Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre backstroke

The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 10–11 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.[1]

Men's 200 metre backstroke at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates	10 August 2016 (heats & semifinals) 11 August 2016 (final)
Competitors	26 from 19 nations
Winning time	1:53.62
Medalists
Ryan Murphy  United States Mitch Larkin  Australia Evgeny Rylov  Russia

Summary

The American tradition of excellence continued in the distance backstroke, as Ryan Murphy made a historic milestone to claim the country's sixth straight title, and strike a backstroke double for the first time, since Aaron Peirsol did so in 2004. He held off a stiff competition from Australia's reigning world champion Mitch Larkin down the home stretch to earn his second individual gold at the Games with a time of 1:53.62.[2] Leading the race early on the initial length, Larkin pulled closer to Murphy about the midway through the final lap, but could not catch him near the wall to finish with a silver-medal time in 1:53.96.[3] Meanwhile, Russia's Evgeny Rylov finished with the bronze in 1:53.97, a hundredth of a second behind Larkin.[4]

Trailing the top three by over a second, China's Xu Jiayu, runner-up to Murphy in the 100 m backstroke on night three, took the fourth spot in 1:55.16, while his teenage teammate Li Guangyuan posted a sixth-place time in 1:55.89. U.S. swimmer Jacob Pebley, who had upset the defending champion Tyler Clary at the Olympic trials one month earlier, split the Chinese duo to finish fifth with a 1:55.52.[5] Germany's Christian Diener (1:56.27), along with double London 2012 medalist Ryosuke Irie of Japan (1:56.36), rounded out the field.[4]

The medals for the competition were presented by Yumilka Ruiz, Cuba, IOC member, and the gifts were presented by Dmitris Diathestopoulos, Member of the FINA Bureau.

Records

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

World record	Aaron Peirsol (USA)	1:51.92	Rome, Italy	31 July 2009	[6][7]
Olympic record	Tyler Clary (USA)	1:53.41	London, United Kingdom	2 August 2012	[8]

Competition format

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.[1]

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	4	Evgeny Rylov	Russia	1:55.02	Q
2	2	5	Xu Jiayu	China	1:55.51	Q
3	4	4	Mitch Larkin	Australia	1:56.01	Q
4	3	4	Ryan Murphy	United States	1:56.29	Q
5	3	5	Jacob Pebley	United States	1:56.44	Q
6	2	3	Jan-Philip Glania	Germany	1:56.50	Q
	4	7	Andrey Shabasov	Russia		Q
8	4	3	Ryosuke Irie	Japan	1:56.61	Q
9	2	2	Christian Diener	Germany	1:56.62	Q
10	4	6	Josh Beaver	Australia	1:56.65	Q
11	3	6	Li Guangyuan	China	1:56.85	Q
12	4	1	Leonardo de Deus	Brazil	1:57.00	Q, NR
13	2	6	Masaki Kaneko	Japan	1:57.19	Q
14	3	2	Hugo González	Spain	1:57.50	Q
15	4	8	Corey Main	New Zealand	1:57.51	Q
16	3	3	Yakov Toumarkin	Israel	1:57.58	Q
17	4	5	Radosław Kawęcki	Poland	1:57.61
18	1	4	Robert Glință	Romania	1:57.91
19	2	7	Ádám Telegdy	Hungary	1:59.09
20	1	5	Rexford Tullius	Virgin Islands	1:59.14
21	4	2	Danas Rapšys	Lithuania	1:59.58
22	3	1	Dávid Földházi	Hungary	1:59.69
	3	8	Omar Pinzón	Colombia
24	3	7	Apostolos Christou	Greece	1:59.78
25	2	1	Mikita Tsmyh	Belarus	2:00.96
26	1	3	Boris Kirillov	Azerbaijan	2:05.01

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Ryan Murphy	United States	1:55.15	Q
2	4	Xu Jiayu	China	1:55.66	Q
3	6	Ryosuke Irie	Japan	1:56.31	Q
4	3	Jan-Philip Glania	Germany	1:56.53
5	2	Josh Beaver	Australia	1:56.57
6	7	Leonardo de Deus	Brazil	1:57.67
7	8	Yakov Toumarkin	Israel	1:58.63
8	1	Hugo González	Spain	1:59.08

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Evgeny Rylov	Russia	1:54.45	Q
2	5	Mitch Larkin	Australia	1:54.73	Q
3	3	Jacob Pebley	United States	1:54.92	Q
4	7	Li Guangyuan	China	1:55.92	Q
5	2	Christian Diener	Germany	1:56.37	Q
6	1	Masaki Kaneko	Japan	1:56.78
7	6	Andrey Shabasov	Russia	1:56.84
8	8	Corey Main	New Zealand	1:58.08

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	6	Ryan Murphy	United States	1:53.62
	5	Mitch Larkin	Australia	1:53.96
	4	Evgeny Rylov	Russia	1:53.97	EU
4	2	Xu Jiayu	China	1:55.16
5	3	Jacob Pebley	United States	1:55.52
6	7	Li Guangyuan	China	1:55.89
7	8	Christian Diener	Germany	1:56.27
8	1	Ryosuke Irie	Japan	1:56.36

References

1. "Men's 200m Backstroke". Rio 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
2. Stubbs, Roman (12 August 2016). "Ryan Murphy sweeps the backstroke in Rio with gold medal in 200-meter event". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
3. Pentony, Luke (11 August 2016). "Rio 2016: Mitch Larkin claims Olympic silver medal in 200 metres backstroke". ABC News Australia. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
4. "Ryan Murphy Continues American Dominance With Gold Medal Performance In 200 Back". Swimming World Magazine. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
5. "Ryan Murphy takes 200m backstroke gold, sweeps backstrokes in Rio". NBC Olympics. 12 August 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
6. "Cavic supplants Phelps' 100 fly time". ESPN. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
7. Michaelis, Vicky (31 July 2009). "Phelps earns relay gold medal, Peirsol sets 200m backstroke mark". USA Today. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
8. Auerbach, Nicole (2 August 2012). "Clary tops Lochte, wins gold in 200-meter backstroke". USA Today. Retrieved 8 July 2013.