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

The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 8–9 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.[1]

Men's 200 metre butterfly at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Victory Ceremony
Venue	Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates	8 August 2016 (heats & semifinals) 9 August 2016 (final)
Competitors	29 from 21 nations
Winning time	1:53.36
Medalists
Michael Phelps  United States Masato Sakai  Japan Tamás Kenderesi  Hungary

Summary

As the most decorated Olympian of all-time, Michael Phelps got the opportunity to avenge the distance butterfly title that he lost in London four years earlier, when South Africa's Chad le Clos beat him to the wall.[2] Moving to the front at the halfway turn, Phelps held off the Japanese challenger Masato Sakai by a 0.04-second margin to claim his twentieth Olympic gold medal and twenty-fifth overall in 1:53.36.[3][4][5] Coming from sixth at the 150-metre turn, Sakai made a late surge on the final length to nearly upset Phelps towards a close finish, but he ended up taking the silver in 1:53.40.[6] Meanwhile, Hungary's top seed and 2014 Youth Olympic champion Tamás Kenderesi powered home with a bronze in 1:53.62.[7][8]

Le Clos could not produce another striking effort to halt the most decorated Olympian from snatching the title, as he was shut out of the medals to fourth in 1:54.06.[9] Sakai's teammate Daiya Seto finished fifth in 1:54.82, with Denmark's Viktor Bromer following him to pick up the sixth spot in 1:55.64.[6] Hungarian swimmer, 2008 Olympic silver medalist, and reigning world champion László Cseh commanded a brief lead on the initial length, but faded shortly to seventh place in 1:56.24. Belgium's Louis Croenen rounded out the field with an eighth-place time in 1:57.04.[8]

Records

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

World record	Michael Phelps (USA)	1:51.51	Rome, Italy	29 July 2009	[10][11]
Olympic record	Michael Phelps (USA)	1:52.03	Beijing, China	13 August 2008	[12]

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	3	3	Tamás Kenderesi	Hungary	1:54.73	Q
2	4	4	László Cseh	Hungary	1:55.14	Q
3	2	4	Chad le Clos	South Africa	1:55.57	Q
4	3	2	Grant Irvine	Australia	1:55.64	Q
5	3	4	Michael Phelps	United States	1:55.73	Q
6	2	5	Masato Sakai	Japan	1:55.76	Q
7	4	3	Viktor Bromer	Denmark	1:55.77	Q
8	3	5	Daiya Seto	Japan	1:55.79	Q
9	4	6	Leonardo de Deus	Brazil	1:55.98	Q
10	2	7	Quah Zheng Wen	Singapore	1:56.01	Q
11	2	3	Evgeny Koptelov	Russia	1:56.13	Q
12	4	7	Kaio de Almeida	Brazil	1:56.45	Q
13	1	4	Simon Sjödin	Sweden	1:56.46	Q
14	3	6	Louis Croenen	Belgium	1:56.48	Q
15	4	8	Jonathan Gómez	Colombia	1:56.65	Q
16	2	6	Li Zhuhao	China	1:56.72	Q
17	4	5	Jan Świtkowski	Poland	1:56.73
18	3	7	Stefanos Dimitriadis	Greece	1:56.76
19	4	2	David Morgan	Australia	1:56.81
20	2	2	Tom Shields	United States	1:56.93
21	3	1	Carlos Peralta	Spain	1:56.98
22	1	5	Robert Žbogar	Slovenia	1:57.05
23	4	1	Sebastien Rousseau	South Africa	1:57.33
24	2	8	Daniil Pakhomov	Russia	1:57.36
25	2	1	Jordan Coelho	France	1:58.62
26	1	6	Gal Nevo	Israel	1:58.64
27	3	8	Wu Yuhang	China	1:59.04
28	1	3	Sajan Prakash	India	1:59.37
29	1	2	Bradlee Ashby	New Zealand	2:01.22

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	László Cseh	Hungary	1:55.18	Q
2	6	Daiya Seto	Japan	1:55.28	Q
3	3	Masato Sakai	Japan	1:55.32	Q
4	1	Louis Croenen	Belgium	1:56.03	Q
5	5	Grant Irvine	Australia	1:56.07
6	2	Quah Zheng Wen	Singapore	1:56.11
7	7	Kaio de Almeida	Brazil	1:57.45
8	8	Li Zhuhao	China	1:57.62

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Tamás Kenderesi	Hungary	1:53.96	Q
2	3	Michael Phelps	United States	1:54.12	Q
3	5	Chad le Clos	South Africa	1:55.19	Q
4	6	Viktor Bromer	Denmark	1:55.59	Q
5	7	Evgeny Koptelov	Russia	1:56.46
6	1	Simon Sjödin	Sweden	1:56.71
7	2	Leonardo de Deus	Brazil	1:56.77
8	8	Jonathan Gómez	Colombia	1:57.47

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Michael Phelps	United States	1:53.36
	7	Masato Sakai	Japan	1:53.40
	4	Tamás Kenderesi	Hungary	1:53.62
4	6	Chad le Clos	South Africa	1:54.06
5	2	Daiya Seto	Japan	1:54.82
6	1	Viktor Bromer	Denmark	1:55.64
7	3	László Cseh	Hungary	1:56.24
8	8	Louis Croenen	Belgium	1:57.04

References

1. "Men's 200m Butterfly". Rio 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
2. "Michael Phelps gets 20th gold medal of career at Rio Olympics". CBS News. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
3. Auerbach, Nicole (10 August 2016). "Michael Phelps wins gold in 200 fly, adds to record medal tally". USA Today. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
4. "Michael Phelps wins 200 butterfly, helps 4x200 free relay team to gold". ESPN. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
5. "Phelps avenges 2012 defeat in 200m butterfly". United States: Fox Sports. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
6. McKirdy, Andrew (10 August 2016). "Sakai takes silver in 200 butterfly; Phelps claims 20th, 21st gold medals of career". The Japan Times. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
7. "Message Sent: 21 and Counting for Michael Phelps". The New York Times. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
8. "Michael Phelps Secures 20th Olympic Gold By Only .04 in 200 Butterfly". Swimming World Magazine. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
9. "Chad le Clos finished with 200m fly?". News24. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
10. Crouse, Karen (30 July 2012). "Phelps Rebounds Amid Boycott Threat". New York Times. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
11. "Phelps bounces back with 200m fly world record triumph". Sydney Morning Herald. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
12. Siddons, Larry (13 August 2008). "Water-Filled Goggles Can't Keep Phelps From Gold Mark". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 17 May 2013.