The women's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships took place between 24 July – 25 July. Both the heats and semifinals were held on 24 July with the heats being held in the morning session and the semifinals being held in the evening session. The final was held on 25 July.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

	Name	Nationality	Time	Location	Date
World record	Qi Hui	China China Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...	2:22.99	Hangzhou Hangzhou Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...	13 April 2001
Championship record	Ágnes Kovács Ágnes Kovács Ágnes Kovács is a former Hungarian swimmer. She won the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney in 200 m breaststroke....	Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...	2:24.90	Fukuoka Fukuoka Fukuoka most often refers to the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture.It can also refer to:-Locations:* Fukuoka, Gifu, a town in Gifu Prefecture, Japan* Fukuoka, Toyama, a town in Toyama Prefecture, Japan...	25 July 2001

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	WR	CR
July 25	Final	Amanda Beard Amanda Beard Amanda Ray Beard is an American swimmer and a seven-time Olympic medalist . She is a former world record holder in the 200-meter breaststroke ....	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	2:22.99	=WR	CR

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Amanda Beard Amanda Beard Amanda Ray Beard is an American swimmer and a seven-time Olympic medalist . She is a former world record holder in the 200-meter breaststroke ....		2:22.99	=WR
	Leisel Jones Leisel Jones Leisel Marie Jones OAM is an Australian Olympic gold medalist swimmer. A participant in the 2000 Summer Olympics – at just 15 years old – and 2004 Summer Olympics, she was part of gold medal winning Australian team in the women's 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the Athens Games in 2004 and a gold...		2:24.33
	Qi Hui		2:25.78
4	Anne Poleska Anne Poleska Anne Poleska is a German breaststroke swimmer who has competed in international events and won a bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics....		2:26.35
5	Mirna Jukić Mirna Jukic Mirna Jukić is an retired former Austrian swimmer of Croatian origin who won a bronze medal in both short course and long course at the world championships in swimming. She is trained by her father Željko Jukić, a former basketball player...		2:26.38
6	Sara Poewe		2:26.72
7	Masami Tanaka Masami Tanaka is a former breaststroke swimmer from Japan. She won the bronze medal in the 4x100m Medley Relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Her winning teammates in that race were Mai Nakamura, Junko Onishi, and Sumika Minamoto. She competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in...		2:28.55
8	Diana Remenyi		2:29.20

Key: =WR = Equalled world record