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

Men's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Paris La Défense Arena after it was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events
Venue	Paris La Défense Arena
Dates	30 July 2024 (Heats and Semis) 31 July 2024 (Final)
Competitors	25 from 20 nations
Winning time	2:05.85 OR
Medalists
Léon Marchand   France Zac Stubblety-Cook   Australia Caspar Corbeau   Netherlands
←  2020 2028  →

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 30 to 31 July 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.

Background

Australian Zac Stubblety-Cook was the defending Olympic champion in the event. ^[2] He also won the event at the 2022 World Championships, took silver at the 2023 World Championships, ^[2] and owned the second fastest qualifying time of 2:06.40. ^[3] China's Qin Haiyang won the event at the 2023 World Championships, ^[2] where he swam the world record of 2:05.48. ^[4] That time had not been beaten since and was the fastest qualifying time. ^[3]

France's Léon Marchand had the fourth fastest qualifying time of 2:06.59, ^[3] and Braden Keith writing for SwimSwam stated that "under ideal circumstances, Marchand is the best 200 breaststroker in the world." ^[2] However Marchand was also racing in the 200 metre butterfly finals around an hour and a half beforehand, ^{[5] [6]} which Keith opined may slow him down. ^[2] The Olympic swimming schedule for this evening had been changed earlier in the year to give Marchand a better chance to swim both these events. ^{[7] [8] [a]}

Other contenders included China's Dong Zhihao, the world junior record holder; ^[2] the USA's Matt Fallon, the 2023 World Championships bronze medallist; ^[9] and Japan’s duet of Ippei Watanabe and Yu Hanaguruma, the fifth and sixth fastest qualifiers, respectively. ^{[2] [3]}

Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Haiyang would take gold and Marchand would take silver. Swimming World predicted Fallon would take bronze, while SwimSwam predicted Stubblety-Cook would come third. ^{[2] [10]}

Qualification

Further information: Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – 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). ^[11] For this event, the OQT was 2:09.68. 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. ^{[11] [3]} Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 2:10.33 for this event. ^[11] In total, 18 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 6 athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT. ^[3]

Top 10 fastest qualification times ^[3]

Swimmer	Country	Time	Competition
Qin Haiyang	China	02:05:48	2023 World Aquatics Championships
Zac Stubblety-Cook	Australia	02:06:40	2023 World Aquatics Championships
Matthew Fallon	United States	02:06:54	2024 United States Olympic Trials
Léon Marchand	France	02:06:59	2024 French Elite Championships
Ippei Watanabe	Japan	02:06:94	2024 Japanese Olympic Trials
Yu Hanaguruma	Japan	02:07:07	2024 Japanese Olympic Trials
Dong Zhihao	China	02:07:94	2024 World Aquatics Championships
Caspar Corbeau	Netherlands	02:07:99	2023 Rotterdam Qualification Meet
Joshua Yong	Australia	02:08:08	2024 Australian Olympic Trials
Arno Kamminga	Netherlands	02:08:30	2023 Rotterdam Qualification Meet

Heats

Four heats took place on 30 July 2024, starting at 13:01. ^{[b] [12]} The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. ^[13]

Results ^[12]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	7	Cho Sung-jae	South Korea	2:09.45	Q
2	3	4	Zac Stubblety-Cook	Australia	2:09.49	Q
3	4	5	Léon Marchand	France	2:09.55	Q
4	3	3	Caspar Corbeau	Netherlands	2:09.78	Q
5	3	5	Ippei Watanabe	Japan	2:09.86	Q
6	4	3	Dong Zhihao	China	2:09.91	Q
7	2	5	Yu Hanaguruma	Japan	2:10.35	Q
	3	2	Erik Persson	Sweden	2:10.35	Q
9	4	2	Anton McKee	Iceland	2:10.36	Q
10	3	6	Josh Matheny	United States	2:10.39	Q
11	2	4	Matthew Fallon	United States	2:10.49	Q
12	4	6	Arno Kamminga	Netherlands	2:10.53	Q, WD
13	2	2	Lyubomir Epitropov	Bulgaria	2:10.59	Q
14	2	3	Joshua Yong	Australia	2:10.68	Q
15	4	4	Qin Haiyang	China	2:10.98	Q
16	3	1	Denis Petrashov	Kyrgyzstan	2:10.99	Q
17	3	7	Miguel de Lara	Mexico	2:11.16	q
18	2	6	Matti Mattsson	Finland	2:11.18
19	2	7	Aleksas Savickas	Lithuania	2:11.53
20	4	1	Jan Kalusowski	Poland	2:11.87
21	4	8	Daniils Bobrovs	Latvia	2:13.66
22	1	5	Tyler Christianson	Panama	2:15.62
23	2	1	Amro Al-Wir	Jordan	2:15.78
24	1	4	Julio Horrego	Honduras	2:18.91
25	1	3	Saud Ghali	Bahrain	2:22.51

Semifinals

Two semifinals took place on 30 July, starting at 21:59. ^[14] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final. ^[13]

Results ^[14]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	2	5	Léon Marchand	France	2:08.11	Q
2	1	4	Zac Stubblety-Cook	Australia	2:08.57	Q
3	1	3	Dong Zhihao	China	2:08.99	Q
4	1	5	Caspar Corbeau	Netherlands	2:09.52	Q
5	2	3	Ippei Watanabe	Japan	2:09.62	Q
6	1	2	Josh Matheny	United States	2:09.70	Q
7	2	6	Yu Hanaguruma	Japan	2:09.72	Q
8	1	1	Joshua Yong	Australia	2:09.89	Q
9	2	1	Lyubomir Epitropov	Bulgaria	2:09.93
10	2	7	Matthew Fallon	United States	2:09.96
	2	8	Qin Haiyang	China	2:09.96
12	2	4	Cho Sung-jae	South Korea	2:10.03
13	1	6	Erik Persson	Sweden	2:10.11
14	1	8	Denis Petrashov	Kyrgyzstan	2:10.19
15	2	2	Anton McKee	Iceland	2:10.42
16	1	7	Miguel de Lara	Mexico	2:11.28

Final

External videos
Men's 200 metre breaststroke final

The final took place at 21:59 on 31 July. ^[6]

Results ^[6]

Rank	Lane	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
	4	Léon Marchand	France	2:05.85	OR , ER
	5	Zac Stubblety-Cook	Australia	2:06.79
	6	Caspar Corbeau	Netherlands	2:07.90
4	3	Dong Zhihao	China	2:08.46
5	1	Yu Hanaguruma	Japan	2:08.79
6	2	Ippei Watanabe	Japan	2:08.83
7	7	Josh Matheny	United States	2:09.52
8	8	Joshua Yong	Australia	2:11.44

Statistics ^[15]

Name	50 metre split	100 metre split	150 metre split	Time	Stroke rate (strokes/min)
Léon Marchand	00:28.42	01:00.59	01:33.12	2:05.85	39.2
Zac Stubblety-Cook	00:29.30	01:01.56	01:34.30	2:06.79	41.1
Caspar Corbeau	00:29.19	01:01.40	01:34.77	2:07.90	34.3
Dong Zhihao	00:29.05	01:02.24	01:36.16	2:08.46	44.8
Ippei Watanabe	00:29.44	01:02.44	01:35.37	2:08.83	33.9
Josh Matheny	00:29.17	01:02.01	01:35.73	2:09.52	48.6
Joshua Yong	00:29.72	01:02.66	01:36.92	2:11.44	36.0

Notes

1. Marchand's coach Bob Bowman, and Julien Issoulié, the French technical director, lobbied for the events to be shifted apart in the schedule, so that it would be easier for Marchand to compete in both.'"`UNIQ--ref-00000018-QINU`"'
2. 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. Keith, Braden (23 July 2024). "2024 Olympic Previews: Leon Loves It, Leon Loves It Not (200 Breaststroke?)". SwimSwam. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
3. Entries list - Swimming, World Aquatics, archived from the original on 12 July 2024, retrieved 18 December 2024
4. Li, Yanyan (28 July 2023). "Qin Haiyang Breaks 200 Breast World Record (2:05.48), Completes First-Ever Stroke Sweep". SwimSwam. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
5. "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
6. "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
7. Sutherland, James (28 February 2024). "Paris Olympic Schedule Change Opens The Door For Marchand's 200 Fly/200 Breast Double". SwimSwam. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
8. NEWS, KYODO. "Swimming: Olympic schedule change benefiting French star questioned". Kyodo News+. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
9. Guevarra, Valeri. "Previewing the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2024 Paris Olympics". www.thedp.com. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
10. Writer, David Rieder-Senior (23 July 2024). "Olympic Swimming Predictions, Day 5: 100 Freestyle Finals Bookend Busy Middle Night". Swimming World. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
11. "Paris 2024 – Swimming Info". World Aquatics. 5 April 2022. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
12. "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
13. "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.
14. "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
15. 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.