Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre individual medley

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Men's 200 metre individual medley
at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
2024 Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics - 2024-07-27 - 3.jpg
Paris La Défense Arena after it was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events
Venue Paris La Défense Arena
Dates1 August 2024
(Heats and Semis)
2 August 2024
(Final)
Competitors25 from 22 nations
Winning time1:54.06 OR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Léon Marchand Flag of France.svg  France
Silver medal icon.svg Duncan Scott Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain
Bronze medal icon.svg Wang Shun Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China
  2020
2028  

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 1 to 2 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. [1] Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim four lengths of the pool—one length with each stroke. [a]

France's Léon Marchand and China's Wang Shun were the favourites, to take gold and silver, respectively. Other contenders included the USA's Carson Foster and Shaine Casas, Great Britain's Duncan Scott and Tom Dean, and Canada's Finlay Knox. All except Casas qualified for the final.

In the final, Shun led at 50 metres, but Marchand overtook him and held is lead to claim gold with a new Olympic and European record of 1:54.06. Scott defended his silver medal from the previous Olympics with 1:55.31, and Shun won bronze with 1:56.00. The win gave Marchand his fourth gold medal of the games, and Shun's third consecutive Olympic medal in the event.

Background

China's Wang Shun was the defending Olympic champion in the event, and he had the fastest qualifying time of 1:54.62, which he swam to win the event at the 2022 Asian Games. [2] France's Léon Marchand had the second fastest qualifying time of 1:54.82, which he swam to win the event at the 2023 World Championships. Marchand also won the event at the 2022 World Championships. [2] The USA's Carson Foster swam the third fastest qualifying time of 1:55.65 at the US Olympic Trials, where fellow American Shaine Casas also qualified with the fourth fastest time of 1:55.83. [2] [3]

Other contenders were Duncan Scott and Tom Dean of Great Britain who won silver and bronze at the previous Olympics, respectively, and also won silver and bronze at the 2023 World Championships. [2] Canada's Finlay Knox won the event at the 2024 World Championships. [b] [2]

Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Marchand would win and Shun would take second. SwimSwam predicted Scott would come third, while Swimming World predicted Foster would take third. [2] [5]

Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). [6] For this event, the OQT was 1:57.94. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. [6] [3] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 1:58.53 for this event. [6] In total, 16 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, seven athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT. [3]

Top 10 fastest qualification times [3]
SwimmerCountryTimeCompetition
Wang Shun Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 01:54:62 2022 Asian Games
Léon Marchand Flag of France.svg  France 01:54:82 2023 World Aquatics Championships
Carson Foster Flag of the United States.svg  United States 01:55:65 2024 United States Olympic Trials
Shaine Casas Flag of the United States.svg  United States 01:55:83 2024 United States Olympic Trials
Duncan Scott Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 01:55:91 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships
Finlay Knox Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 01:56:07 2024 Canadian Olympic Trials
Tom Dean Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 01:56:07 2023 World Aquatics Championships
Alberto Razzetti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 01:56:21 2024 Italian Championships
Hugo González Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 01:56:48 2024 Spanish Summer Open Championships
Daiya Seto Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 01:56:62 2023 Japanese Championships

Heats

Four heats took place on 1 August 2024, starting at 11:47. [c] [7] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. [8] Japan's Daiya Seto qualified with the fastest time of 1:57.48, Scott qualified second with 1:57.77 and Marchand qualified third with 1:57.86. Shun, Dean, Casas, Foster and Knox also all qualified. [9] For the first Olympics since London 2012, swimming under 2 minutes was not required to qualify. [10]

Results [7]
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
146 Daiya Seto Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:57.48Q
235 Duncan Scott Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:57.77Q
334 Léon Marchand Flag of France.svg  France 1:57.86Q
433 Alberto Razzetti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:58.00Q
545 Shaine Casas Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:58.04Q
644 Wang Shun Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:58.09Q
736 Ron Polonsky Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 1:58.30Q
43 Tom Dean Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:58.30Q
937 Jérémy Desplanches Civil Ensign of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 1:58.46Q
1024 Carson Foster Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:58.63Q
1126 Lewis Clareburt Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 1:58.84Q
32 William Petric Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:58.84Q
1325 Finlay Knox Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:58.97Q
1442 Thomas Neill Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:59.13Q
1541 Jaouad Syoud Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 1:59.41Q
1631 Apostolos Papastamos Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 2:00.79Q
1727 Berke Saka Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 2:01.99
1821Erick GordilloFlag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala 2:02.24
1948 Tomás Peribonio Flag of Ecuador.svg  Ecuador 2:03.40
2014Matheo MateosFlag of Paraguay.svg  Paraguay 2:03.45
2122 Matthew Sates Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 2:04.01
2213 Simon Bachmann Flag of Seychelles.svg  Seychelles 2:06.48
2315Esteban Núñez Del PradoFlag of Bolivia.svg  Bolivia 2:08.10
23 Hugo González Flag of Spain.svg  Spain DNS
47 Gábor Zombori Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary DNS

Semifinals

Two semifinals took place on 1 August, starting at 21:47. [11] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final. [8] Foster won the first semifinal with the second fastest time of 1:56.37, and Marchand won the second semifinal to qualify with the fastest time of 1:56.31. Scott, Shun, Seto, Dean, Knox and Italy's Alberto Razzetti made up the rest of the spots in the final. Casas led the second semifinal at 50 metres but finished fourth and did not qualify. [12]

Results [11]
RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
125 Léon Marchand Flag of France.svg  France 1:56.31Q
212 Carson Foster Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:56.37Q
314 Duncan Scott Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:56.49Q
413 Wang Shun Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:56.54Q
524 Daiya Seto Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:56.59Q
616 Tom Dean Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:56.92Q
715 Alberto Razzetti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:57.10Q
821 Finlay Knox Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:57.76Q
923 Shaine Casas Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:57.82
1017 William Petric Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:58.13
1111 Thomas Neill Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:58.77
1226 Ron Polonsky Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 1:58.89
1322 Jérémy Desplanches Civil Ensign of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 1:58.93
1427 Lewis Clareburt Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 2:00.06
1528 Jaouad Syoud Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 2:00.13
1618 Apostolos Papastamos Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 2:01.02

Final

External videos
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Men's 200 metre individual medley final

The final took place at 20:45 on 2 August. [13] France's president Emmanuel Macron attended in support of Marchand, [14] and the International Olympic Committee, BBC Sport and The Guardian all noted that the crowd strongly supported Marchand. [15] [16] [17] Track and field events in the Olympic athletics arena were delayed due to the crowd at that venue cheering for Marchand. [17]

Shun swam the fastest fly split of the field, turning at the 50 metre split ahead of Marchand in second. [18] At 100 metres Marchand had taken the lead, which he extended over the breaststroke leg (100–150 m) and maintained over the freestyle leg (150–200 m) [18] [19] to win gold with a new Olympic and European record of 1:54.06. [20] During the breaststroke leg, Shun was also overtaken by Scott, who maintained the second position to win the silver medal with 1:55.31. [21] Shun won bronze with 1:56.00, ahead of Foster who finished fourth with 1:56.10. [18] [22]

Marchand's time of 1:54.06 was the second fastest swim ever in this event, 0.06 seconds behind Ryan Lochte's world record set in 2011. [20] The win gave him his fourth gold medal of the games, after he had already won the 400 metre individual medley, the 200 metre butterfly and the 200 metre breaststroke events. He was the fourth swimmer in history to win four individual gold medals at a single Olympics, along with Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Kristin Otto. [23] Scott defended his silver from the previous Olympics and Shun's bronze was his third medal in the event at the Olympics. [24]

Results [13]
RankLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg4 Léon Marchand Flag of France.svg  France 1:54.06 OR , ER
Silver medal icon.svg3 Duncan Scott Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:55.31
Bronze medal icon.svg6 Wang Shun Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:56.00
45 Carson Foster Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:56.10
57 Tom Dean Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:56.46
61 Alberto Razzetti Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 1:56.82
72 Daiya Seto Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:57.21
88 Finlay Knox Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:57.26
Statistics [19]
Name50 metre split100 metre split150 metre splitTimeStroke rate (strokes/min)
Léon Marchand 00:24.7200:53.5501:25.911:54.0645.4
Duncan Scott 00:25.0500:54.4401:27.641:55.3147.1
Wang Shun 00:24.6500:53.7501:27.781:56.0042.8
Carson Foster 00:25.0100:54.2001:28.271:56.1044.0
Tom Dean 00:24.9600:54.5001:28.421:56.4643.5
Alberto Razzetti 00:25.0000:55.1701:28.901:56.8246.2
Daiya Seto 00:24.8500:54.6501:28.281:57.2148.4
Finlay Knox 00:24.7400:54.4601:29.461:57.2645.0

Further reading

Notes

  1. In individual medley swimming, each competitor must swim an equal amount of each stroke in the following order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
  2. Several top swimmers chose not to attend the 2024 World Championships to focus on their Olympic training regime. [4]
  3. All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

References

  1. Burgaud, Florian (22 July 2024). "From concert hall and rugby stadium to Olympic swimming pool arena in a matter of weeks, the metamorphosis of the Paris La Défense Arena is complete". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). Archived from the original on 4 August 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Race, Retta (25 July 2024). "2024 Olympic Previews: Clash Of The Leon Marchand & Wang Shun 200 IM Titans". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 7 September 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Entries list - Swimming, World Aquatics, archived from the original on 12 July 2024, retrieved 18 December 2024
  4. Sutherland, James (9 February 2024). "SwimSwam Pulse: Opinions All Over The Map On Value of World Championship Medals In Doha". SwimSwam. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
  5. Rieder, David (25 July 2024). "Olympic Swimming Predictions, Day 7: Cameron McEvoy Aiming to Fight Off Dressel, Proud in 50 Free". Swimming World . Archived from the original on 25 July 2024. Retrieved 4 March 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 "Paris 2024 – Swimming Info". World Aquatics. 5 April 2022. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  7. 1 2 "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  8. 1 2 "Olympic swimming rules: How can swimmers qualify for finals and win medals - format explained". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). 24 July 2024. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  9. Penland, Spencer (1 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics: Day 6 Prelims Live Recap". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  10. Bush, Bradley (1 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics Data Dive: Day 6 Prelims". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  11. 1 2 "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  12. Wild, Mark (1 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics: Day 6 Finals Live Recap". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 24 September 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  13. 1 2 "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 September 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  14. Park, Alice (2 August 2024). "Leon Marchand Had Never Won an Olympic Medal Before Paris. Now He Has 4 Golds". TIME . Archived from the original on 10 September 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  15. Smirnova, Lena (3 August 2024). "Paris 2024 Olympics: 'Marchand Mania' captivates France as fans and athletes celebrate his flawless Olympic debut". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). Archived from the original on 22 September 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  16. Henry, Matthew (2 August 2024). "Olympic swimming: Leon Marchand wins fourth gold, while Duncan Scott and Ben Proud claim silvers". BBC Sport . Archived from the original on 27 August 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  17. 1 2 Bull, Andy (2 August 2024). "Marchand races to fourth Olympic gold while Scott claims another silver". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 26 September 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  18. 1 2 3 Penland, Spencer (3 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics: Day 7 Finals Live Recap". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 10 December 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  19. 1 2 Bodard, Simon; Decron, Nathan; Dernoncourt, Eric; Hui, Pierre; Jambu, Clément; Loisel, Camille; Pla, Robin; Raineteau, Yannis. "Jeux Olympiques 2024: Analyses de course des Finales" (PDF). French Swimming Federation . Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 August 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  20. 1 2 Pelshaw, Anya (2 August 2024). "Leon Marchand Breaks Michael Phelps' Olympic Record With 1:54.06 200 IM". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 24 December 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  21. Rieder, David (2 August 2024). "Paris Olympics, Day 7 Finals: Leon Marchand Dominates 200 IM Final For Fourth Gold; Scares World Record With 1:54.06". Swimming World . Archived from the original on 11 October 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  22. Matthews, Max (2 August 2024). "Swimming: Marchand takes fourth individual gold!". The Athletic . Archived from the original on 11 March 2025. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
  23. Sutherland, James (2 August 2024). "Leon Marchand Becomes Fourth Swimmer In History To Win Four Individual Golds At Single Games". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 22 December 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  24. Bush, Bradley (2 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics Day 7 Finals: Fun Facts". SwimSwam . Archived from the original on 11 September 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2025.