The women's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 15 and 16.

U.S. swimmer Natalie Coughlin won the gold medal in this event, outside the record time of 1:00.37. The silver medal was awarded to Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, who finished behind Coughlin by 0.13 of a second, breaking an African record of 1:00.50. France's Laure Manaudou, who won the gold in the 400 m freestyle on the previous day, took home the bronze medal, with a time of 1:00.88. In the semifinals, Coughlin lowered an Olympic record time of 1:00.21, set by Romania's Diana Mocanu in Sydney (2000), to 1:00.17.

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

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

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 15 Semifinal 2 Natalie Coughlin 1:00.17

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 4 Laure Manaudou 1:01.27 Q 2 4 5 Reiko Nakamura 1:01.39 Q 3 6 4 Natalie Coughlin 1:01.45 Q 4 3 5 Kirsty Coventry 1:01.60 Q, AF 5 4 6 Noriko Inada 1:01.67 Q 6 5 4 Antje Buschschulte 1:01.68 Q 7 6 5 Nina Zhivanevskaya 1:01.75 Q 8 4 3 Stanislava Komarova 1:01.84 Q 9 4 7 Ilona Hlaváčková 1:01.95 Q 10 5 7 Giaan Rooney 1:01.96 Q 11 5 3 Haley Cope 1:01.99 Q 12 6 3 Katy Sexton 1:02.01 Q13 5 5 Louise Ørnstedt 1:02.17 Q 6 7 Sarah Price Q 15 6 2 Gao Chang 1:02.19 Q 16 4 2 Zhan Shu 1:02.39 Q17 4 1 Erin Gammel 1:02.47 3 4 Sanja Jovanović 19 5 6 Iryna Amshennikova 1:02.57 20 5 8 Marieke Guehrer 1:02.76 21 6 8 Nikolett Szepesi 1:02.78 22 5 2 Hannah McLean 1:03.09 23 6 6 Janine Pietsch 1:03.13 24 4 8 Shim Min-ji 1:03.14 25 3 3 Sviatlana Khakhlova 1:03.25 26 6 1 Alessandra Cappa 1:03.50 27 3 2 Gisela Morales 1:03.72 28 3 6 Anna Gostomelsky 1:04.06 29 5 1 Alexandra Putra 1:04.13 30 3 8 Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai 1:04.25 31 2 5 Kiera Aitken 1:04.37 32 2 1 Chonlathorn Vorathamrong 1:05.15 33 3 1 Eirini Karastergiou 1:05.30 34 2 4 Şadan Derya Erke 1:05.38 35 2 3 Serrana Fernández 1:05.51 36 3 7 Hanna-Maria Seppälä 1:05.55 37 2 2 Fu Hsiao-han 1:06.62 38 2 7 Anastassiya Prilepa 1:07.55 39 1 4 Lenient Obia 1:09.95 40 1 5 Ana Galindo 1:11.80 41 2 6 Olga Gnedovskaya 1:15.33 42 1 3 Yelena Rojkova 1:15.48

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 Antje Buschschulte 1:00.94 Q 2 5 Kirsty Coventry 1:01.21 Q, AF 3 4 Reiko Nakamura 1:01.24 Q 4 2 Giaan Rooney 1:01.41 OC 5 6 Stanislava Komarova 1:01.63 6 7 Katy Sexton 1:01.96 7 8 Zhan Shu 1:02.10 8 1 Sarah Price 1:02.48

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Natalie Coughlin 1:00.17 Q, 2 4 Laure Manaudou 1:00.88 Q 3 1 Louise Ørnstedt 1:01.12 Q 4 7 Haley Cope 1:01.13 Q 5 6 Nina Zhivanevskaya 1:01.19 Q 6 3 Noriko Inada 1:01.74 7 2 Ilona Hlaváčková 1:01.81 8 8 Gao Chang 1:02.17

Final Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 4 Natalie Coughlin 1:00.37 1 Kirsty Coventry 1:00.50 AF 5 Laure Manaudou 1:00.88 4 8 Reiko Nakamura 1:01.05 5 7 Nina Zhivanevskaya 1:01.12 6 3 Antje Buschschulte 1:01.39 7 6 Louise Ørnstedt 1:01.51 8 2 Haley Cope 1:01.76

References

External links Official Olympic Report