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.
In the final, Marchand led from beginning to end, finishing with a new Olympic and European record of 2:05.85. Stubblety-Cook finished second with 2:06.79, and the Netherlands' Caspar Corbeau finished third with 2:07.90.
Marchand's win won him his third gold of the Games and second gold of the night, as he had won the men's 200 metres butterfly earlier in the evening. He was the first swimmer to win two Olympic events on the same night since 1976. Marchand also became the first swimmer to win both breaststroke and butterfly events at the same Games. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, called it the "greatest double in our sport ever".
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]
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][11]
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).[12] 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.[12][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.[12] In total, 18 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 6 athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT.[3]
Four heats took place on 30 July 2024, starting at 13:01.[b][13] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[14]South Korea's Cho Sung-jae swam the fastest qualifying time of 2:09.45, while Stubblety-Cook qualified second and Marchand qualified third. Zhihao, Watanabe, Hanaguruma, Fallon and Haiyang all qualified, though SwimSwam wrote that Haiyang "nearly didn’t make it back" as he qualified with the fifteenth fastest time of sixteen qualifiers.[15] The Netherlands' Arno Kamminga, who qualified in twelfth, withdrew from the semi-finals due to injury, which meant Mexico's Miguel de Lara was able to compete in the semifinals instead.[16][17]
Two semifinals took place on 30 July, starting at 21:59.[18] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[14] Stubblety-Cook won the first heat with the second fastest qualifying time of 2:08.57, while Marchand won the first heat with the fastest qualifying time of 2:08.11. Zhihao qualified third, followed by the Netherlands' Caspar Corbeau, Watanabe, the US' Josh Matheny, Hanaguruma and then Australia's Joshua Yong. Haiyang and Fallon finished with the joint tenth fastest time, so both failed to qualify for the final.[19]
The final took place at 21:59 on 31 July.[6] Marchand led from beginning to end, finishing with a new Olympic and European record of 2:05.85.[20][21] Stubblety-Cook was 0.93 seconds behind Marchand at the 15 metre mark, and SwimSwam later opined that Marchand's "opening 15 metres won him 200 breast gold over Stubblety-Cook".[21] Over the remainder of the race Stubblety-Cook swam himself into second position, and he won the silver medal with a time of 2:06.79. Corbeau won the bronze with 2:07.90, ahead of Zhihao who finished fourth with 2:08.46.[21] In a post-race analysis SwimSwam noted that Marchand and Stubblety-Cook swam almost the same speed on average during the breaststroke portions of the race, and that Marchand's lead was instead built up during the turns and underwater sections.[21]
Marchand's win won him his third gold of the Games[22] and second gold of the night, as he had won the men's 200 metres butterfly earlier in the evening. He was the first swimmer to win two Olympic events on the same night since 1976, when Kornelia Ender won the 100 metres butterfly and 200 metres freestyle for East Germany.[23][24] He also swam Olympic records in both races.[25][26] After the race Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, called it the "greatest double in our sport ever".[27][28] Marchand also became the first swimmer to win both breaststroke and butterfly events at the same Games.[22] Corbeau's bronze was the first swimming medal for the Netherlands at the games.[24]
↑ 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.[9]
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