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

The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Italy's Federica Pellegrini broke a new world record of 1:54.82 to claim a gold medal in the event. Sara Isakovič, who finished behind Pellegrini by 0.15 of a second, cleared a 1:55 barrier to set a new Slovenian record of 1:54.97, and ultimately become the nation's first ever medalist in swimming. China's Pang Jiaying edged out U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff on the final lap to pick up a bronze in 1:55.05. Hoff finished in fourth place in an American record of 1:55.78.
Defending champion Camelia Potec finished outside the medals in fifth place, posting a Romanian record of 1:56.87. Great Britain's Caitlin McClatchey earned a sixth spot in 1:57.65, and was followed by a seventh-place tie between Australia's Bronte Barratt and France's Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne in a matching time of 1:57.83. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went faster than a winning time of 1:58.03, previously set by Potec in Athens four years earlier.
Earlier in the prelims, Pang broke one of the oldest Olympic records in the book, when she clocked at 1:57.37 to lead the fourth heat, slashing 0.28 seconds off the old mark set by East Germany's Heike Friedrich from Seoul in 1988. Two heats later, Pellegrini posted a top-seeded time of 1:55.45 to erase Laure Manaudou's world record, set in 2007.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Laure Manaudou (FRA) | 1:55.52 | Melbourne, Australia | 28 March 2007 | |
| Olympic record | Heike Friedrich (GDR) | 1:57.65 | Seoul, South Korea | 21 September 1988 | - |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 11 | Heat 4 | Pang Jiaying | China | 1:57.37 | OR |
| August 11 | Heat 5 | Sara Isakovič | Slovenia | 1:55.86 | OR |
| August 11 | Heat 6 | Federica Pellegrini | Italy | 1:55.45 | WR |
| August 13 | Final | Federica Pellegrini | Italy | 1:54.82 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | 5 | Federica Pellegrini | Italy | 1:55.45 | Q, WR |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | Sara Isakovič | Slovenia | 1:55.86 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 5 | 3 | Caitlin McClatchey | Great Britain | 1:56.97 | Q, NR |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | Katie Hoff | United States | 1:57.20 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | 2 | Ágnes Mutina | Hungary | 1:57.25 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 4 | 2 | Pang Jiaying | China | 1:57.37 | Q, AS |
| 7 | 4 | 4 | Allison Schmitt | United States | 1:57.38 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 1 | Haruka Ueda | Japan | 1:57.64 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 4 | 3 | Camelia Potec | Romania | 1:57.65 | Q, NR |
| 10 | 5 | 5 | Bronte Barratt | Australia | 1:57.75 | Q |
| 11 | 5 | 2 | Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne | France | 1:57.93 | Q |
| 12 | 6 | 3 | Linda Mackenzie | Australia | 1:57.96 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Josefin Lillhage | Sweden | 1:57.98 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 5 | Joanne Jackson | Great Britain | 1:58.00 | Q |
| 15 | 6 | 6 | Aurore Mongel | France | 1:58.11 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 1 | Ida Marko-Varga | Sweden | 1:58.21 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 7 | Stephanie Horner | Canada | 1:58.35 | |
| 18 | 4 | 1 | Melania Costa | Spain | 1:59.50 | |
| 19 | 6 | 7 | Zhu Qianwei | China | 1:59.52 | |
| 20 | 6 | 8 | Daria Belyakina | Russia | 1:59.72 | |
| 21 | 4 | 8 | Maki Mita | Japan | 1:59.96 | |
| 22 | 4 | 6 | Annika Lurz | Germany | 1:59.98 | |
| 23 | 3 | 5 | Ranomi Kromowidjojo | Netherlands | 2:00.02 | |
| 24 | 5 | 7 | Petra Dallmann | Germany | 2:00.21 | |
| 25 | 5 | 8 | Geneviève Saumur | Canada | 2:00.49 | |
| 26 | 3 | 7 | Jördis Steinegger | Austria | 2:00.52 | NR |
| 27 | 3 | 1 | Anna Stylianou | Cyprus | 2:00.55 | |
| 28 | 3 | 6 | Monique Ferreira | Brazil | 2:00.64 | |
| 28 | 2 | 4 | Elina Partõka | Estonia | 2:00.64 | NR |
| 30 | 2 | 5 | Nina Rangelova | Bulgaria | 2:00.66 | |
| 31 | 2 | 7 | Hoi Shun Stephanie Au | Hong Kong | 2:00.85 | |
| 32 | 3 | 3 | Paulina Barzycka | Poland | 2:00.92 | |
| 33 | 3 | 4 | Melissa Corfe | South Africa | 2:00.95 | |
| 34 | 2 | 2 | Louise Mai Jansen | Denmark | 2:01.30 | |
| 35 | 1 | 4 | Nataliya Khudyakova | Ukraine | 2:02.27 | |
| 36 | 2 | 6 | Lynette Lim | Singapore | 2:02.30 | |
| 37 | 3 | 8 | Yang Chin-kuei | Chinese Taipei | 2:02.84 | |
| 38 | 1 | 5 | Natthanan Junkrajang | Thailand | 2:02.88 | |
| 39 | 2 | 8 | Christine Mailliet | Luxembourg | 2:02.91 | |
| 40 | 1 | 2 | Milica Ostojić | Serbia | 2:03.19 | |
| 41 | 1 | 7 | Heysi Villarreal | Cuba | 2:03.23 | |
| 42 | 1 | 3 | Anja Trišić | Croatia | 2:03.57 | |
| 43 | 2 | 3 | Melanie Nocher | Ireland | 2:04.29 | |
| 44 | 3 | 2 | Eleni Kosti | Greece | 2:04.55 | |
| 45 | 1 | 6 | Sigrún Brá Sverrisdóttir | Iceland | 2:04.82 | |
| 46 | 2 | 1 | Lee Keo-ra | South Korea | 2:05.71 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Sara Isakovič | Slovenia | 1:56.50 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Katie Hoff | United States | 1:57.01 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Pang Jiaying | China | 1:57.34 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Bronte Barratt | Australia | 1:57.55 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Linda Mackenzie | Australia | 1:58.19 | |
| 6 | 6 | Haruka Ueda | Japan | 1:58.44 | |
| 7 | 1 | Joanne Jackson | Great Britain | 1:58.70 | |
| 8 | 8 | Ida Marko-Varga | Sweden | 1:59.41 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Federica Pellegrini | Italy | 1:57.23 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Camelia Potec | Romania | 1:57.71 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Caitlin McClatchey | Great Britain | 1:57.73 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne | France | 1:58.00 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Allison Schmitt | United States | 1:58.01 | |
| 6 | 8 | Aurore Mongel | France | 1:58.08 | |
| 7 | 3 | Ágnes Mutina | Hungary | 1:58.15 | |
| 8 | 1 | Josefin Lillhage | Sweden | 1:59.29 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 3 | Federica Pellegrini | Italy | 1:54.82 | WR |
| | 4 | Sara Isakovič | Slovenia | 1:54.97 | NR |
| | 6 | Pang Jiaying | China | 1:55.05 | AS |
| 4 | 5 | Katie Hoff | United States | 1:55.78 | AM |
| 5 | 7 | Camelia Potec | Romania | 1:56.87 | NR |
| 6 | 1 | Caitlin McClatchey | Great Britain | 1:57.65 | |
| 7 | 2 | Bronte Barratt | Australia | 1:57.83 | |
| 7 | 8 | Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne | France | 1:57.83 | |