Going into the Olympic women’s 200m backstroke final on Friday, backstroke success at the last couple of Olympic Games has gone through Kaylee McKeown of Australia. McKeown already has individual backstroke gold under her belt in these games after winning the women’s 100m backstroke final. Now she looks to repeat as the 200m backstroke gold medalist. Here, we break down the upcoming women’s 200m backstroke event and pick our winner for the final.
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Olympic Women’s 200m Backstroke Betting Odds
| Swimmer | Gold Medal Odds |
| Kaylee McKeown | -304 |
| Regan Smith | +205 |
| Phoebe Bacon | +1400 |
| Kylie Masse | +1700 |
| Jaclyn Barclay | +2100 |
| Xuwei Peng | +3900 |
| Yaxin Liu | +4400 |
| Margherita Panziera | +4400 |
| Honey Osrin | +4900 |
| Katie Shanahan | +4900 |
| Emma Terebo | +5900 |
| Carmen Weiler Sastre | +7900 |
| Eszter Szabo-Feltothy | +8900 |
| Camilla Rebelo | +8900 |
| Anastasiya Shkurdai | +8900 |
| Anastasia Gorbenko | +8900 |
| Dora Molnar | +9900 |
| Regan Rathwell | +14900 |
| Africa Zamorano Sanz | +14900 |
| Laura Bernat | +15900 |
| Pauline Mathieu | +19900 |
| Adela Piskorska | +24900 |
| Aviv Barzelay | +25900 |
Odds from Sportzino
The clear favorite to win the Olympic women’s 200m backstroke is Kaylee McKeown of Australia. McKeown won gold in this event in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and has since set the world record in this distance in Australia in 2023. She narrowly defeated Regan Smith of the United States in the 100m backstroke final earlier this week and she should be able to stretch out her advantage over Smith in this longer distance event.
Olympic Women’s 200m Backstroke Major Storylines
McKeown is easily the biggest story coming into this event given just how good she has been in this distance over the last few years. While the gold medal seems incredibly likely for McKeown in this race, the bigger story could be her potential to reset her world record, which stands at 2:03.14 going into the Paris Games.
How Regan Smith performs in this race could also be a huge storyline going into the women’s 200m final. She finished about a third of a second behind McKeown in the 100m final but is a much bigger underdog going into this race. Still, a great swim from Smith could give her a shot at gold even if McKeown is the deserved favorite.
Olympic Women’s 200m Backstroke Medal Contenders
There is a clear top-two that should grab the gold and silver in the Olympic women’s 200m backstroke, with those two women being McKeown and Smith. Behind them, the race for bronze should be very interesting, as there are several candidates who could come away with that final spot on the podium.
Canadian Kylie Masse finished second to McKeown in the 200m backstroke final in Tokyo in 2021 and could certainly medal this time around as well. American Phoebe Bacon took silver in the 2022 World Championships in this distance, so don’t be surprised to see her on the medal stand after this race either.
Women’s 200m Backstroke Betting Prediction: Kaylee McKeown (-304)
Right now, there is not much value in betting on anyone outside of Kaylee McKeown to win the women’s 200m backstroke final. She is simply too dominant in this stroke to be beaten right now, even if Regan Smith has the ability to make this a close race. Look for the Australian to add another Olympic gold to her collection as the favorite in this event.
