The 200m individual medley (Women) is considered to be one of the most difficult events. The swimmers of 200m individual medley (Women) have to cover 200m of the pool in four different strokes. The orders of strokes are as such - Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle. The strokes should be followed in the right order. If any swimmer commits any fault in the order, she is declared disqualified for the event. The most challenging part of this event is that the swimmer needs to be equally adept in all the four strokes. The event of Individual Medley (Women) 200m is held in pools of 50m length. For every successive 50m, the swimmers swim the four strokes in the aforementioned order.
In the history of Summer Olympics, the (Women) 200m Individual Medley was introduced in 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Since then, every summer Olympics has been the witness to this challenging event. The event of Individual Medley 200m for Women is held in three phases – heats, semifinals and lastly the finals. Till date, the gold medalists of this event are as such:
Claudia Kolb
Tracey Caulkins
Shane Gould
Daniela Hunger
Michelle Smith
Yana Klochkova (twice)
Li Lin
In the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, the heats of 200m individual medley (Women) will held in the evening session of 11th August. The semifinals and the final of this event will be held in the morning sessions on 12th and 13th August respectively.
