Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

The men's 200-metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 18–19 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.[1]

Men's 200 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Venue	Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool
Date	18 September 1988 (heats) 19 September 1988 (finals)
Competitors	63 from 41 nations
Winning time	1:47.25 WR
Medalists
Duncan Armstrong  Australia Anders Holmertz  Sweden Matt Biondi  United States

Australia's Duncan Armstrong set a new world record to win the Olympic title in the event. Swimming in lane six and coming from third at the final turn, he edged out a vastly experienced field for the gold medal in 1:47.25. His time also sliced 0.19 seconds off the global standard set by West Germany's Michael Gross at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[2]

Sweden's Anders Holmertz overtook U.S. swimmer Matt Biondi about midway through the final stretch, but could not catch Armstrong near the wall to finish with a silver in 1:47.89. Leading almost the entire race, Biondi faded down the stretch to break the 1:48 barrier and take the bronze at 1:47.99.[3][4]

Poland's Artur Wojdat, a top qualifier on the morning preliminaries, dropped off the podium to a fourth-place time in 1:48.40. Meanwhile, Groß missed a chance to defend his Olympic title with a fifth-place finish in 1:48.59.[4]

Records

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

World record	Michael Gross (FRG)	1:47.44	Los Angeles, United States	29 July 1984
Olympic record	Michael Gross (FRG)	1:47.44	Los Angeles, United States	29 July 1984

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
19 September	Final A	Duncan Armstrong	Australia	1:47.25	WR

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).[5]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	7	Artur Wojdat	Poland	1:48.02	Q, NR
2	7	Matt Biondi	United States	1:48.39	Q
3	8	Michael Gross	West Germany	1:48.55	Q
4	8	Duncan Armstrong	Australia	1:48.86	Q
5	8	Troy Dalbey	United States	1:48.96	Q
6	7	Thomas Fahrner	West Germany	1:49.02	Q
7	7	Steffen Zesner	East Germany	1:49.13	Q
8	6	Anders Holmertz	Sweden	1:49.28	Q
9	8	Roberto Gleria	Italy	1:49.51	q
10	8	Thomas Flemming	East Germany	1:49.52	q
11	6	Stéphan Caron	France	1:49.66	q, WD
12	6	Giorgio Lamberti	Italy	1:50.47	q, WD
13	6	Aleksey Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	1:50.84	q
14	6	Mariusz Podkościelny	Poland	1:50.95	q
15	6	Tom Stachewicz	Australia	1:51.02	q
16	5	Shigeo Ogata	Japan	1:51.14	q
17	7	Franz Mortensen	Denmark	1:51.15	q
18	6	Paul Howe	Great Britain	1:51.22	q
19	7	Carlos Scanavino	Uruguay	1:51.42
20	6	Alberto Bottini	Switzerland	1:51.45
21	7	Tommy Werner	Sweden	1:51.96
22	8	Iurie Başcatov	Soviet Union	1:52.04
23	8	Cristiano Michelena	Brazil	1:52.32
24	4	Patrick Dybiona	Netherlands	1:52.67
25	4	Stéfan Voléry	Switzerland	1:52.94
26	4	Rodrigo González	Mexico	1:52.99
27	5	Michael Green	Great Britain	1:53.03
28	5	Magnús Ólafsson	Iceland	1:53.05
28	5	Daniel Serra	Spain	1:53.05
30	5	Júlio César Rebolal	Brazil	1:53.16
31	5	Jan Larsen	Denmark	1:53.61
32	4	Ignacio Escamilla	Mexico	1:53.63
33	5	Jean-Marie Arnould	Belgium	1:53.73
34	5	Zoltán Szilágyi	Hungary	1:53.75
35	7	Ludovic Depickère	France	1:53.81
36	4	Salvador Vassallo	Puerto Rico	1:53.82
37	8	Norbert Ágh	Hungary	1:54.72
38	4	Yves Clausse	Luxembourg	1:54.90
39	4	Xie Jun	China	1:55.04
40	3	René Concepcion	Philippines	1:55.58
41	3	Alexander Placheta	Austria	1:56.11
42	4	Vaughan Smith	Zimbabwe	1:56.13
43	2	David Lim	Singapore	1:56.44
44	2	Joseph Eric Buhain	Philippines	1:56.84
45	2	Kwon Sang-won	South Korea	1:56.88
46	2	Oon Jin Gee	Singapore	1:57.28
47	3	Moustafa Amer	Egypt	1:57.50
48	3	Richard Sam Bera	Indonesia	1:57.60
49	3	Jonathan Sakovich	Guam	1:57.72
50	3	Stephen Cullen	Ireland	1:57.90
51	2	Arthur Li Kai Yien	Hong Kong	1:58.10
52	3	Hakan Eskioğlu	Turkey	1:58.45
53	3	Jeffrey Ong	Malaysia	1:58.62
54	2	Kwon Soon-kun	South Korea	1:58.95
55	1	Wu Ming-hsun	Chinese Taipei	2:00.43
56	2	Tsang Yi Ming	Hong Kong	2:01.02
57	2	Richard Gheel	Ireland	2:01.73
58	1	Hans Foerster	Virgin Islands	2:01.94
59	1	Kristan Singleton	Virgin Islands	2:06.45
60	1	Jason Chute	Fiji	2:09.05
61	1	Mohamed Bin Abid	United Arab Emirates	2:09.43
62	1	Ahmad Faraj	United Arab Emirates	2:13.21
63	1	Émile Lahoud	Lebanon	2:16.39

Finals

[6]

Final B

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
9	4	Roberto Gleria	Italy	1:49.28
10	5	Thomas Flemming	East Germany	1:50.18
11	2	Tom Stachewicz	Australia	1:50.83
12	3	Aleksey Kuznetsov	Soviet Union	1:51.03
13	1	Franz Mortensen	Denmark	1:51.44
14	6	Mariusz Podkościelny	Poland	1:51.63
15	7	Shigeo Ogata	Japan	1:51.89
16	8	Paul Howe	Great Britain	1:51.99

Final A

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	6	Duncan Armstrong	Australia	1:47.25	WR
	8	Anders Holmertz	Sweden	1:47.89
	5	Matt Biondi	United States	1:47.99	AM
4	4	Artur Wojdat	Poland	1:48.40
5	3	Michael Gross	West Germany	1:48.59
6	1	Steffen Zesner	East Germany	1:48.77
7	2	Troy Dalbey	United States	1:48.86
8	7	Thomas Fahrner	West Germany	1:49.19

References

1. "Swimming at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games: Men's 200 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
2. Neff, Craig (26 September 1988). "Her Golden Moment: Janet Evans made winning the U.S.'s first gold medal look easy". Sports Illustrated. CNN. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
3. Robb, Sharon (19 September 1988). "Evans Earns First U.S. Gold But Biondi Must Settle For Bronze in 200-meter Freestyle". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
4. Dodds, Tracey (19 September 1988). "The Seoul Games / Day 3 : Evans Wins First Gold, Sets American Record". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
5. "Seoul 2000: Swimming – Men's 200m Freestyle Heats" (PDF). Seoul 1988. LA84 Foundation. pp. 402–403. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
6. "Seoul 2000: Swimming – Men's 200m Freestyle Finals" (PDF). Seoul 1988. LA84 Foundation. p. 403. Retrieved 19 August 2013.

External links

• Official Report
• USA Swimming