Which swimmer won the women's 200m freestyle at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics?

Ariarne Titmus won the women’s 200-metre freestyle at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Representing Australia, Titmus won the final in 1 minute 53.50 seconds at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Although the Games were branded Tokyo 2020, the event was held from 26 to 28 July 2021 after the Olympics were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Titmus stayed close to Hong Kong’s Siobhán Haughey through most of the race, then surged over the final 50 metres to win. Haughey took silver in 1:53.92, while Canada’s Penny Oleksiak won bronze in 1:54.70. Titmus’s winning time set an Olympic record.

The victory was Titmus’s second individual gold medal in Tokyo; she had won the 400-metre freestyle earlier in the Games. Katie Ledecky, the defending Olympic champion in the 200-metre event, finished fifth, while Italy’s Federica Pellegrini finished seventh. Titmus later became one of the defining swimmers of the Tokyo Olympics.