Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre freestyle
| Women's 200 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
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| Venue | Beijing National Aquatics Center | ||||||||||||
| Date | August 11, 2008 (heats) August 12, 2008(semifinals) August 13, 2008 (final) |
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| Competitors | 46 from 37 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:54.82 WR | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Federica Pellegrini |
 Italy
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Sara Isakovič |
 Slovenia
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Pang Jiaying |
 China
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The women's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Italy's Federica Pellegrini broke a new world record of 1:54.82 to claim a gold medal in the event, which was probably the weakest on the female program. Sara Isakovič, who finished behind Pellegrini by 0.15 of a second, cleared a 1:55 barrier to set a new Slovenian record of 1:54.97, and ultimately become the nation's first ever medalist in swimming. China's Pang Jiaying edged out U.S. swimmer Katie Hoff on the final lap to pick up a bronze in 1:55.05. Hoff settled only for fourth place in an American record of 1:55.78.
Defending champion Camelia Potec finished outside the medals in fifth place, posting a Romanian record of 1:56.87. Great Britain's Caitlin McClatchey earned a sixth spot in 1:57.65, and was followed by a seventh-place tie between Australia's Bronte Barratt and France's Ophélie-Cyrielle Étienne in a matching time of 1:57.83. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went faster than a winning time of 1:58.03, previously set by Potec in Athens four years earlier.
Earlier in the prelims, Pang broke one of the oldest Olympic records in the book, when she clocked at 1:57.37 to lead the fourth heat, slashing 0.28 seconds off the old, drug-tainted mark set by East Germany's Heike Friedrich from Seoul in 1988. Two heats later, Pellegrini posted a top-seeded time of 1:55.45 to erase Laure Manaudou's world record, set in 2007.
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
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