Swimming at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

Men's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the VII Olympiad
Venue	Stade Nautique d'Antwerp
Dates	August 26–29
Competitors	24 from 11 nations
Medalists
Håkan Malmrot   Sweden Thor Henning   Sweden Arvo Aaltonen   Finland
←  1912 1924  →

The men's 200 metre breaststroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1920 Summer Olympics programme. ^[1] It was the third appearance of the event.

A total of 24 swimmers from 11 nations competed in the event, which was held from Thursday, August 26 to Sunday, August 29, 1920.

Despite Erich Rademacher from Germany being one of the fastest breaststroker in the world at the time, he was not able to compete due to Germany's role in WWI. Despite this, he would establish his dominance in the event by laying consistent claim to the world record through most of the next decade. ^[2]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1920 Summer Olympics.

World Record	2:56.6	Percy Courtman	Garston (GBR)	July 28, 1914
Olympic Record	3:01.8	Walter Bathe	Stockholm (SWE)	July 12, 1912

Results

Quarterfinals

Thursday, August 26, 1920: The fastest two in each heat and the fastest third-placed from across the heats advanced.

Heat 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Jack Howell  (USA)	3:09.8	Q
2	Per Cederblom  (SWE)	3:12.2	Q
3	Édouard Henry (BEL)	3:18.0
4	Rex Lassam  (GBR)
5	Sydney Gooday  (CAN)

Heat 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Olle Dickson  (SWE)	3:16.0	Q
2	Mike McDermott  (USA)	3:16.4	Q
3	Paul Neeckx  (BEL)	3:16.6	q
4	Théodore Michel  (LUX)
5	Émile Arbogast  (FRA)
6	Ernest Parker  (GBR)

Heat 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Håkan Malmrot  (SWE)	3:04.0	Q
2	Arvo Aaltonen  (FIN)	3:11.6	Q
3	Édouard Van Haelen  (BEL)	3:22.6
4	Stephen Ruddy  (USA)
5	Eduard Stibor  (TCH)
6	George Robertson  (GBR)

Heat 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Thor Henning  (SWE)	3:12.8	Q
2	Ivan Stedman  (AUS)	3:18.8	Q
3	William Stoney  (GBR)	3:20.8
4	Herbert Taylor  (USA)
5	Lucien Lebaillif  (FRA)
6	Luis Balcells  (ESP)
7	Félicien Courbet  (BEL)

Semifinals

Saturday, August 28, 1920: The fastest two in each semi-final and the faster of the two third-placed swimmer advanced to the final. Since both third-place swimmers had the same time, both advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Jack Howell  (USA)	3:10.8	Q
2	Per Cederblom  (SWE)	3:14.6	Q
3	Thor Henning  (SWE)	3:16.0	q
4	Olle Dickson  (SWE)
5	Paul Neeckx  (BEL)

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Håkan Malmrot  (SWE)	3:09.0	Q
2	Arvo Aaltonen  (FIN)	3:12.4	Q
3	Ivan Stedman  (AUS)	3:16.0	q
4	Mike McDermott  (USA)

Final

Sunday, August 29, 1920:

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Håkan Malmrot  (SWE)	3:04.4
2	Thor Henning  (SWE)	3:09.2
3	Arvo Aaltonen  (FIN)	3:12.2
4	Jack Howell  (USA)
5	Ivan Stedman  (AUS)
—	Per Cederblom  (SWE)	DNF

References

1. "Swimming at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games: Men's 200 metres Breaststroke". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
2. Barney, David E., and Robert K. Barney. "A long night's journey into day: the Odyssey of the butterfly stroke in international swimming." Proceedings: International Symposium for Olympic Research, Oct. 2006, pp. 65+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A176818711/AONE?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=535b6e53. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.

Notes

• Belgium Olympic Committee (1957). Olympic Games Antwerp 1920: Official Report (in French).
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 2 May 2008.