Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metre individual medley

Women's 400 metre individual medley
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad

Stephanie Rice
Competitors 38
Medalists
  Stephanie Rice   Australia
  Kirsty Coventry   Zimbabwe
  Katie Hoff   United States
«2004 2012»
Swimming events at the
2008 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
Marathon
10 km men women

The women's 400 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 9-10 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of eight lengths of the pool. The first two lengths were swum using the butterfly stroke, the second pair with the backstroke, the third pair of lengths in breaststroke, and the final two were freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events anyway.

Five heats were held, with most containing the maximum number of swimmers (eight). The heat in which a swimmer competed did not formally matter for advancement, as the swimmers with the top eight times from the entire field qualified for the final; there, they all competed in a single final heat to earn final placements.

The qualifying standards were for the 2008 event were 4:45.10 (A norm) and 4:55.06 (B norm). Nations with two or more swimmers meeting the A standard could enter any two such swimmers; otherwise, they could enter a single swimmer meeting the B standard.

Contents

Records

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

World record  Katie Hoff (USA) 4:31.12 Omaha, USA 29 June 2008 [1]
Olympic record  Yana Klochkova (UKR) 4:33.59 Sydney, Australia 16 September 2000 -

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

Date Event Name Nationality Time OR WR
August 10 Final Stephanie Rice Australia 4:29.45 OR WR

Heats

Rank Name Nationality Time Heat Lane Notes
1 Elizabeth Beisel United States 4:34.55 3 4 Q
2 Katie Hoff United States 4:34.63 5 4 Q
3 Alessia Filippi Italy 4:35.11 3 5 Q
3 Stephanie Rice Australia 4:35.11 4 4 Q
5 Yana Martinova Russia 4:36.25 3 3 Q
6 Li Xuanxu China 4:36.35 4 3 Q
7 Kirsty Coventry Zimbabwe 4:36.43 4 5 Q
8 Hannah Miley Great Britain 4:36.56 5 5 Q
9 Katarzyna Baranowska Poland 4:36.95 4 7 NR
10 Katheryn Meaklim South Africa 4:37.11 4 1
11 Maiko Fujino Japan 4:37.35 3 7
12 Katinka Hosszú Hungary 4:37.55 5 3
13 Zsuzsanna Jakabos Hungary 4:37.86 5 2
14 Mireia Belmonte Spain 4:37.91 5 7
15 Keri-Anne Payne Great Britain 4:38.69 3 6
16 Anja Klinar Slovenia 4:38.90 5 8
17 Joanna Maranhão Brazil 4:40.18 2 3
18 Sara Nordenstam Norway 4:40.28 2 7 NR
19 Camille Muffat France 4:40.29 4 6
20 Tanya Hunks Canada 4:40.63 3 8
21 Jessica Pengelly South Africa 4:41.04 5 1
22 Samantha Hamill Australia 4:41.89 3 1
23 Joanne Andraca France 4:43.88 5 6
24 Helen Norfolk New Zealand 4:44.22 3 2
25 Liu Jing China 4:44.96 2 5
26 Jördis Steinegger Austria 4:45.15 2 1
27 Saori Haruguchi Japan 4:45.22 4 2
28 Yu-seon Nam South Korea 4:46.74 1 3
29 Alexa Komarnycky Canada 4:46.98 4 8
30 Susana Escobar Mexico 4:47.32 2 8
31 Svetlana Karpeeva Russia 4:50.22 2 6
32 Ting Wen Quah Singapore 4:51.25 1 6
33 Katharina Schiller Germany 4:51.52 2 2
34 Yih Way Lew Malaysia 4:55.83 1 4
35 Anna-Liisa Põld Estonia 4:58.21 1 5
36 Georgina Bardach Argentina 5:00.87 2 4
37 Nimitta Thaveesupsoonthorn Thailand 5:02.18 1 7
38 Maroua Mathlouthi Tunisia DNS 1 2

Final

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
6 Stephanie Rice Australia 4:29.45 WR
1 Kirsty Coventry Zimbabwe 4:29.89 AF
5 Katie Hoff United States 4:31.71
4 4 Elizabeth Beisel United States 4:34.24
5 3 Alessia Filippi Italy 4:34.34
6 8 Hannah Miley Great Britain 4:39.44
7 2 Yana Martinova Russia 4:40.04
8 7 Li Xuanxu China 4:42.13

AF = African record

References

  1. ^ Crouse, Karen (2008-06-30). "Rival’s fast finish propels Phelps to another record". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/sports/olympics/30swimming.html. Retrieved 2008-08-06.