SwimSwam Pulse: 53% Think a 2:19 Will Win Olympic 200 Breast Gold

SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side, or you can find the poll embedded at the bottom of this post.

Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers to pick the Olympic-winning time in the women’s 200 breast:

RESULTS

Question: What time will win Olympic gold in the women’s 200 breast?

• Sub-2:19 – 24.2%
• A 2:19 – 53.6%
• A 2:20 – 17.9%
• A 2:21 or slower – 4.2%

More than half of voters predicted a 2:19 to win the Olympic gold medal in the women’s 200 breaststroke – right at the world record-level.

The world record has held strong at 2:19.11 since 2013. Denmark’s Rikke Moller Pedersen hit that time at 2013 World Championships. Winning times at major meets since then, though, have been consistently slower than the 2:19 range. That includes 2015 Worlds (2:21.15), the 2016 Olympics (2:20.30) and 2019 Worlds (2:20.17). The only outlier is 2017 Worlds, where Yulia Efimova won in 2:19.64.

Since Moller Pedersen’s big swim, just four women have broken 2:20 in nearly eight years. That includes Moller Pedersen (four more times), Efimova (twice since the standing world record was set), Viktoria Gunes (once in 2015) and Rie Kaneto (once in 2016). Moller Pedersen and Kaneto have both retired, and Efimova missed the Russian Olympic team in this event, leaving Gunes as the only one of the four who could be competing in Tokyo.

Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which carries on the theme of Olympic-winning times with another controversial event:

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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE

The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner