200 metres Breaststroke, Women

Russian Yuliya Yefimova had won three of the last four World Championships in this event and was the silver medallist from Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but she did not qualify for this event at Tokyo. Also absent was the 2016 gold medallist Japan’s Rie Kaneto. The favorite for Tokyo was South African Tatjana Schoenmaker, who came in with the fastest time of the year – 2:20.17 –, had been the silver medallist at the 2019 Worlds, and had already won a silver medal in the 100 breaststroke. Other medal contenders were Americans Lilly King and Annie Lazor, Russian Olympic Committee team member Yevgeniya Chikunova and Britain’s Molly Renshaw.

The event turned out to be all Schoenmaker. In the prelims she had the fastest time by almost three seconds over King, setting an Olympic record of 2:19.16. Her semi-final time led Chikunova by over a second, Lazor by over two seconds, and King again by almost three.

In the final King actually led to 100 metres but she could not match Schoenmaker over the final two laps. The South African came home over a full second faster than King on the last 100 to set a world record of 2:18.95. Behind them Lazor took the bronze medal as Chikunova finished fourth.