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

Women's 200 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Venue	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center
Date	21 July 1996 (heats & finals)
Competitors	42 from 35 nations
Winning time	1:58.16
Medalists
Claudia Poll  Costa Rica Franziska van Almsick  Germany Dagmar Hase  Germany

Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m	men	women
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Breaststroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Butterfly
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Individual medley
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m	men	women
4×200 m	men	women
Medley relay
4×100 m	men	women

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.^[1]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Franziska van Almsick (GER)	1:56.78	Rome, Italy	6 September 1994
Olympic record	Heike Friedrich (GDR)	1:57.65	Seoul, South Korea	21 September 1988

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).^[2]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	6	4	Franziska van Almsick	Germany	1:59.40	Q
2	5	4	Claudia Poll	Costa Rica	1:59.87	Q
3	5	5	Trina Jackson	United States	2:00.29	Q
4	5	3	Dagmar Hase	Germany	2:00.38	Q
5	5	6	Julia Greville	Australia	2:00.44	Q
6	6	5	Cristina Teuscher	United States	2:00.57	Q
7	5	7	Luminița Dobrescu	Romania	2:00.85	Q
8	4	6	Susie O'Neill	Australia	2:00.89	Q
9	4	3	Martina Moravcová	Slovakia	2:00.99	q
10	4	4	Suzu Chiba	Japan	2:01.11	q
11	6	2	Louise Jöhncke	Sweden	2:01.13	q, NR
12	6	7	Karen Pickering	Great Britain	2:01.46	q
13	4	1	Dionne Bainbridge	New Zealand	2:02.69	q, NR
14	5	1	Solenne Figuès	France	2:02.74	q
15	3	2	Antonia Machaira	Greece	2:03.21	q, NR
16	6	3	Chen Yan	China	2:03.32	q, WD
17	4	2	Joanne Malar	Canada	2:03.53	q
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	NR
28	2	1	Carolyn Adel	Suriname	2:05.04	NR
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

Finals

^[3]

Final B

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
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	Estonia	2:03.19	NR
15	2	Dionne Bainbridge	New Zealand	2:03.20
16	8	Joanne Malar	Canada	2:03.79

Final A

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	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

References

External links

• Official Report
• USA Swimming