# Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre breaststroke

The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 21 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Rebecca Brown (AUS) | 2:24.76 | Brisbane, Australia | 15 March 1994 |
| Olympic record | Kyoko Iwasaki (JPN) | 2:26.65 | Barcelona, Spain | 27 July 1992 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 23 July | Heat 4 | Penny Heyns | South Africa | 2:26.63 | OR |
| 23 July | Final A | Penny Heyns | South Africa | 2:25.41 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | Penny Heyns | South Africa | 2:26.63 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | Amanda Beard | United States | 2:28.10 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 4 | Samantha Riley | Australia | 2:28.30 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 3 | Masami Tanaka | Japan | 2:29.36 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 3 | Ágnes Kovács | Hungary | 2:29.58 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | Brigitte Becue | Belgium | 2:29.62 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 6 | Nadine Neumann | Australia | 2:29.91 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 6 | Christin Petelski | Canada | 2:30.30 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 7 | Lin Li | China | 2:30.64 | q |
| 9 | 6 | 2 | Alicja Pęczak | Poland | 2:30.64 | q |
| 11 | 4 | 3 | Kyoko Iwasaki | Japan | 2:30.84 | q |
| 12 | 6 | 1 | Marie Hardiman | Great Britain | 2:31.12 | q |
| 13 | 5 | 5 | Jilen Siroky | United States | 2:31.57 | q |
| 14 | 4 | 7 | Lena Eriksson | Sweden | 2:31.65 | q |
| 15 | 5 | 2 | Lenka Maňhalová | Czech Republic | 2:32.14 | q |
| 16 | 4 | 2 | Svitlana Bondarenko | Ukraine | 2:32.42 | q, WD |
| 17 | 4 | 1 | Julia Russell | South Africa | 2:32.44 | q |
| 18 | 4 | 8 | Elin Austevoll | Norway | 2:32.48 | |
| 19 | 4 | 6 | Riley Mants | Canada | 2:32.97 | |
| 20 | 3 | 5 | Alenka Kejžar | Slovenia | 2:33.34 | |
| 21 | 6 | 7 | Maria Östling | Sweden | 2:33.44 | |
| 22 | 5 | 1 | Yelena Makarova | Russia | 2:33.74 | |
| 23 | 3 | 6 | Lourdes Becerra | Spain | 2:33.80 | |
| 24 | 3 | 4 | Elvira Fischer | Austria | 2:33.89 | |
| 24 | 4 | 5 | Yuan Yuan | China | 2:33.89 | |
| 26 | 5 | 8 | Manuela Dalla Valle | Italy | 2:34.76 | |
| 27 | 3 | 1 | Mia Hagman | Finland | 2:36.11 | |
| 28 | 3 | 7 | Roh Joo-hee | South Korea | 2:36.20 | |
| 29 | 2 | 4 | Karine Brémond | France | 2:36.26 | |
| 30 | 2 | 6 | Isabel Ceballos | Colombia | 2:36.94 | |
| 31 | 3 | 2 | Kathrin Dumitru | Germany | 2:37.07 | |
| 32 | 3 | 8 | María Carolina Santa Cruz | Argentina | 2:37.85 | |
| 33 | 6 | 8 | Larisa Lăcustă | Romania | 2:38.08 | |
| 34 | 2 | 7 | Margarita Kalmikova | Latvia | 2:39.63 | NR |
| 35 | 1 | 3 | Erika Graf | Uruguay | 2:42.97 | |
| 36 | 2 | 3 | Mou Ying-hsin | Chinese Taipei | 2:43.94 | |
| 37 | 2 | 2 | Nádia Cruz | Angola | 2:44.24 | |
| 38 | 2 | 1 | Natália Kodajová | Slovakia | 2:45.21 | |
| 39 | 2 | 5 | Cerian Gibbes | Trinidad and Tobago | 2:45.87 | |
| 40 | 1 | 5 | Oksana Cherevko | Kyrgyzstan | 2:57.65 | |
| | 1 | 4 | Britta Vestergaard | Denmark | DNS | |
| | 3 | 3 | Anna Wilson | New Zealand | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | Lena Eriksson | Sweden | 2:28.87 | |
| 2 | 3 | Kyoko Iwasaki | Japan | 2:29.32 | |
| 3 | 1 | Lenka Maňhalová | Czech Republic | 2:29.96 | NR |
| 4 | 8 | Julia Russell | South Africa | 2:30.38 | |
| 5 | 5 | Alicja Pęczak | Poland | 2:30.99 | |
| 6 | 6 | Marie Hardiman | Great Britain | 2:31.39 | |
| 7 | 2 | Jilen Siroky | United States | 2:33.43 | |
| 8 | 4 | Lin Li | China | 2:33.45 | |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Penny Heyns | South Africa | 2:25.41 | OR |
| | 5 | Amanda Beard | United States | 2:25.75 | |
| | 2 | Ágnes Kovács | Hungary | 2:26.57 | NR |
| 4 | 3 | Samantha Riley | Australia | 2:27.91 | |
| 5 | 6 | Masami Tanaka | Japan | 2:28.05 | |
| 6 | 1 | Nadine Neumann | Australia | 2:28.34 | |
| 7 | 7 | Brigitte Becue | Belgium | 2:28.36 | NR |
| 8 | 8 | Christin Petelski | Canada | 2:31.45 | |