Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metre freestyle

Women's 800 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Women's 800 metre freestyle; at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre
Date	August 19, 2004 (heats); August 20, 2004 (final)
Competitors	31 from 26 nations
Winning time	8:24.54
Medalists
	← 2000 2008 →

The women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 19 and 20.^[1] The winning margin was 0.42 seconds which as of 2023 remains the narrowest winning margin in this event at the Olympics.

Japan's Ai Shibata became the first Asian swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal in long-distance freestyle swimming, outside the record time of 8:24.54. France's Laure Manaudou, who claimed the title in the 400 m freestyle, added a silver to her medal tally, with a time of 8:24.96. U.S. swimmer Diana Munz, on the other hand, edged out her teammate Kalyn Keller for the bronze medal by 0.36 of a second, clocking at 8:26.61.^[2]^[3]

Records

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

World record	Janet Evans (USA)	8:16.22	Tokyo, Japan	20 August 1989
Olympic record	Brooke Bennett (USA)	8:19.67	Sydney, Australia	22 September 2000

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	3	Laure Manaudou	France	8:25.91	Q
2	3	2	Rebecca Cooke	Great Britain	8:28.47	Q
3	3	5	Ai Shibata	Japan	8:30.08	Q
4	2	4	Diana Munz	United States	8:30.87	Q
5	2	3	Jana Henke	Germany	8:31.86	Q
6	4	5	Kalyn Keller	United States	8:32.36	Q
7	4	6	Erika Villaécija	Spain	8:33.61	Q
8	2	6	Simona Păduraru	Romania	8:34.15	Q
9	2	2	Sarah Paton	Australia	8:35.81
10	3	6	Linda Mackenzie	Australia	8:35.90
11	4	2	Chen Hua	China	8:36.24
12	3	4	Sachiko Yamada	Japan	8:36.48
13	4	7	Flavia Rigamonti	Switzerland	8:38.10
14	4	4	Hannah Stockbauer	Germany	8:38.17
15	4	8	Kristel Köbrich	Chile	8:40.41
16	3	3	Camelia Potec	Romania	8:41.20
17	2	5	Brittany Reimer	Canada	8:41.55
18	2	1	Marianna Lymperta	Greece	8:42.65
19	3	1	Jana Pechanová	Czech Republic	8:47.38
20	2	7	Olga Beresnyeva	Ukraine	8:57.96
21	1	2	Golda Marcus	El Salvador	8:59.81
22	1	4	Kwon You-ri	South Korea	9:01.42
23	1	3	Jelena Petrova	Estonia	9:01.62
24	3	8	Rebecca Linton	New Zealand	9:02.41
25	1	7	Heather Roffey	Cayman Islands	9:02.88
26	2	8	Ivanka Moralieva	Bulgaria	9:03.13
27	1	6	Paola Duguet	Colombia	9:06.96
28	1	5	Anita Galić	Croatia	9:10.91
29	1	1	Khadija Ciss	Senegal	9:20.06
	3	7	Éva Risztov	Hungary	DNS
	4	1	Anja Čarman	Slovenia	DNS

Final

Rank	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time
	3	Ai Shibata	Japan	8:24.54
	4	Laure Manaudou	France	8:24.96
	6	Diana Munz	United States	8:26.61
4	7	Kalyn Keller	United States	8:26.97
5	1	Erika Villaécija	Spain	8:29.04
6	5	Rebecca Cooke	Great Britain	8:29.37
7	2	Jana Henke	Germany	8:33.95
8	8	Simona Păduraru	Romania	8:37.02

References

^ "Swimming schedule". BBC Sport. 5 August 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2007.
^ Thomas, Stephen (20 August 2004). "Japan's Ai Shibata Wins the Women's 800 With Back-Half Surge". Swimming World Magazine. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
^ "Shibata wins women's 800m freestyle". Reuters. ABC News Australia. 21 August 2004. Retrieved 20 March 2013.

External links

Official Olympic Report

[Swimming_schedule-1] "Swimming schedule". BBC Sport. 5 August 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2007.

[2] Thomas, Stephen (20 August 2004). "Japan's Ai Shibata Wins the Women's 800 With Back-Half Surge". Swimming World Magazine. Retrieved 20 March 2013.

[3] "Shibata wins women's 800m freestyle". Reuters. ABC News Australia. 21 August 2004. Retrieved 20 March 2013.

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