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

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 7–8 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.[1]

Men's 200 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates	7 August 2016 (heats & semifinals) 8 August 2016 (final)
Competitors	48 from 36 nations
Winning time	1:44.65
Medalists
Sun Yang  China Chad le Clos  South Africa Conor Dwyer  United States

Summary

After a runner-up feat in the 400 m freestyle two days earlier, China's Sun Yang put up a monumental effort for the Olympic mid-distance freestyle title in a race against Chad le Clos of South Africa and Conor Dwyer of the United States. Hanging with the leaders at the 150-metre turn, Sun made a late charge on the final lap to edge out Le Clos in front and did not let Dwyer pass him for the gold medal in 1:44.65.[2] Despite his early jump to the immediate lead before the final stretch, Le Clos could not hold off Sun to finish with a silver and an African record time in 1:45.20. Meanwhile, Dwyer powered home with a bronze in 1:45.23.[3]

Swimming on the outside lane, 2015 World champion James Guy of Great Britain improved upon his position to finish fourth with a 1:45.49.[4] Dwyer's teammate Townley Haas claimed the fifth spot in 1:45.58, while Germany's world record holder Paul Biedermann (1:45.84), Japan's Kosuke Hagino (1:45.90), the Olympic champion in the 400 m individual medley, and Russia's Aleksandr Krasnykh (1:45.91) rounded out the field.[3]

Other notable swimmers featured France's Yannick Agnel, who missed a chance to defend his Olympic title after fading to nineteenth in the prelims with a 1:47.35, and two-time silver medalist Park Tae-hwan of South Korea, who posted a twenty-ninth-place time of 1:48.06 in his fourth Olympic appearance.[5] Shortly after the Games, Agnel, aged 24, officially confirmed his retirement from international swimming.[6]

The medals for the competition were presented by Tsunekazu Takeda, Japan, member of the International Olympic Committee and the gifts were presented by Kazuo Sano, Bureau Member of FINA.

Records

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

World record	Paul Biedermann (GER)	1:42.00	Rome, Italy	28 July 2009	[7][8]
Olympic record	Michael Phelps (USA)	1:42.96	Beijing, China	12 August 2008	[9]

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

The heats began at 1:19pm.

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	4	Sun Yang	China	1:45.75	Q
2	4	4	Paul Biedermann	Germany	1:45.78	Q
3	5	6	Chad le Clos	South Africa	1:45.89	Q
4	6	3	Conor Dwyer	United States	1:45.95	Q
5	4	5	Townley Haas	United States	1:46.13	Q
	6	4	James Guy	Great Britain		Q
7	6	5	Kosuke Hagino	Japan	1:46.19	Q
8	5	3	Sebastiaan Verschuren	Netherlands	1:46.32	Q
9	5	5	Thomas Fraser-Holmes	Australia	1:46.49	Q
10	6	6	Velimir Stjepanovic	Serbia	1:46.64	Q
11	4	6	Jérémy Stravius	France	1:46.67	Q, WD*
12	4	8	Dominik Kozma	Hungary	1:46.68	Q
13	5	7	Myles Brown	South Africa	1:46.78	Q
14	2	4	Cristian Quintero	Venezuela	1:47.02	Q
15	5	1	Kacper Majchrzak	Poland	1:47.12	Q
16	6	7	Alexander Krasnykh	Russia	1:47.15	Q
17	4	7	Glenn Surgeloose	Belgium	1:47.19	Q
18	3	6	Felix Auböck	Austria	1:47.24
19	4	3	Yannick Agnel	France	1:47.35
20	3	7	Matthew Stanley	New Zealand	1:47.37
21	6	8	Matias Koski	Finland	1:47.40
22	3	4	Federico Grabich	Argentina	1:47.41
23	3	3	Andrea Mitchell D'Arrigo	Italy	1:47.46
24	3	8	Marwan El-Kamash	Egypt	1:47.52
25	4	2	João de Lucca	Brazil	1:47.63
26	3	2	Welson Sim	Malaysia	1:47.67
27	6	1	Dion Dreesens	Netherlands	1:47.76
28	5	8	Christoph Fildebrandt	Germany	1:47.81
29	6	2	Park Tae-hwan	South Korea	1:48.06
30	5	2	David McKeon	Australia	1:48.38
31	1	4	Khader Baqlah	Jordan	1:48.42
32	2	6	Shang Keyuan	China	1:48.46
33	2	5	Marco Belotti	Italy	1:48.71
34	1	3	Alexei Sancov	Moldova	1:48.85
35	2	3	Cameron Kurle	Great Britain	1:49.08
36	3	1	Nikita Lobintsev	Russia	1:49.35
37	3	5	Péter Bernek	Hungary	1:49.73
38	2	2	Alexandre Haldemann	Switzerland	1:49.94
39	1	5	Anže Tavčar	Slovenia	1:49.96
40	2	1	Henrik Christiansen	Norway	1:50.09
41	2	7	Hoàng Quý Phước	Vietnam	1:50.39
	2	8	Ahmed Mathlouthi	Tunisia
43	1	6	Marcelo Acosta	El Salvador	1:51.46
44	1	7	Noah Mascoll-Gomes	Antigua and Barbuda	1:53.16
45	1	2	Mikel Schreuders	Aruba	1:55.10
46	1	1	Brandon Schuster	Samoa	1:57.72
47	1	8	Ahmed Gebrel	Palestine	1:59.71
	4	1	Nicolas Oliveira	Brazil	DNS

* Qualified, but pulled out of semi-finals to focus on 4×100 m freestyle relay.[10]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Conor Dwyer	United States	1:45.55	Q
2	4	Paul Biedermann	Germany	1:45.69	Q
3	3	James Guy	Great Britain	1:46.23	Q
4	1	Kacper Majchrzak	Poland	1:46.30	NR
5	6	Sebastiaan Verschuren	Netherlands	1:46.34
6	7	Myles Brown	South Africa	1:46.57
7	2	Velimir Stjepanovic	Serbia	1:47.28
8	8	Glenn Surgeloose	Belgium	1:47.36

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Sun Yang	China	1:44.63	Q
2	6	Kosuke Hagino	Japan	1:45.45	Q
3	8	Aleksandr Krasnykh	Russia	1:45.69	Q
4	3	Townley Haas	United States	1:45.92	Q
5	5	Chad le Clos	South Africa	1:45.94	Q
6	2	Thomas Fraser-Holmes	Australia	1:46.24
7	7	Dominik Kozma	Hungary	1:47.53
8	1	Cristian Quintero	Venezuela	1:48.00

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Sun Yang	China	1:44.65
	1	Chad le Clos	South Africa	1:45.20	AF
	3	Conor Dwyer	United States	1:45.23
4	8	James Guy	Great Britain	1:45.49
5	7	Townley Haas	United States	1:45.58
6	6	Paul Biedermann	Germany	1:45.84
7	5	Kosuke Hagino	Japan	1:45.90
8	2	Aleksandr Krasnykh	Russia	1:45.91

References

1. "Men's 200m Freestyle". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
2. Johnson, Raphielle (8 August 2016). "Sun Yang wins 200 free, Conor Dwyer takes bronze". NBC Olympics. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
3. "Sun Yang Charges To Gold In 200 Free Final; le Clos Takes Home Silver". Swimming World Magazine. 8 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
4. "Olympics Rio 2016: GB's James Guy finishes fourth as Sun Yang takes 200m freestyle gold". Eurosport. 8 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
5. "Sun Yang Takes Top Spot; Defending Gold and Silver Medalists Out of 200 Free". Swimming World Magazine. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
6. Anderson, Jared (7 August 2016). "Yannick Agnel Confirms He Will Retire After Rio". Retrieved 28 August 2016.
7. Dillman, Lisa (29 July 2009). "Suit case: German ends Phelps' reign". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
8. Jeffery, Nicole (29 July 2009). "Paul Biedermann beats Michael Phelps in 200m freestyle". The Courier-Mail. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
9. "Phelps breaks 200 free world record by nearly a second". ESPN. 11 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
10. "Jeux Olympiques : Jérémy Stravius fait l'impasse sur les demi-finales du 200m" [Olympics: Jérémy Stravius scratched the semifinals in the 200m free]. L'Equipe (in French). Éditions Philippe Amaury. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.