# Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre butterfly

The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 9–10 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

## Summary

Spain's Mireia Belmonte stormed home on the final lap to upgrade her silver from London 2012 with an Olympic title in this event, writing a historic milestone to become the country's first female swimming champion. Closing the gap between herself and Madeline Groves at the 150-metre turn, she pipped the Australian challenger with a half-stroke swim on the final stretch to a striking gold-medal triumph in 2:04.85. Groves commanded a solid lead through the first half of the race, but could not catch the Spaniard near the wall, stopping just 0.03 seconds behind with a 2:04.88 for the silver. Meanwhile, Japan's Natsumi Hoshi delivered a powerful back-half strategy to hold on the two leaders and repeat her bronze-medal feat from London 2012 in 2:05.20.
Swimming in lane eight, Cammile Adams of the United States missed out on the podium by seven tenths of a second, as she moved up from the outside to fourth with a lifetime best of 2:05.90. Separated from each other by a 0.03-second gap, Chinese duo Zhou Yilin (2:07.37) and Zhang Yufei (2:07.40) picked up the fifth and sixth spots respectively. Adams' teammate Hali Flickinger (2:07.71) and Australian youngster Brianna Throssell (2:07.87) closed out the field.
Notable swimmers missed the final roster, including British duo Hannah Miley and Aimee Willmott, Germany's Franziska Hentke, the reigning European champion, and Hungary's Katinka Hosszú, who later scratched the afternoon prelims to prepare herself instead for a historic medley double that happened in the evening session of the same day.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Liu Zige (CHN) | 2:01.81 | Jinan, China | 21 October 2009 |
| Olympic record | Jiao Liuyang (CHN) | 2:04.06 | London, United Kingdom | 1 August 2012 |

## Competition format

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 5 | Mireia Belmonte | Spain | 2:06.64 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 5 | Cammile Adams | United States | 2:06.67 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 2 | Hali Flickinger | United States | 2:06.67 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | Liliána Szilágyi | Hungary | 2:06.99 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | Madeline Groves | Australia | 2:07.22 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 3 | Suzuka Hasegawa | Japan | 2:07.35 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 4 | Natsumi Hoshi | Japan | 2:07.37 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 5 | Zhang Yufei | China | 2:07.55 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 4 | Franziska Hentke | Germany | 2:07.59 | Q |
| 10 | 3 | 3 | Brianna Throssell | Australia | 2:07.76 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 1 | Martina van Berkel | Switzerland | 2:08.00 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 3 | Zhou Yilin | China | 2:08.21 | Q |
| 13 | 2 | 7 | An Se-hyeon | South Korea | 2:08.42 | Q |
| 14 | 3 | 1 | Anja Klinar | Slovenia | 2:08.43 | Q |
| 15 | 2 | 6 | Alessia Polieri | Italy | 2:08.95 | Q |
| 16 | 2 | 2 | Audrey Lacroix | Canada | 2:09.21 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 8 | Stefania Pirozzi | Italy | 2:09.40 | |
| 18 | 3 | 7 | Lara Grangeon | France | 2:09.69 | |
| 19 | 2 | 1 | Aimee Willmott | Great Britain | 2:09.71 | |
| 20 | 3 | 2 | Judit Ignacio | Spain | 2:09.82 | |
| 21 | 4 | 7 | Park Jin-young | South Korea | 2:09.99 | |
| 22 | 1 | 5 | Nida Eliz Üstündağ | Turkey | 2:10.02 | |
| 23 | 2 | 8 | Andreina Pinto | Venezuela | 2:10.60 | |
| 24 | 3 | 8 | Joanna Maranhão | Brazil | 2:10.69 | |
| 25 | 1 | 4 | Helena Gasson | New Zealand | 2:12.18 | |
| 26 | 1 | 3 | Virginia Bardach | Argentina | 2:13.58 | |
| 27 | 1 | 6 | María Far Núñez | Panama | 2:23.89 | |
| | | | Katinka Hosszú | Hungary | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | Zhou Yilin | China | 2:06.52 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | Zhang Yufei | China | 2:06.95 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Brianna Throssell | Australia | 2:07.19 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | Cammile Adams | United States | 2:07.22 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Suzuka Hasegawa | Japan | 2:07.33 | |
| 6 | 5 | Liliána Szilágyi | Hungary | 2:07.34 | |
| 7 | 1 | Anja Klinar | Slovenia | 2:09.44 | |
| 8 | 8 | Audrey Lacroix | Canada | 2:09.95 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Madeline Groves | Australia | 2:05.66 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Mireia Belmonte | Spain | 2:06.06 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Natsumi Hoshi | Japan | 2:06.74 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Hali Flickinger | United States | 2:07.02 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Franziska Hentke | Germany | 2:07.67 | |
| 6 | 7 | Martina van Berkel | Switzerland | 2:07.90 | NR |
| 7 | 1 | An Se-hyeon | South Korea | 2:08.69 | |
| 8 | 8 | Alessia Polieri | Italy | 2:09.35 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 5 | Mireia Belmonte | Spain | 2:04.85 |
| | 4 | Madeline Groves | Australia | 2:04.88 |
| | 6 | Natsumi Hoshi | Japan | 2:05.20 |
| 4 | 8 | Cammile Adams | United States | 2:05.90 |
| 5 | 3 | Zhou Yilin | China | 2:07.37 |
| 6 | 2 | Zhang Yufei | China | 2:07.40 |
| 7 | 7 | Hali Flickinger | United States | 2:07.71 |
| 8 | 1 | Brianna Throssell | Australia | 2:07.87 |