In the women’s 200-meter breaststroke at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Tatjana Schoenmaker triumphed.
In doing so, Schoenmaker set a new world record with a time of 2:18.95, beating out the previous mark by over a full minute..
Lilly King made a great start and was in the lead at the halfway point, swimming at a pace that would have broken the world record. King and Schoenmaker eventually became the only two women in the race. Schoenmaker made up ground in the final 50 metres of the race.
King took home the silver, and Annie Lazor beat off Evgeniia Chikunova for the bronze.
The Complete Results of the Women’s 200-Meter Breaststroke
- Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa won the gold medal (2:18.95)
- In the United States, Lilly King took home the silver (2:19.92)
- Annie Lazor of the USA won bronze (2:20.84)
- Evgeniia Chikunova of the Russian Open University placed fourth (2:20.88)
- Kaylene Corbett of South Africa placed 5th (2:22.06)
- The British athlete Molly Renshaw placed sixth. (2:22.65)
- Abbie Wood of the United Kingdom (2:23.72)
- Fanny Lecluyse of Belgium placed eighth (2:24.57)
Not long after finishing second in the 100-meter breaststroke, Schoenmaker paced the field in the semifinals with a time of 2:19.33. In her preliminary heat, she had touched the wall in a new Olympic record time of 2:19.16.
Consequently, the 24-year-old South African was the clear favourite to win the final.
Schoenmaker was as good as advertised. Although King had the advantage in the opening 100 metres, she was helpless against the oncoming tidal wave that was sweeping down Lane 4.
Schoenmaker’s first Olympic experience has been a resounding success.
King swam a much better finals time than her semifinals time of 2:22.27, as she won silver in the 200-meter breaststroke five years after she did not even advance past the semifinals in Rio.
With her teammate Lazor there to celebrate with her, King can get over the fact that they didn’t win on a night when they needed to make history.
Men’s 200-Meter Breaststroke
On Thursday, the men’s 200-meter breaststroke final at the Olympic Games in Tokyo concluded as follows:
- Australia’s Izaac Stubblety-Cook wins in 2:06.38 OR
- Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, 2nd place, 2:07.01
- Finland’s Matti Mattsson (2:07.13)
- Anton Chupkov of the ROC, 2:07.24
- 2 minutes, 7.93 seconds, USA’s Nic Fink
- Britain’s James Wilby (2:08.19)
- Japan’s Ryuya Mura (2:08.42).
- Sweden’s Erik Persson, who clocked in at 2 minutes, 08 seconds, and
