The heats for the women's 200 m backstroke race at the 2009 World Championships took place in the morning and evening of 31 July, with the final in the evening session of 1 August at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy.

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

World record	Kirsty Coventry (ZIM)	2:05.24	Beijing, China	16 August 2008
Championship record	Margaret Hoelzer (USA)	2:07.16	Melbourne, Australia	31 March 2007

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
31 July	Heat 6	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:06.72	CR
31 July	Semifinal 2	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:05.86	CR
1 August	Final	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:04.81	WR

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Heat	Lane	Notes
1	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:06.72	6	4	CR
2	Gemma Spofforth	Great Britain	2:07.69	7	5
3	Elizabeth Beisel	USA	2:07.98	7	4
4	Belinda Hocking	Australia	2:08.07	6	3
5	Anastasia Zuyeva	Russia	2:08.11	5	5
6	Alexianne Castel	France	2:08.96	5	4
7	Elizabeth Pelton	USA	2:09.12	7	6
8	Alicja Tchórz	Poland	2:09.74	7	7	NR
9	Lauren Lavigna	Canada	2:10.03	7	8	NR
10	Tomoyo Fukuda	Japan	2:10.15	5	6
11	Pernille Jessing Larsen	Denmark	2:10.27	5	2	NR
12	Elizabeth Simmonds	Great Britain	2:10.31	5	3
13	Daryna Zevina	Ukraine	2:10.41	6	0
14	Aya Terakawa	Japan	2:10.90	6	6
15	Simona Baumrtova	Czech Republic	2:11.08	5	7
16	Sophie Edington	Australia	2:11.53	6	7
17	Zsuzsanna Jakabos	Hungary	2:11.75	6	9
18	Bai Anqi	China	2:12.26	6	2
19	Kseniya Grygorenko	Ukraine	2:12.40	5	9
20	Fernanda González	Mexico	2:12.68	5	8	NR
21	Barbara Jardin	Canada	2:13.02	7	1
22	Melanie Nocher	Ireland	2:13.04	4	3
23	Klaudia Nazieblo	Poland	2:13.42	5	1
24	Valentina Lucconi	Italy	2:14.21	6	8
25	Dina Hegazy	Egypt	2:14.76	6	1
26	Cloe Credeville	France	2:15.36	7	2
27	Lourdes Villasenor	Mexico	2:15.52	4	2
28	Anna Volchkov	Israel	2:15.61	3	4
29	Zhao Jing	China	2:15.67	6	5
30	Lau Yin Yan Claudia	Hong Kong	2:15.68	4	9
31	Lenka Jarosova	Czech Republic	2:15.79	4	4
32	Jessica Pengelly	South Africa	2:16.06	5	0
33	Kang Yeong Seo	South Korea	2:16.59	4	5
34	Martina van Berkel	Switzerland	2:17.05	7	9
35	Kiera Aitken	Bermuda	2:17.49	4	0
36	Ekaterina Avramova	Bulgaria	2:17.61	4	1
37	Anna-Liisa Põld	Estonia	2:17.82	4	7
38	Nicole Marmol	Ecuador	2:18.03	3	6
39	Nina Rangelova	Bulgaria	2:18.47	1	0
40	Anastasiya Prilepa	Kazakhstan	2:18.51	3	8
41	Yekaterina Rudenko	Kazakhstan	2:19.04	3	3
41	Dana Gales	Luxembourg	2:19.04	3	0
43	Chen Ting	Chinese Taipei	2:19.08	4	8
44	Elimar Barrios	Venezuela	2:19.40	2	5
45	Erika Stewart	Colombia	2:19.48	3	9
46	Kätlin Sepp	Estonia	2:19.65	3	1
47	Sarah Rolko	Luxembourg	2:19.71	4	6
48	Ramirez Monica	Andorra	2:20.39	2	7
49	Diana Chang	Ecuador	2:20.41	2	2
50	Juanita Barreto Barreto	Colombia	2:20.70	3	2
51	Aleksandra Kovaleva	Belarus	2:21.67	3	5
52	Maria Virginia Baez Franco	Paraguay	2:22.45	2	3
53	Lim Shana Jia Yi	Singapore	2:22.65	3	7
54	Kirsten Lapham	Zimbabwe	2:23.60	2	6
55	Rebecca Sharpe	Bermuda	2:28.90	2	4
56	Karen Vilorio	Honduras	2:29.28	1	5
57	Mariana Zaballa	Bolivia	2:29.80	2	9
58	Fong Man Wai	Macau	2:32.06	2	8
59	Sophia Noel	Grenada	2:33.66	1	6
60	Ayesha Noel	Grenada	2:35.49	1	3
61	Nicol Cremona	Malta	2:35.69	2	1
62	Che Lok In	Macau	2:36.66	2	0
63	Birita Debes	Faroe Islands	2:36.89	1	2
64	Danielle Bernadine Findlay	Zambia	2:42.73	1	1
65	Ruth Carvalho	Angola	2:44.91	1	7
66	Mahnoor Maqsood	Pakistan	3:01.14	1	8
–	Sanja Jovanović	Croatia	DNS	7	0
–	Alessia Filippi	Italy	DNS	7	3
–	Rachael Catherine Glenister	American Samoa	DSQ	1	4

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Heat	Lane	Notes
1	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:05.86	2	4	CR
2	Anastasia Zuyeva	Russia	2:07.00	2	3	NR
3	Elizabeth Simmonds	Great Britain	2:07.21	1	7	NR
4	Elizabeth Beisel	USA	2:07.48	2	5
5	Gemma Spofforth	Great Britain	2:07.64	1	4
6	Aya Terakawa	Japan	2:08.49	1	1
7	Alexianne Castel	France	2:08.77	1	3
8	Elizabeth Pelton	USA	2:09.57	2	6
9	Belinda Hocking	Australia	2:09.77	1	5
10	Tomoyo Fukuda	Japan	2:10.09	1	2
11	Pernille Jessing Larsen	Denmark	2:10.35	2	7
12	Lauren Lavigna	Canada	2:10.54	2	2
13	Sophie Edington	Australia	2:10.57	1	8
14	Daryna Zevina	Ukraine	2:10.58	2	1
15	Simona Baumrtova	Czech Republic	2:10.79	2	8	NR
16	Alicja Tchórz	Poland	2:11.06	1	6

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Lane	Notes
	Kirsty Coventry	Zimbabwe	2:04.81	4	WR
	Anastasia Zuyeva	Russia	2:04.94	5	ER
	Elizabeth Beisel	United States	2:06.39	6
4	Gemma Spofforth	Great Britain	2:06.66	2	NR
5	Elizabeth Simmonds	Great Britain	2:07.98	3
6	Elizabeth Pelton	United States	2:08.04	8
7	Alexianne Castel	France	2:08.13	1
8	Aya Terakawa	Japan	2:08.89	7

• Heats Results
• Semifinals Results
• Final Results