Jessicah's Story
Jessicah Schipper arrived at Beijing as the pre-eminent female butterflier over 200 metres for the previous three years. In the 100 metres butterfly she finished third, behind Libby Trickett and Christine Magnuson (USA). At Athens 2004, she finished fourth behind Petria Thomas.
She entered the Beijing final of her pet event, the 200 metres butterfly, as the second fastest qualifier and was leading at the halfway mark before being passed by two Chinese, Zige Lui and Liuyang Jiao, to finish with her second individual bronze medal. Lui’s winning time of 2:04.18 shatterd Schipper’s world record. Jiao also finished inside the old record.
Schipper joined with Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones and Libby Trickett in the medley relay team which obliterated the existing world record in the process of winning the gold medal from the United States and China. At Athens, she swam in the heat of the gold medal-winning medley relay.
The Queenslander returned for her third Olympic campaign at the London 2012 Games. Schipper finished eighth in her heat of the 100m butterfly before coming sixth in her semi-final of the 200m butterfly.
