# Swimming at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships – Women's 200 metre freestyle

The Women's 200m Freestyle event at the 10th FINA World Aquatics Championships swam on 22–23 July 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. Preliminary and semifinal heats swam on July 22, while the Final swam on July 23.
Prior to the event, the World (WR) and Championship (CR) records were:
* WR: 1:56.64 swum by Franziska van Almsick (Germany) on August 3, 2002 in Berlin, Germany
* CR: 1:56.78 swum by Franziska van Almsick (Germany) on September 6, 1994 in Rome, Italy

## Results
### Final

| Place | Swimmer | Nation | Time |
| 1 | Alena Popchanka | Belarus | 1:58.32 |
| 2 | Martina Moravcová | Slovakia | 1:58.44 |
| 3 | Yang Yu | China | 1:58.54 |
| 4 | Lindsay Benko | USA | 1:58.84 |
| 5 | Solenne Figuès | France | 1:59.27 |
| 6 | Josefin Lillhage | Sweden | 1:59.28 |
| 7 | Elka Graham | Australia | 1:59.46 |
| 8 | Rhi Jeffrey | USA | 1:59.81 |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat + Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | S2 L4 | Lindsay Benko | USA | 1:59.13 | q |
| 2 | S1 L5 | Elka Graham | Australia | 1:59.37 | q |
| 3 | S1 L3 | Solenne Figuès | France | 1:59.38 | q |
| 4 | S2 L6 | Alena Popchanka | Belarus | 1:59.50 | q |
| 5 | S1 L4 | Yu Yang | China | 1:59.51 | q |
| 6 | S2 L5 | Josefin Lillhage | Sweden | 1:59.62 | q |
| 7 | S1 L2 | Rhi Jeffrey | USA | 1:59.76 | q |
| 8 | S1 L6 | Martina Moravcová | Slovakia | 1:59.79 | q |
| 9 | S2 L1 | Zoi Dimoschaki | Greece | 1:59.93 | |
| 10 | S2 L7 | Xu Yanwei | China | 2:00.32 | |
| 11 | S1 L8 | Karen Pickering | Great Britain | 2:00.89 | |
| 12 | S2 L3 | Melanie Marshall | Great Britain | 2:01.05 | |
| 13 | S1 L1 | Petra Dallmann | Germany | 2:01.20 | |
| 14 | S2 L2 | Tomoko Nagai | Japan | 2:01.69 | |
| 15 | S1 L7 | Mariana Brochado | Brazil | 2:01.74 | |
| 16 | S2 L8 | Kim Hyun-Joo | South Korea | 2:01.88 | |

### Preliminaries

| Rank | Heat+Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | H7 L4 | Lindsay Benko | United States | 1:58.84 | q |
| 2 | H9 L4 | Yang Yu | China | 2:00.32 | q |
| 3 | H8 L6 | Josefin Lillhage | Sweden | 2:00.33 | q |
| 4 | H8 L5 | Elka Graham | Australia | 2:00.36 | q |
| 5 | H7 L3 | Melanie Marshall | Great Britain | 2:00.41 | q |
| 6 | H7 L5 | Solenne Figuès | France | 2:00.46 | q |
| 6 | H8 L4 | Alena Popchanka | Belarus | 2:00.46 | q |
| 8 | H9 L3 | Martina Moravcová | Slovakia | 2:00.55 | q |
| 9 | H7 L2 | Tomoko Nagai | Japan | 2:00.62 | q |
| 10 | H9 L2 | Rhi Jeffrey | United States | 2:00.72 | q |
| 11 | H9 L5 | Xu Yanwei | China | 2:00.82 | q |
| 12 | H9 L8 | Mariana Brochado | Brazil | 2:01.17 | q |
| 13 | H7 L6 | Zoi Dimoschaki | Greece | 2:01.28 | q |
| 13 | H9 L6 | Petra Dallmann | Germany | 2:01.28 | q |
| 15 | H7 L7 | Kim Hyun-Joo | South Korea | 2:01.50 | q |
| 16 | H8 L3 | Karen Pickering | Great Britain | 2:01.57 | q |
| 17 | H8 L2 | Kirsten Thomson | Australia | 2:01.78 | |
| 18 | H6 L6 | Helen Norfolk | New Zealand | 2:02.21 | |
| 19 | H6 L5 | Paulina Barzycka | Poland | 2:02.25 | |
| 20 | H6 L1 | Elina Partõka | Estonia | 2:02.27 | |
| 21 | H8 L1 | Monique Ferreira | Brazil | 2:02.44 | |
| 22 | H9 L1 | Alessa Ries | Germany | 2:02.55 | |
| 23 | H8 L7 | Julie Hjorth-Hansen | Denmark | 2:02.56 | |
| 24 | H8 L8 | Hanna Miluska | Switzerland | 2:02.65 | |
| 25 | H6 L8 | Petra Banović | Croatia | 2:02.77 | |
| 26 | H6 L3 | Ida Mattsson | Sweden | 2:02.91 | |
| 27 | H6 L2 | Polina Shornikova | Russia | 2:02.92 | |
| 28 | H5 L2 | Florencia Szigeti | Argentina | 2:03.13 | |
| 29 | H9 L7 | Alison Fitch | New Zealand | 2:03.17 | |
| 30 | H7 L8 | Daria Parshina | Russia | 2:03.21 | |
| 31 | H5 L7 | Nicole Zahnd | Switzerland | 2:03.46 | |
| 32 | H6 L4 | Nina Van Koeckhoven | Belgium | 2:03.63 | |
| 33 | H5 L1 | Anja Čarman | Slovenia | 2:04.03 | |
| 34 | H5 L3 | Vesna Stojanovska | Macedonia | 2:04.09 | |
| 35 | H6 L7 | Marianne Limpert | Canada | 2:04.14 | |
| 36 | H5 L4 | Melissa Corfe | South Africa | 2:04.73 | |
| 37 | H5 L8 | Lára Hrund Bjargardóttir | Iceland | 2:04.90 | |
| 38 | H4 L3 | Maria Albert | Estonia | 2:05.40 | |
| 39 | H5 L6 | Eleni Kosti | Greece | 2:06.09 | |
| 40 | H4 L4 | Agnese Ozoliņa | Latvia | 2:07.13 | |
| 41 | H5 L5 | Pilin Tachakittiranan | Thailand | 2:07.18 | |
| 42 | H4 L5 | Sze Hang Yu | Hong Kong | 2:07.86 | |
| 43 | H3 L4 | Lauren Roets | South Africa | 2:08.99 | |
| 44 | H4 L1 | Diana Lopez | Venezuela | 2:09.68 | |
| 45 | H4 L2 | Golda Marcus | El Salvador | 2:10.39 | |
| 46 | H4 L7 | Khadija Ciss | Senegal | 2:10.66 | |
| 47 | H3 L7 | Anna-Liza Mopio | Papua New Guinea | 2:11.05 | |
| 48 | H3 L5 | Yelena Skalinskaya | Kazakhstan | 2:11.38 | |
| 49 | H4 L8 | Johana Rodriguez | Costa Rica | 2:11.61 | |
| 50 | H3 L3 | Carolina Cerqueda | Andorra | 2:11.97 | |
| 51 | H4 L6 | Andrea de Leon | Uruguay | 2:12.54 | |
| 52 | H2 L4 | Ambica Iyengar | India | 2:13.63 | |
| 53 | H3 L2 | Magdalena Sutanto | Indonesia | 2:14.35 | |
| 54 | H3 L6 | Roberta Callus | Malta | 2:14.72 | |
| 55 | H3 L8 | Shrone Austin | Seychelles | 2:15.47 | |
| 56 | H3 L1 | Man Wai Fong | Macau | 2:17.48 | |
| 57 | H2 L2 | Jakie Wellman | Zambia | 2:18.91 | |
| 58 | H2 L5 | Roshendra Vrolijk | Aruba | 2:20.42 | |
| 59 | H2 L6 | Sade Daal | Suriname | 2:22.26 | |
| 60 | H2 L7 | Eva Donde | Kenya | 2:26.69 | |
| 61 | H2 L3 | Ghazal El Jobeili | Lebanon | 2:31.83 | |
| 62 | H1 L5 | Tojohanitra Andriamanjatoarimanana | Madagascar | 2:36.40 | |
| 63 | H1 L3 | N. Ravojanahary | Madagascar | 2:40.12 | |
| - | - | Brittany Reimer | Canada | DNS | |
| - | - | Genevieve Meledje Lasm Quissoh | Ivory Coast | DNS | |