Throwback Thursday: Rebecca Soni Breaks 2:20 in 200 Breaststroke Gold-Medal Finale
Earlier this year, Russian teenager Evgeniia Chikunova blasted through the 2:18-barrier in the women’s 200 breaststroke, annihilating the previous world record by almost one-and-a-half seconds. The previous mark had belonged to South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker, the previous barrier-breaker who went 2:18.95 on her way to Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games. Before that, though, the event had gone stagnant, with no swimmers joining the sub-2:20 club for five years before Schoenmaker and Lilly King both hitting their maiden (and only) 2:19 performances at the Olympics.
But the most significant barrier in the event was surely the jump from the 2:20s to the teens, one which eluded so many elite performers for years until one special night in London as one of the top American breaststrokers ever secured her spot in history and her second Olympic gold medal in what turned out to be the final individual race of her career.
Rebecca Soni had seemingly been on the verge of the accomplishment for four years. At the 2008 Games, she scored a stunning, come-from-behind upset over heavily-favored Australian Leisel Jones, who two years earlier had been the first woman to break 2:21. A surreal performance helped Soni reach the wall in 2:20.22, and with Jones on the back end of her career, the American was seemingly ticketed to hit 2:19.
Twelve months later brought the infamous 2009 World Championships in Rome when 43 world records fell victim to swimmers whose performances were aided by full-body polyurethane suit. Indeed, the world record went down in the semifinals as Canada’s Annamay Pierce swam a time of 2:20.12 to qualify just ahead of Soni. Surely, Soni would reclaim the mark on the way to a world title one night later? That’s what Soni expected as she blasted out in front of the field, swimming well under world-record pace, but then she fell apart on the final length and ended up fourth in a blanket finish, with Serbia’s Nađa Higl swimming a time of 2:21.62, much slower than the bests of either Pierce or Soni, to secure gold.
Soni would secure a world title two years later as part of her 100-200 gold-medal sweep in Shanghai, but at the start of her second Olympics in London, Soni was upset in the 100 breast, losing out to 15-year-old Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte. Maybe this 2:19 swim was not to be?
Nope, Soni was not letting this one slip away, not again. In the semifinals, she went ahead and claimed the global standard back with a 2:20.00, the 2:19 eluding her grasp by a miniscule margin. Not in the final, though; 24 hours later, Soni put together a time of 2:19.59. Just off world-record pace at the 150-meter mark, Soni finished with an electric 35.64 split, and the oft-reserved American pumped her fist as she broke into an enormous smile.
As impressive as was her upset gold medal in Beijing, the London swim is surely the signature moment of her career. It didn’t even matter that her world record would not last long, with Denmark’s Rikke Moeller Pedersen and Russia’s Yuliya Efimova both swimming inside her time at the following year’s World Championships, with Pedersen securing the global standard and Efimova the gold.
Soni, however, would always have those two gold medals and the all-important status as the first woman to ever reach the long-sought barrier.