Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Women's 50 metre freestyle

Women's 50 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad
VenueSydney International Aquatic Centre
Date22 September 2000 (heats &
semifinals)
23 September 2000 (final)
Competitors74 from 66 nations
Winning time24.32
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Inge de Bruijn  Netherlands
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Therese Alshammar  Sweden
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Dara Torres  United States
← 1996
2004 →
Swimming at the
2000 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 mmenwomen
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
800 mwomen
1500 mmen
Backstroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Breaststroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Butterfly
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Individual medley
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
Freestyle relay
4 × 100 mmenwomen
4 × 200 mmenwomen
Medley relay
4 × 100 mmenwomen

The women's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 22–23 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.[1]

Dutch rising star Inge de Bruijn added a third gold to her medal tally in swimming at these Games. She powered past the field to touch the wall first in 24.32, the second-fastest of all-time.[2][3] Earlier in the semifinals, she blasted her own world record of 24.13 to snatch a top seed for the final.[4] Sweden's Therese Alshammar captured the silver in 24.51, while U.S. legend Dara Torres powered home with the bronze in a new American record of 24.63, edging out defending Olympic champion Amy Van Dyken (25.04) by 41-hundredths of a second. The podium placements also replicated the results of the 100 m freestyle (with the exception of Jenny Thompson), held on the sixth night of the Games.[5][6]

Slovakia's Martina Moravcová finished off the podium in fifth place at 25.24, and was followed in the sixth spot by Germany's Sandra Völker in 25.27. Great Britain's Alison Sheppard (25.45) and Japan's Sumika Minamoto (25.65) closed out the field.[6]

Notable swimmers missed out the top 8 final, featuring Australia's overwhelming favorite Susie O'Neill; Völker's teammate Katrin Meissner, who shared bronze medals with Jill Sterkel in the event's inception in 1988 as a member of the former East German squad; and Estonia's Jana Kolukanova, who grabbed the final spot from the prelims after winning a three-person swimoff.[7]

One of the most popular highlights in the event took place in the first heat. Dubbed as the Crawler, Paula Barila Bolopa had finally completed a unique double for Equatorial Guinea, as she swam the slowest ever race by a female in Olympic history with a time of 1:03.97.[8]

Records

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

World record  Inge de Bruijn (NED) 24.39 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 10 June 2000 [9]
Olympic record  Yang Wenyi (CHN) 24.79 Barcelona, Spain 31 July 1992 [9]

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

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record
22 September Heat 10 Inge de Bruijn  Netherlands 24.46 OR
22 September Semifinal 2 Inge de Bruijn  Netherlands 24.13 WR

Results

Heats

[9]

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 10 4 Inge de Bruijn  Netherlands 24.46 Q, OR
2 8 4 Dara Torres  United States 24.96 Q
3 10 5 Amy Van Dyken  United States 25.04 Q
4 9 4 Therese Alshammar  Sweden 25.24 Q
5 10 7 Martina Moravcová  Slovakia 25.39 Q, NR
6 9 5 Sandra Völker  Germany 25.44 Q
7 10 3 Sumika Minamoto  Japan 25.52 Q
10 1 Vivienne Rignall  New Zealand Q, NR
9 8 5 Alison Sheppard  Great Britain 25.53 Q
10 10 2 Katrin Meissner  Germany 25.64 Q
11 10 6 Olga Mukomol  Ukraine 25.67 Q
12 8 7 Susie O'Neill  Australia 25.73 Q, OC
13 8 6 Anna-Karin Kammerling  Sweden 25.79 Q
14 9 3 Wilma van Rijn  Netherlands 25.81 Q
15 6 6 Rania Elwani  Egypt 25.87 Q, NR
16 6 7 Mette Jacobsen  Denmark 25.96 QSO
7 8 Jana Kolukanova  Estonia QSO
9 7 Ana Belén Palomo  Spain QSO
19 8 2 Cristina Chiuso  Italy 25.99
20 8 3 Sue Rolph  Great Britain 26.00
21 9 1 Han Xue  China 26.01
22 8 8 Nadine Rolland  Canada 26.04
23 8 1 Sarah Ryan  Australia 26.05
6 1 Leah Martindale  Barbados
25 9 8 Helene Muller  South Africa 26.07
26 7 6 Alena Popchanka  Belarus 26.10
27 9 2 Eileen Coparropa  Panama 26.19
28 7 4 Liesbet Dreesen  Belgium 26.21
7 7 Hanna-Maria Seppälä  Finland
30 7 5 Ivana Walterová  Slovakia 26.23
31 9 6 Judith Draxler  Austria 26.26
32 6 3 Siobhan Cropper  Trinidad and Tobago 26.36
33 7 3 Yekaterina Kibalo  Russia 26.37
34 6 5 Lara Heinz  Luxembourg 26.55
35 6 8 Caroline Pickering  Fiji 26.57
36 6 2 Kirsty Coventry  Zimbabwe 26.58
37 7 1 Joscelin Yeo  Singapore 26.71
38 10 8 Jenna Gresdal  Canada 26.79
39 1 4 Moe Thu Aung  Myanmar 26.80
40 5 2 Chiang Tzu-ying  Chinese Taipei 26.84
41 6 4 Chang Hee-jin  South Korea 26.88
4 3 Yekaterina Tochenaya  Kyrgyzstan NR
43 7 2 Athina Bochori  Greece 26.90
44 5 8 Agnese Ozoliņa  Latvia 27.28
45 5 3 Pilin Tachakittiranan  Thailand 27.31
46 5 4 Marijana Šurković  Croatia 27.32
47 5 7 Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai  Hong Kong 27.38
48 5 6 Chantal Gibney  Ireland 27.46
49 4 6 Angela Chuck  Jamaica 27.48
50 5 1 Jūratė Ladavičiūtė  Lithuania 27.54
51 5 5 Elín Sigurðardóttir  Iceland 27.58
52 4 5 Marilyn Chua  Malaysia 27.66
53 4 4 Duška Radan  FR Yugoslavia 27.70
54 4 1 Maria Tregubova  Moldova 27.75
55 4 7 Saida Iskandarova  Uzbekistan 28.08
56 4 2 Talía Barrios  Peru 28.11
57 3 5 Ngozi Monu  Nigeria 28.20
58 3 7 Tanya Anacleto  Mozambique 28.78
59 3 4 Alisa Khaleyeva  Azerbaijan 28.79
60 3 8 Sherri Henry  Saint Lucia 28.81
61 3 6 Mbolatiana Ramanisa  Madagascar 29.20
62 3 2 Roshendra Vrolijk  Aruba 29.31
63 3 3 Yuliana Mikheeva  Armenia 29.79
64 2 5 Theekshana Ratnasekera  Sri Lanka 29.88
65 2 3 Samar Nassar  Palestine 30.05
66 2 6 Runa Pradhan  Nepal 31.28
67 2 2 Teran Matthews  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 31.71
68 3 1 Francilla Agar  Dominica 32.22
69 2 7 Fariha Fathimath  Maldives 32.36
70 2 1 Hem Raksmey  Cambodia 33.11
71 2 4 Noor Haki  Iraq 35.51
72 4 8 Aissatou Barry  Guinea 35.79
73 1 3 Paula Barila Bolopa  Equatorial Guinea 1:03.97
1 5 Fatema Hameed Gerashi  Bahrain DSQ

Swimoff

[10]

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 5 Jana Kolukanova  Estonia 25.87 Q, NR
2 4 Mette Jacobsen  Denmark 26.00
3 Ana Belén Palomo  Spain DSQ

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 5 Therese Alshammar  Sweden 24.80 Q
2 4 Dara Torres  United States 24.98 Q
3 3 Sandra Völker  Germany 25.22 Q
4 6 Sumika Minamoto  Japan 25.43 Q
5 2 Katrin Meissner  Germany 25.62
6 7 Susie O'Neill  Australia 25.74
7 1 Wilma van Rijn  Netherlands 25.87
8 8 Jana Kolukanova  Estonia 26.03

Semifinal 2

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1 4 Inge de Bruijn  Netherlands 24.13 Q, WR
2 5 Amy Van Dyken  United States 25.00 Q
3 2 Alison Sheppard  Great Britain 25.32 Q
4 3 Martina Moravcová  Slovakia 25.49 Q
5 1 Anna-Karin Kammerling  Sweden 25.61
5 6 Vivienne Rignall  New Zealand 25.61
7 7 Olga Mukomol  Ukraine 25.88
8 8 Rania Elwani  Egypt 25.95

Final

Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 4 Inge de Bruijn  Netherlands 24.32
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 Therese Alshammar  Sweden 24.51
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 3 Dara Torres  United States 24.63 AM
4 6 Amy Van Dyken  United States 25.04
5 8 Martina Moravcová  Slovakia 25.24 NR
6 2 Sandra Völker  Germany 25.27
7 7 Alison Sheppard  Great Britain 25.45
8 1 Sumika Minamoto  Japan 25.65

References

  1. ^ "Swimming schedule". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 September 2000. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  2. ^ Clarey, Christopher (23 September 2000). "Sydney 2000 : Roundup; De Bruijn Surges For Third Gold Medal". New York Times. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  3. ^ "American Torres wins bronze". ESPN. 23 September 2000. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  4. ^ Whitten, Phillip (22 September 2000). "Olympic Day 7 Finals (50 Free, 800 Free, 200 Back, 100 Fly)". Swimming World Magazine. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  5. ^ Dillman, Lisa (23 September 2000). "She's a Goldy Little Bruijn". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  6. ^ a b Whitten, Phillip (23 September 2000). "Olympic Day 8 Finals – Complete". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  7. ^ Whitten, Phillip (22 September 2000). "Olympic Day 7 Prelims (50 Free, 1500 Free, 400 Medley Relay)". Swimming World Magazine. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  8. ^ "'Paula the Crawler' sets record". ESPN. 22 September 2000. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  9. ^ a b c "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Women's 50m Freestyle Heats" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. pp. 168–170. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  10. ^ "Sydney 2000: Swimming Results (September 22, 2000)". Sydney 2000. ESPN. Retrieved 14 June 2013.