The competition exists out of two rounds, each with races of up to nine athletes. In the first round, the eight fastest athletes qualify for the final. The fastest competitor in the final is the winner of the event.
Preview[]
Twenty-six athletes qualified for the event which seemed to become a battle between the reigning world champion Ariarne Titmus and the defending Olympic champion Kathleen Ledecky, though with plenty of others with chances on a medal. Ajna Kesely finished just outside the medals at the world championships, Li Bingjie held the Asian record in the event, Tamsin Cook was the junior world champion of 2015, and Anna Egorova took silver at the most recent European championships. Other potential outsiders for the medals also included Paige Madden and youngsters Summer McIntosh, Tang Muhan, and Isabel Gose.
