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

The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 21 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States. This race was one of the exciting swimming events where athletes from around the world competed to be the fastest. Swimming in a pool that is 200 metres long, the competitors raced in a straight line to the finish. The Georgia Tech Aquatic Center was a special place built just for these Olympic games, and many young fans watched with excitement to see who would win.

Records

Before this swimming event, there were already some very fast times recorded in swimming history. These fast times were known as world records and Olympic records. The world records were the fastest times ever swum anywhere in the world, while Olympic records were the fastest times swum during Olympic Games. These records were the benchmarks that swimmers aimed to beat in the competition.

Results

The women's 200 metre freestyle swimming event at the 1996 Summer Olympics happened on July 21 at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States. Swimmers competed in heats to decide who would move on to the finals.

The eight fastest swimmers from the heats advanced to Final A, while the next eight went to Final B. The results of these finals are shown in the tables below.

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time
1	6	4	Franziska van Almsick	Germany	1:59.40
2	5	4	Claudia Poll	Costa Rica	1:59.87
3	5	5	Trina Jackson	United States	2:00.29
4	5	3	Dagmar Hase	Germany	2:00.38
5	5	6	Julia Greville	Australia	2:00.44
6	6	5	Cristina Teuscher	United States	2:00.57
7	5	7	Luminița Dobrescu	Romania	2:00.85
8	4	6	Susie O'Neill	Australia	2:00.89
9	4	3	Martina Moravcová	Slovakia	2:00.99
10	4	4	Suzu Chiba	Japan	2:01.11
11	6	2	Louise Jöhncke	Sweden	2:01.13
12	6	7	Karen Pickering	Great Britain	2:01.46
13	4	1	Dionne Bainbridge	New Zealand	2:02.69
14	5	1	Solenne Figuès	France	2:02.74
15	3	2	Antonia Machaira	Greece	2:03.21
16	6	3	Chen Yan	China	2:03.32
17	4	2	Joanne Malar	Canada	2:03.53
18	3	4	Paula Harmokivi	Finland	2:03.54
19	4	8	Kristýna Kyněrová	Czech Republic	2:03.63
20	4	7	Naoko Imoto	Japan	2:03.78
21	5	8	Olena Lapunova	Ukraine	2:04.07
22	6	1	Tatyana Litovchenko	Russia	2:04.09
23	4	5	Shan Ying	China	2:04.29
24	5	8	Malin Nilsson	Sweden	2:04.39
25	6	6	Lorena Diaconescu	Romania	2:04.59
26	2	4	Sandra Cam	Belgium	2:04.90
27	3	8	Marion Madine	Ireland	2:04.92
28	2	1	Carolyn Adel	Suriname	2:05.04
29	3	1	Ana Alegria	Portugal	2:05.16
30	2	5	Helene Muller	South Africa	2:05.59
31	2	6	Ravee Intporn-Udom	Thailand	2:05.77
32	2	3	Lee Jie-hyun	South Korea	2:05.78
33	2	2	Inga Borodich	Belarus	2:05.85
34	3	5	Rania Elwani	Egypt	2:06.94
35	3	6	Chang Wei-chia	Chinese Taipei	2:06.97
36	6	8	Mia Muusfeldt	Denmark	2:07.29
37	2	7	Maritza Chiaway	Peru	2:07.80
38	3	3	Chantal Strasser	Switzerland	2:07.98
39	3	3	Joscelin Yeo	Singapore	2:08.10
40	1	5	Teresa Moodie	Zimbabwe	2:08.23
41	1	4	Laura Petrutytė	Lithuania	2:09.78
42	1	3	Marina Zarma	Cyprus	2:10.85

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time
9	4	Martina Moravcová	Slovakia	2:00.96
10	5	Suzu Chiba	Japan	2:01.00
11	3	Louise Jöhncke	Sweden	2:01.37
12	7	Solenne Figuès	France	2:01.47
13	6	Karen Pickering	Great Britain	2:02.58
14	1	Antonia Machaira	Greece	2:03.19
15	2	Dionne Bainbridge	New Zealand	2:03.20
16	8	Joanne Malar	Canada	2:03.79

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time
	5	Claudia Poll	Costa Rica	1:58.16
	4	Franziska van Almsick	Germany	1:58.57
	6	Dagmar Hase	Germany	1:59.56
4	3	Trina Jackson	United States	1:59.57
5	8	Susie O'Neill	Australia	1:59.87
6	7	Cristina Teuscher	United States	2:00.79
7	2	Julia Greville	Australia	2:01.46
8	1	Luminița Dobrescu	Romania	2:01.63