[1] In front of a large home crowd inside the Water Cube, Liu Zige powered past the entire field to capture a first gold medal for the host nation in swimming.

She also enjoyed her teammate Jiao Liuyang handing an entire medal haul for China with a one–two finish.

Jiao earned a silver medal as she overhauled Schipper on the final lap, and touched the wall in 2:04.72.

[4] Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak, the defending Olympic champion, finished outside the medals in fourth place at 2:07.02.

Having won a bronze medal from Athens four years earlier, Japan's Yuko Nakanishi earned a fifth spot in 2:07.32, holding off France's Aurore Mongel (2:07.36) to sixth by four hundredths of a second (0.04).