece | 26.90 | |
| 44 | 5 | 8 | Agnese Ozoliņa | Latvia | 27.28 | |
| 45 | 5 | 3 | Pilin Tachakittiranan | Thailand | 27.31 | |
| 46 | 5 | 4 | Marijana Šurković | Croatia | 27.32 | |
| 47 | 5 | 7 | Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai | Hong Kong | 27.38 | |
| 48 | 5 | 6 | Chantal Gibney | Ireland | 27.46 | |
| 49 | 4 | 6 | Angela Chuck | Jamaica | 27.48 | |
| 50 | 5 | 1 | Jūratė Ladavičiūtė | Lithuania | 27.54 | |
| 51 | 5 | 5 | Elín Sigurðardóttir | Iceland | 27.58 | |
| 52 | 4 | 5 | Marilyn Chua | Malaysia | 27.66 | |
| 53 | 4 | 4 | Duška Radan | FR Yugoslavia | 27.70 | |
| 54 | 4 | 1 | Maria Tregubova | Moldova | 27.75 | |
| 55 | 4 | 7 | Saida Iskandarova | Uzbekistan | 28.08 | |
| 56 | 4 | 2 | Talía Barrios | Peru | 28.11 | |
| 57 | 3 | 5 | Ngozi Monu | Nigeria | 28.20 | |
| 58 | 3 | 7 | Tanya Anacleto | Mozambique | 28.78 | |
| 59 | 3 | 4 | Alisa Khaleyeva | Azerbaijan | 28.79 | |
| 60 | 3 | 8 | Sherri Henry | Saint Lucia | 28.81 | |
| 61 | 3 | 6 | Mbolatiana Ramanisa | Madagascar | 29.20 | |
| 62 | 3 | 2 | Roshendra Vrolijk | Aruba | 29.31 | |
| 63 | 3 | 3 | Yuliana Mikheeva | Armenia | 29.79 | |
| 64 | 2 | 5 | Theekshana Ratnasekera | Sri Lanka | 29.88 | |
| 65 | 2 | 3 | Samar Nassar | Palestine | 30.05 | |
| 66 | 2 | 6 | Runa Pradhan | Nepal | 31.28 | |
| 67 | 2 | 2 | Teran Matthews | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 31.71 | |
| 68 | 3 | 1 | Francilla Agar | Dominica | 32.22 | |
| 69 | 2 | 7 | Fariha Fathimath | Maldives | 32.36 | |
| 70 | 2 | 1 | Hem Raksmey | Cambodia | 33.11 | |
| 71 | 2 | 4 | Noor Haki | Iraq | 35.51 | |
| 72 | 4 | 8 | Aissatou Barry | Guinea | 35.79 | |
| 73 | 1 | 3 | Paula Barila Bolopa | Equatorial Guinea | 1:03.97 | |
| | 1 | 5 | Fatema Hameed Gerashi | Bahrain | DSQ | |

#### Swimoff

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Jana Kolukanova | Estonia | 25.87 | Q, NR |
| 2 | 4 | Mette Jacobsen | Denmark | 26.00 | |
| | 3 | Ana Belén Palomo | Spain | DSQ | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Therese Alshammar | Sweden | 24.80 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Dara Torres | United States | 24.98 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Sandra Völker | Germany | 25.22 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Sumika Minamoto | Japan | 25.43 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Katrin Meissner | Germany | 25.62 | |
| 6 | 7 | Susie O'Neill | Australia | 25.74 | |
| 7 | 1 | Wilma van Rijn | Netherlands | 25.87 | |
| 8 | 8 | Jana Kolukanova | Estonia | 26.03 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Inge de Bruijn | Netherlands | 24.13 | Q, WR |
| 2 | 5 | Amy Van Dyken | United States | 25.00 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Alison Sheppard | Great Britain | 25.32 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Martina Moravcová | Slovakia | 25.49 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | Anna-Karin Kammerling | Sweden | 25.61 | |
| 5 | 6 | Vivienne Rignall | New Zealand | 25.61 | |
| 7 | 7 | Olga Mukomol | Ukraine | 25.88 | |
| 8 | 8 | Rania Elwani | Egypt | 25.95 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Inge de Bruijn | Netherlands | 24.32 | |
| | 5 | Therese Alshammar | Sweden | 24.51 | |
| | 3 | Dara Torres | United States | 24.63 | AM |
| 4 | 6 | Amy Van Dyken | United States | 25.04 | |
| 5 | 8 | Martina Moravcová | Slovakia | 25.24 | NR |
| 6 | 2 | Sandra Völker | Germany | 25.27 | |
| 7 | 7 | Alison Sheppard | Great Britain | 25.45 | |
| 8 | 1 | Sumika Minamoto | Japan | 25.65 | |