The women's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19–20 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia. U.S. swimmer Misty Hyman stunned Australia's defending champion Susie O'Neill to claim the Olympic title in front of a raucous home crowd. Seen as almost a lock victory for O'Neill, Hyman seized off a powerful lead and held a full body length over the champion at the 150-metre turn to maintain her relentless pace and touch the wall first in one of the oldest Olympic records in the book. She improved a sterling lifetime best of 2:05.88 to erase Mary T. Meagher's 1984 record by 1.02 seconds, but her time was just a 0.07-margin closer to O'Neill's world record. In a signature race, O'Neill ended up with only a silver in 2:06.58, addin