Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Women's 200 metre backstroke

Women's 200 metre backstroke
at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Women's 200 metre backstroke; at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Venue	Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool
Date	25 September 1988 (heats & finals)
Competitors	34 from 25 nations
Winning time	2:09.29 OR
Medalists
	← 1984 1992 →

The women's 200 metre backstroke event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 25 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.^[1]

Records

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

World record	Betsy Mitchell (USA)	2:08.60	Orlando, United States	27 June 1986
Olympic record	Rica Reinisch (GDR)	2:11.77	Moscow, Soviet Union	27 July 1980

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
25 September	Heat 4	Krisztina Egerszegi	Hungary	2:11.01	OR
25 September	Heat 5	Cornelia Sirch	East Germany	2:10.46	OR
25 September	Final A	Krisztina Egerszegi	Hungary	2:09.29	OR

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

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Cornelia Sirch	East Germany	2:10.46	Q, OR
2	4	Krisztina Egerszegi	Hungary	2:11.01	Q
3	3	Kathrin Zimmermann	East Germany	2:12.81	Q
4	4	Beth Barr	United States	2:13.91	Q
5	5	Andrea Hayes	United States	2:14.77	Q
6	5	Nicole Livingstone	Australia	2:14.81	Q
7	4	Jolanda de Rover	Netherlands	2:16.58	Q
8	4	Svenja Schlicht	West Germany	2:16.81	Q
9	5	Karen Lord	Australia	2:16.94	q
10	4	Katherine Read	Great Britain	2:17.22	q
11	3	Anca Pătrășcoiu	Romania	2:17.25	q
12	4	Lorenza Vigarani	Italy	2:17.35	q
13	5	Sharon Musson	New Zealand	2:17.47	q
14	3	Johanna Larsson	Sweden	2:18.01	q
15	2	Lin Li	China	2:18.11	q
16	5	Satoko Morishita	Japan	2:18.74	q
17	5	Michelle Smith	Ireland	2:19.50
18	2	Aileen Convery	Ireland	2:19.91
19	3	Lori Melien	Canada	2:20.45
20	5	Tomoko Onogi	Japan	2:21.46
21	3	Sylvia Hume	New Zealand	2:21.55
22	4	Helen Slatter	Great Britain	2:21.66
23	4	Wang Bolin	China	2:21.70
24	2	Rita Jean Garay	Puerto Rico	2:23.73
25	3	Christine Magnier	France	2:24.15
26	2	Hong Ji-hee	South Korea	2:24.58
27	2	Eva Gysling	Switzerland	2:24.61
28	3	Katja Ziliox	West Germany	2:26.25
29	1	Ana Joselina Fortin	Honduras	2:32.13
30	1	Tricia Duncan	Virgin Islands	2:33.97
31	2	Wang Chi	Chinese Taipei	2:36.60
32	1	Sharon Pickering	Fiji	2:36.99
	2	Akiko Thomson	Philippines	DNS
	3	Ruth Hochstatter	Austria	DNS

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time
9	3	Anca Pătrășcoiu	Romania	2:15.75
10	2	Sharon Musson	New Zealand	2:16.06
11	1	Lin Li	China	2:16.68
12	5	Katherine Read	Great Britain	2:18.20
13	6	Lorenza Vigarani	Italy	2:18.69
14	4	Karen Lord	Australia	2:18.78
14	8	Satoko Morishita	Japan	2:18.78
	7	Johanna Larsson	Sweden	DSQ

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Krisztina Egerszegi	Hungary	2:09.29	OR
	3	Kathrin Zimmermann	East Germany	2:10.61
	4	Cornelia Sirch	East Germany	2:11.45
4	6	Beth Barr	United States	2:12.39
5	7	Nicole Livingstone	Australia	2:13.43
6	2	Andrea Hayes	United States	2:15.02
7	1	Jolanda de Rover	Netherlands	2:15.17
8	8	Svenja Schlicht	West Germany	2:15.94