The men's 200 metre butterfly 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.
Going into the event, defending Olympic champion Kristóf Milák was the favourite, but he had taken a break from swimming in 2023 and the Hungarian national head coach had reported that Milák had been training inconsistently. Second favourite was France's Léon Marchand. In the heats, Japan's Tomoru Honda, the silver medalist at the previous Olympics was eliminated. In the semifinals, Kregor Zirk broke the Estonian national record, and Noè Ponti broke the Swiss national record.
In the finals, Milák and Marchand led the race, remaining in the first two places from 15 metres to the end of the race. Marchand was faster on every turn and underwater, while Milák was faster during the butterfly parts up until the last length. At 150 metres, Milák was leading by 0.72 seconds, but over the last length Marchand took the lead and finished in first with an Olympic and national record of 1:51.21, while Milák won silver and Ilya Kharun won bronze. Kharun broke Canada's record and Martin Espernberger broke Austria's national record.
Background
Going into the event, HungarianKristóf Milák was the defending Olympic champion. Milák also won the event at the 2019 and 2022 World Aquatics Championships, but in 2023 he "hit rock bottom" and took a break from swimming.[2] Milák returned to training in 2024, but the Hungarian national head coach Csaba Sós reported that Milák had been training inconsistently in the lead up to the Olympics. France's Léon Marchand won the 2023 Championships in Milák's absence and had dropped three seconds off his personal best over the previous three years, making him the third fastest performer of all time after Milák and Michael Phelps. Japan's Tomoru Honda was also returning after winning the silver in the previous Olympics.[2] Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Milák would take the gold and Marchand the silver.[2][3]
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).[4] For this event, the OQT was 1:55.78. 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.[4][5] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 1:56.36 for this event.[4] In total, 23 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, three athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.[5]
Three heats took place on 30 July 2024, starting at 11:00.[a][6] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[7] Milák qualified with the top seed, swimming 1:53.92, while Canada's Ilya Karun and Noè Ponti from Switzerland qualified second and third respectively.[8] Tomoru Honda, the silver medalist at the previous Olympics, slowed on the final 50 metres and did not qualify.[9] Honda commented after exiting the pool: "[For some reason] my mindset was to play it safe, I didn't feel lethargic or anything."[10]
The final took place at 20:37 on 31 July.[16]HungarianKristóf Milák had the fastest start. He reached 15 metres in 5.39 seconds, 0.26 seconds faster than France's Léon Marchand in second place. Switzerland's Noè Ponti had the third fastest 15 metre split, and Canada's Ilya Kharun the fourth.[17] Over the rest of the first length (15–50 metres), Milák extended his lead over Marchand to 0.64 seconds and Kharun elevated himself to third.[17][18] Through the turn and underwater, Marchand cut 0.12 off Milák's lead, but by 100 metres (halfway) Milák had extended his lead again to 0.60. Kharun remained in third. Through the next turn and underwater, Marchand again cut some of Milák's lead, but Milák again extended it through the rest of the length; Milák touched for the final turn (150 m) with a 0.72 lead on Marchand, with Kharun remaining in third. Through the final turn and underwater, Marchand cut 0.31 from Milák's lead, and he continued to catch Milák over the final length. Marchand won gold with an Olympic and national record of 1:51.21, while Milák won silver with 1:51.75 and Kharun won bronze with 1:52.80.[17]
Marchand swam 58.1 metres underwater throughout the race, compared to Milák's 51.6 and Kharun's 54.4. This led SwimSwam to speculate that this gave Marchand an advantage.[17]
Marchand's win won him his second gold medal of the games,[19] and he went on to win the 200 metres breastroke event on the same evening, which made him the first to win both these events at the Olympics.[20] His 1:51.21 made him the second fastest of all time, ahead of the USA's Michael Phelps and trailing Milák's world record. He was also the first Frenchman to win this Olympic event. Ponti tied his Swiss national record set from the semifinals, while Austria's Martin Espernberger set a new national record of 1:54.17,[21] and Kharun set Canada's record at 1:52.80, beating his previous national record of 1:53.82.[22]
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