Competing in her first Olympic Games, Shreya Dhital was the youngest person to represent Nepal in the quadrennial event at the age of 17. She attained qualification into the Games by gaining a universality place from FINA because her fastest time of 1 minute, 10.82 seconds was 14.28 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for the women's 100 metre freestyle. In an interview with "The Kathmandu Post" before the Games Dhital said that she was confident about achieving a new national Nepalese swimming record. She was drawn in the event's first heat on 1 August, finishing second out of three competitors, with a time of one minute, 10.80 seconds. The swimmer's time was a new national Nepalese record. Dhital finished 47th out of 48 swimmers overall, and was unable to progress to the semi-finals after placing 16.37 seconds slower than the slowest athlete who advanced to the later stages. Following the heat's completing Dhital said that the achievement would help her improve her performance in the future.