Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

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Men's 200 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Phelpsbeijing.jpg
Gold medalist Michael Phelps
Venue Beijing National Aquatics Center
DatesAugust 10, 2008 (heats)
August 11, 2008 (semifinals)
August 12, 2008 (final)
Competitors58 from 50 nations
Winning time1:42.96 WR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States
Silver medal icon.svg Park Tae-Hwan Flag of South Korea (1997-2011).svg  South Korea
Bronze medal icon.svg Peter Vanderkaay Flag of the United States.svg  United States
  2004
2012  

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. [1] There were 58 competitors from 50 nations. [2] The winning margin was 1.89 seconds which as of 2023 remains the only time this race has been won by more than 1.8 seconds at the Olympics.

After winning a bronze in Athens four years earlier, Michael Phelps blasted a new world record of 1:42.96 to claim his third straight gold, ninth career, and eleventh overall medal at the Olympics. [3] [4] South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan added a silver to his collection, following an unprecedented triumph in the 400 m freestyle two days earlier. He established a new Asian record of 1:44.85 to clear a 1:45 barrier, and used a final-lap split of 26.17 to edge out Phelps' teammate Peter Vanderkaay, who took home a bronze medal in a personal best of 1:45.14. [3] [5]

South Africa's Jean Basson finished fourth with a time of 1:45.97, and was followed in the fifth spot by Germany's Paul Biedermann in 1:46.00. Switzerland's Dominik Meichtry, who raced to a top seed in the prelims, earned a sixth spot in 1:46.95, while Japan's Yoshihiro Okumura (1:47.14) and Great Britain's Robbie Renwick (1:47.47) rounded out the finale. [6] Renwick missed out the semifinals by 0.01 of a second from the prelims, but was offered a second shot, following a sudden withdrawal of two swimmers. Canada's Brent Hayden and France's Amaury Leveaux later scratched the event to focus on their duty in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. [7]

Phelps's gold medal was the first American victory in this event since Mark Spitz and Bruce Furniss went back-to-back in 1972 and 1976. Phelps was the fourth man to win multiple medals in the 200 metre freestyle. He and Vanderkaay were the first teammates to make the podium in the event together since West Germany had two medalists in 1984. Park's medal was South Korea's first in the men's 200 metre freestyle. Australia's three-Games medal streak in the event ended.

Background

This was the 13th appearance of the 200 metre freestyle event. It was first contested in 1900. It would be contested a second time, though at 220 yards, in 1904. After that, the event did not return until 1968; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games. [2]

Two of the 8 finalists from the 2004 Games returned: bronze medalist Michael Phelps of the United States and eighth-place finisher Emiliano Brembilla of Italy. The bronze medal in this event, his weakest, had ended Phelps's attempt to break Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals in a single Games; this time, Phelps was the clear favourite in the event with two consecutive World Championships in the event between the 2004 and 2008 Games and no Ian Thorpe (retired) or Pieter van den Hoogenband (competing in the 100 metre freestyle) to contend with. The 2007 Worlds bronze medalist, Park Tae-hwan of South Korea (who had just won the 400 metre freestyle gold in Beijing), was a podium contender, as was Phelps's teammate Peter Vanderkaay. [2]

Brembilla was joined on the Italian team by 2000 bronze medalist Massimiliano Rosolino, returning after not competing in this event in 2004.

Costa Rica, Estonia, Papua New Guinea, Serbia, and South Africa each made their debut in the event. Australia made its 13th appearance, the only nation to have competed in all prior editions of the event.

Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to two swimmers if both met the A qualifying standard, or one swimmer if he met the B standard. For 2008, the A standard was 1:48.72 while the B standard was 1:52.53. The qualifying window was 15 March 2007 to 15 July 2008; only approved meets (generally international competitions and national Olympic trials) during that period could be used to meet the standards. There were also universality places available; if no male swimmer from a nation qualified in any event, the NOC could enter one male swimmer in an event.

The two swimmers per NOC limit had been in place since the 1984 Games.

Competition format

The competition followed the format established in 2000, with three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. The top 16 swimmers from the heats advanced to the semifinals. The top 8 semifinalists advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Records

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

World recordFlag of the United States.svg  Michael Phelps  (USA)1:43.86 Melbourne, Australia27 March 2007 [8]
Olympic recordFlag of Australia.svg  Ian Thorpe  (AUS)1:44.71 Athens, Greece16 August 2004-

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

DateEventSwimmerNationTimeRecord
August 12Final Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:42.96 WR

Schedule

The competition moved to a three-day schedule, rather than two days as in the past.

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)

DateTimeRound
Sunday, 10 August 200818:54Heats
Monday, 11 August 200810:14Semifinals
Tuesday, 12 August 200810:16Final

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
182 Dominik Meichtry Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:45.80Q, NR
264 Jean Basson Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:46.31Q
362 Brent Hayden Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:46.40Q, WD
484 Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:46.48Q
563 Colin Russell Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:46.58Q
685 Park Tae-Hwan Flag of South Korea (1997-2011).svg  South Korea 1:46.73Q
783 Danila Izotov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:46.80Q
887 Yoshihiro Okumura Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:46.89Q, NR
967 Emiliano Brembilla Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:47.04Q
1075 Paul Biedermann Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:47.09Q
1186 Ross Davenport Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:47.13Q
1274 Peter Vanderkaay Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:47.39Q
1365 Amaury Leveaux Flag of France.svg  France 1:47.44Q, WD
1466 Nicholas Sprenger Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:47.64Q
1556 Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 1:47.78Q, NR
1681 Dominik Koll Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:47.81Q, NR
1777 Robbie Renwick Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:47.82
1861 Rodrigo Castro Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1:47.87
1968 Oussama Mellouli Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 1:47.97
73 Alexander Sukhorukov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:47.97
2155 Darian Townsend Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:48.08
2276 Kenrick Monk Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:48.17
2351 Sergiy Advena Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 1:48.18 NR
2454 Sho Uchida Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:48.34
2578 Romāns Miloslavskis Flag of Latvia.svg  Latvia 1:48.41 NR
2652 Shaune Fraser Flag of the Cayman Islands (pre-1999).svg  Cayman Islands 1:48.60
2744 Gard Kvale Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1:48.73 NR
2872 Massimiliano Rosolino Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:48.76
2953 Andreas Zisimos Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 1:48.82
3058 Glenn Surgeloose Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 1:48.92
3147 Jon Raahauge Rud Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 1:48.96
3235 Ryan Pini Flag of Papua New Guinea.svg  Papua New Guinea 1:49.04
3371 Zhang Enjian Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:49.15
3488 Łukasz Gąsior Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 1:49.25
3545 Norbert Kovács Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 1:49.34
3646 Martín Kutscher Flag of Uruguay.svg  Uruguay 1:49.61
3731 Dominik Straga Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia 1:49.63
3843 Christoffer Wikström Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 1:49.84
3957 Tiago Venâncio Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal 1:50.24
4037 Radovan Siljevski Flag of Serbia (2004-2010).svg  Serbia 1:50.25
4126 Bryan Tay Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore 1:50.41 NR
4233 Crox Acuña Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela 1:50.52
4332 Julio Galofre Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia 1:50.62
4436 Daniel Bego Flag of Malaysia.svg  Malaysia 1:50.92
4525 Vladimir Sidorkin Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 1:51.27 NR
4642 Květoslav Svoboda Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 1:51.67
4738 Saulius Binevičius Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 1:51.80
4848 Virdhawal Khade Flag of India.svg  India 1:51.86
4941 Raphaël Stacchiotti Flag of Luxembourg.svg  Luxembourg 1:52.01
5023 Mario Montoya Flag of Costa Rica.svg  Costa Rica 1:52.19 NR
5124 Mahrez Mebarek Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 1:52.66
5222 Artur Dilman Flag of Kazakhstan.svg  Kazakhstan 1:52.90
5314 Irakli Revishvili Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia 1:53.60
5421 Ibrahim Nazarov Flag of Uzbekistan.svg  Uzbekistan 1:56.27
5513 Mihajlo Ristovski Flag of Macedonia.svg  Macedonia 1:57.45
5627 Andrei Zaharov Flag of Moldova.svg  Moldova 1:58.62
5715 Emanuele Nicolini Flag of San Marino (before 2011).svg  San Marino 1:59.47
34 Luka Turk Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia DNS

Semifinals

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
127 Peter Vanderkaay Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.76Q
223 Park Tae-Hwan Flag of South Korea (1997-2011).svg  South Korea 1:45.99Q, AS
314 Jean Basson Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:46.13Q
425 Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:46.28Q
522 Paul Biedermann Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:46.41Q
626 Yoshihiro Okumura Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:46.44Q, NR
724 Dominik Meichtry Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:46.54Q
828 Robbie Renwick Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:47.07Q
913 Danila Izotov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:47.24
1012 Ross Davenport Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:47.35
1116 Emiliano Brembilla Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:47.70
1217 Nicholas Sprenger Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:47.80
1311 Dominik Koll Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:47.87
1415 Colin Russell Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:48.13
1521 Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 1:48.16
1618 Rodrigo Castro Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1:48.71

Final

RankLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg6 Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:42.96 WR
Silver medal icon.svg5 Park Tae-Hwan Flag of South Korea (1997-2011).svg  South Korea 1:44.85 AS
Bronze medal icon.svg4 Peter Vanderkaay Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.14
43 Jean Basson Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:45.97
52 Paul Biedermann Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:46.00
61 Dominik Meichtry Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:46.95
77 Yoshihiro Okumura Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:47.14
88 Robbie Renwick Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:47.47

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