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

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Men's 200 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Sun Yang after winning 200 free (27023874853).jpg
Gold medalist Sun Yang (earlier in 2016)
Venue Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates7 August 2016 (heats &
semifinals)
8 August 2016 (final)
Competitors47 from 36 nations
Winning time1:44.65
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Sun Yang Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China
Silver medal icon.svg Chad le Clos Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa
Bronze medal icon.svg Conor Dwyer Flag of the United States.svg  United States
  2012
2020  

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 7–8 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. [1] There were 47 competitors from 36 nations. [2]

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. [3] 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. [4] Sun was the sixth man to win multiple medals in the event. Le Clos's silver was South Africa's first medal in the men's 200 metre freestyle.

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. [5] 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. [4]

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. [6] Shortly after the Games, Agnel, aged 24, officially confirmed his retirement from international swimming. [7]

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.

Background

This was the 15th 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]

Five of the 8 finalists from the 2012 Games returned: gold medalist Yannick Agnel of France, silver medalists Sun Yang of China and Park Tae-hwan of South Korea, fifth-place finisher Paul Biedermann of Germany, and seventh-place finisher Thomas Fraser-Holmes of Australia. Agnel had won the 2013 World Championship; James Guy of Great Britain had won in 2015. Sun was favoured, having had the strongest season so far in 2016. [2]

Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Jordan, Palestine, and Samoa each made their debut in the event. Australia made its 15th 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 Olympic Qualifying Time (or "OQT"). An NOC with no swimmers meeting the OQT but at least one swimmer meeting the Olympic Selection Time (or "OST") was not guaranteed a place, but was eligible for selection to fill the overall 900 swimmer quota for the Games. For 2016, the OQT was 1:47.97 while the OST was 1:51.75. The qualifying window was 1 March 2015 to 3 July 2016; 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. [1]

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 Germany.svg  Paul Biedermann  (GER)1:42.00 Rome, Italy28 July 2009 [8] [9]
Olympic recordFlag of the United States.svg  Michael Phelps  (USA)1:42.96 Beijing, China12 August 2008 [10]

Schedule

All times are Brasília Time (UTC−3)

DateTimeRound
Sunday, 7 August 201613:19
22:11
Heats
Semifinals
Monday, 8 August 201622:21Final

Results

Heats

The heats began at 1:19pm.

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
154 Sun Yang Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:45.75Q
244 Paul Biedermann Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:45.78Q
356 Chad le Clos Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:45.89Q
463 Conor Dwyer Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.95Q
545 Townley Haas Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:46.13Q
64 James Guy Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:46.13Q
765 Kosuke Hagino Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:46.19Q
853 Sebastiaan Verschuren Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1:46.32Q
955 Thomas Fraser-Holmes Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:46.49Q
1066 Velimir Stjepanovic Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 1:46.64Q
1146 Jérémy Stravius Flag of France.svg  France 1:46.67Q, WD*
1248 Dominik Kozma Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 1:46.68Q
1357 Myles Brown Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:46.78Q
1424 Cristian Quintero Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela 1:47.02Q
1551 Kacper Majchrzak Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 1:47.12Q
1667 Alexander Krasnykh Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:47.15Q
1747 Glenn Surgeloose Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 1:47.19Q
1836 Felix Auböck Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:47.24
1943 Yannick Agnel Flag of France.svg  France 1:47.35
2037 Matthew Stanley Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 1:47.37
2168 Matias Koski Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 1:47.40
2234 Federico Grabich Flag of Argentina.svg  Argentina 1:47.41
2333 Andrea Mitchell D'Arrigo Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:47.46
2438 Marwan El-Kamash Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt 1:47.52
2542 João de Lucca Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1:47.63
2632 Welson Sim Flag of Malaysia.svg  Malaysia 1:47.67
2761 Dion Dreesens Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1:47.76
2858 Christoph Fildebrandt Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:47.81
2962 Park Tae-hwan Flag of South Korea.svg  South Korea 1:48.06
3052 David McKeon Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:48.38
3114 Khader Baqlah Flag of Jordan.svg  Jordan 1:48.42
3226 Shang Keyuan Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:48.46
3325 Marco Belotti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:48.71
3413 Alexei Sancov Flag of Moldova.svg  Moldova 1:48.85
3523 Cameron Kurle Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:49.08
3631 Nikita Lobintsev Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:49.35
3735 Péter Bernek Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 1:49.73
3822 Alexandre Haldemann Flag of Switzerland.svg  Switzerland 1:49.94
3915 Anže Tavčar Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 1:49.96
4021 Henrik Christiansen Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1:50.09
4127 Hoàng Quý Phước Flag of Vietnam.svg  Vietnam 1:50.39
28 Ahmed Mathlouthi Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 1:50.39
4316 Marcelo Acosta Flag of El Salvador.svg  El Salvador 1:51.46
4417 Noah Mascoll-Gomes Flag of Antigua and Barbuda.svg  Antigua and Barbuda 1:53.16
4512 Mikel Schreuders Flag of Aruba.svg  Aruba 1:55.10
4611 Brandon Schuster Flag of Samoa.svg  Samoa 1:57.72
4718 Ahmed Gebrel Flag of Palestine.svg  Palestine 1:59.71
41 Nicolas Oliveira Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil DNS

* Qualified, but pulled out of semi-finals to focus on 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. [11]

Semifinals

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
124 Sun Yang Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:44.63Q
226 Kosuke Hagino Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:45.45Q
315 Conor Dwyer Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.55Q
414 Paul Biedermann Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:45.69Q
28 Aleksandr Krasnykh Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:45.69Q
623 Townley Haas Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.92Q
725 Chad le Clos Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:45.94Q
813 James Guy Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:46.23Q
922 Thomas Fraser-Holmes Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:46.24
1011 Kacper Majchrzak Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 1:46.30 NR
1116 Sebastiaan Verschuren Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1:46.34
1217 Myles Brown Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:46.57
1312 Velimir Stjepanović Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 1:47.28
1418 Glenn Surgeloose Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 1:47.36
1527 Dominik Kozma Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 1:47.53
1621 Cristian Quintero Flag of Venezuela.svg  Venezuela 1:48.00

Final

RankLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg4 Sun Yang Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:44.65
Silver medal icon.svg1 Chad le Clos Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:45.20 AF
Bronze medal icon.svg3 Conor Dwyer Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.23
48 James Guy Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain 1:45.49
57 Townley Haas Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.58
66 Paul Biedermann Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:45.84
75 Kosuke Hagino Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:45.90
82 Aleksandr Krasnykh Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:45.91

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