Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre freestyle

Women's 100 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Women's 100 metre freestyle; at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue	Beijing National Aquatics Center
Date	August 13, 2008 (heats); August 14, 2008(semifinals); August 15, 2008 (final)
Competitors	49 from 41 nations
Winning time	53.12 OR
Medalists
	← 2004 2012 →

The women's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 13–15 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.^[1]

Germany's Britta Steffen blasted a new Olympic record to claim a gold medal in the event. Coming from eighth place in the turn, she posted a time of 53.12 to edge out Australia's world record holder and top favorite Lisbeth Trickett by 0.04 of a second. Swimming in lane eight, Trickett earned a silver with an outside record time of 53.16.^[2]^[3]^[4] She narrowly reached the final as the eighth seed, when China's Pang Jiaying was disqualified for a false start in the semifinals.^[5] Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin powered home with a bronze in a matching American record of 53.39 for the second consecutive Olympics. It was Coughlin's fifth medal of these Games, matching her total from Athens four years earlier.^[6]

Competing at her third straight Olympics with Steffen, Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppälä finished outside the medals in fourth place at 53.97. Earlier, she posted a top-seeded time of 53.60 from the sixth heat to lead the prelims.^[7] She was followed in fifth place by Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen (54.06), and host nation China's Zhu Yingwen, who shared a sixth-place tie with the Netherlands' Marleen Veldhuis in 54.21. Great Britain's Francesca Halsall (54.29) closed out the field.^[2]

Records edit

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

World record	Lisbeth Trickett (AUS)	52.88	Sydney, Australia	27 March 2008	^[8]
Olympic record	Jodie Henry (AUS)	53.52	Athens, Greece	18 August 2004	-

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
August 10	Final leadoff*	Britta Steffen	Germany	53.38	OR
August 15	Final	Britta Steffen	Germany	53.12	OR

* Olympic record split from the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

Results edit

Heats edit

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	6	3	Hanna-Maria Seppälä	Finland	53.60	Q, NR
2	6	4	Britta Steffen	Germany	53.67	Q
3	6	5	Marleen Veldhuis	Netherlands	53.76	Q
4	7	5	Natalie Coughlin	United States	53.82	Q
5	5	6	Francesca Halsall	Great Britain	53.93	Q
6	7	4	Lisbeth Trickett	Australia	53.99	Q
7	6	6	Pang Jiaying	China	54.01	Q, =AS
7	7	7	Zhu Yingwen	China	54.01	Q, =AS
9	4	5	Jeanette Ottesen	Denmark	54.04	Q
10	6	2	Josefin Lillhage	Sweden	54.07	Q
11	7	3	Malia Metella	France	54.12	Q
12	5	7	Aliaksandra Herasimenia	Belarus	54.52	Q
13	5	4	Cate Campbell	Australia	54.55	Q
14	5	3	Lacey Nymeyer	United States	54.62	Q
15	7	6	Erica Morningstar	Canada	54.66	Q
16	6	7	Petra Dallmann	Germany	54.70	Q*
16	7	1	Julia Wilkinson	Canada	54.70
18	5	2	Alena Popchanka	France	54.86
19	7	8	Tatiana Barbosa	Brazil	55.01
20	6	1	Agata Ewa Korc	Poland	55.14	NR
21	6	8	Lize-Mari Retief	South Africa	55.17
22	4	3	Anna Gostomelsky	Israel	55.18
23	5	1	Martina Moravcová	Slovakia	55.20
24	5	5	Inge Dekker	Netherlands	55.23
25	4	4	Anastasia Aksenova	Russia	55.29
26	3	3	Hannah Wilson	Hong Kong	55.32
27	4	8	Darya Stepanyuk	Ukraine	55.51
28	3	4	Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace	Bahamas	55.61
29	3	2	Birgit Koschischek	Austria	55.62
30	4	2	Arlene Semeco	Venezuela	55.70
31	5	8	Jana Klusáčková	Czech Republic	55.92
32	3	1	Chang Hee-jin	South Korea	55.96
33	4	7	Triin Aljand	Estonia	56.10
34	2	5	Quah Ting Wen	Singapore	56.14
35	3	5	Ragnheidur Ragnarsdottir	Iceland	56.35
36	3	8	Anna Stylianou	Cyprus	56.38
37	3	7	Eleni Kosti	Greece	56.44
38	4	1	Miroslava Najdanovski	Serbia	56.50
39	2	6	Natthanan Junkrajang	Thailand	56.56
40	2	4	Orsolya Tompa	Hungary	56.57
41	2	7	Christel Simms	Philippines	56.67	NR
42	4	6	Maria Laura Simonetto	Italy	56.72
43	2	3	Nieh Pin-chieh	Chinese Taipei	57.28
44	3	6	Nina Sovinek	Slovenia	57.30
45	1	4	Madeleine Scerri	Malta	57.97	NR
46	2	2	Irina Shlemova	Uzbekistan	58.77
47	1	5	Elena Popovska	Macedonia	59.93
48	1	6	Olga Hachatryan	Turkmenistan	1:14.77
	7	2	Caitlin McClatchey	Great Britain	DNS

Semifinals edit

Semifinal 1 edit

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Natalie Coughlin	United States	53.70	Q
2	6	Zhu Yingwen	China	53.84	Q, AS
3	4	Britta Steffen	Germany	53.96	Q
4	3	Lisbeth Trickett	Australia	54.10	Q
5	2	Josefin Lillhage	Sweden	54.59
6	1	Lacey Nymeyer	United States	54.74
7	8	Petra Dallmann	Germany	55.05
8	7	Aliaksandra Herasimenia	Belarus	55.31

Semifinal 2 edit

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Marleen Veldhuis	Netherlands	53.81	Q
2	4	Hanna-Maria Seppälä	Finland	53.84	Q
3	3	Francesca Halsall	Great Britain	53.94	Q
4	2	Jeanette Ottesen	Denmark	54.05	Q
5	7	Malia Metella	France	54.20
6	1	Cate Campbell	Australia	54.54
7	8	Erica Morningstar	Canada	55.36
	6	Pang Jiaying	China	DSQ

Note: Lisbeth Trickett advanced to the final only when Chinese swimmer Pang Jiaying, who had finished first in the semifinals, was disqualified for a false start.

Final edit

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	7	Britta Steffen	Germany	53.12	OR
	8	Lisbeth Trickett	Australia	53.16
	4	Natalie Coughlin	United States	53.39	=AM
4	6	Hanna-Maria Seppälä	Finland	53.97
5	1	Jeanette Ottesen	Denmark	54.06
6	3	Zhu Yingwen	China	54.21
6	5	Marleen Veldhuis	Netherlands	54.21
8	2	Francesca Halsall	Great Britain	54.29

References edit

^ "Olympic Swimming Schedule". USA Today. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
^ ^a ^b Lohn, John (14 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Worst to First, Britta Steffen Wins 100 Free in Olympic Record". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
^ "Steffen wins first swimming gold for Germany". NBC Olympics. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
^ "Steffen edges Trickett for gold". BBC Sport. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
^ Lohn, John (13 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Natalie Coughlin Tops 100 Free Semis". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
^ "Coughlin claims bronze in 100 free". NBC News. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
^ Lohn, John (13 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppala Leads Qualifying in Women's 100 Free". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 May 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
^ "Trickett, Sullivan set pool alight". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 February 2008. Archived from the original on 28 March 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2008.

External links edit

Official Olympic Report

[Swimming_schedule-1] "Olympic Swimming Schedule". USA Today. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2013.

[100free-2] Lohn, John (14 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Worst to First, Britta Steffen Wins 100 Free in Olympic Record". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

[3] "Steffen wins first swimming gold for Germany". NBC Olympics. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

[4] "Steffen edges Trickett for gold". BBC Sport. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

[5] Lohn, John (13 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Natalie Coughlin Tops 100 Free Semis". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2013.

[6] "Coughlin claims bronze in 100 free". NBC News. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 18 May 2013.

[7] Lohn, John (13 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Finland's Hanna-Maria Seppala Leads Qualifying in Women's 100 Free". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 6 May 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2013.

[8] "Trickett, Sullivan set pool alight". The Sydney Morning Herald. 27 February 2008. Archived from the original on 28 March 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2008.

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