Stephanie Rice of Australia broke the world record to win the women's 200m individual medley gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games on Wednesday.

Rice clocked in 2:08.45 to beat her previous world record of 2:08.92 set in March, 2008.

Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe took the silver in 2:08.59 and Natalie Coughlin of the United States won the bronze in 2:10.34.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)