The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held on 28 and 29 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, Märtens led up until the final turn, when Hobson took the lead. Richards overtook him during the final length, and at 195 metres the standings were: Richards in first, Hobson in second and Popovici in third. Over the final five metres Popovici overtook both to win gold with a time of 1:44.72, while Richards won silver with 1:44.74 and Hobson won bronze with 1:44.79. The 0.02 margin of victory was the smallest ever seen in this event at the Olympics, and Popovici's gold was the first Olympic medal for Romania since 2004.
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 1:46.26. 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][4] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 1:46.79 for this event.[6] In total, 21 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, four athletes qualified through universality places and three athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.[4]
Four heats took place on 28 July 2024, starting at 11:00.[7][a] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[8] Popovici led heat four from beginning to end to finish with the fastest qualifying time of 1:45.65, while Rapšys won heat three with the second fastest qualifying time of 1:45.91.[9]BelgianLucas Henveaux swam a national record of 1:46.04 to qualify third.[10][7]
Two semifinals took place on 28 July, starting at 20:46.[11] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[8] Popovici led from beginning to end to win the second semifinal with the fastest qualifying time of 1:44.53, while Scott behind him with the second fastest qualifying time of 1:44.94. Hobson won the first semifinal with 1:45.19 which was the third fastest qualifying time. Hobson, Märtens, AustralianMaximillian Giuliani, Rapšys, Richards and Japan's Katsuhiro Matsumoto also qualified.[12] Sun-woo did not qualify.[11]
The final took place at 20:41 on 29 July.[13] After Richards had the fastest start, Märtens overtook him and retained the lead up until the 150 metre mark—three quarters of the way through the race. SwimSwam later opined that Märtens lost his chance at a medal due to his slow last tumble turn and underwater.[14]
At 165 metres Hobson had taken the lead, but by 175 metres Richards was first. At the 195 metre mark Richards was first, Hobson was second and Popovici was third.[14] In what SwimSwam called a "wild finish", Popovici won gold with a time of 1:44.72, 0.02 seconds ahead of Richards in second, who was in turn 0.05 seconds ahead of Hobson who placed third.[15] The 0.02 margin of victory was the smallest ever seen in this event at the Olympics.[16]
During the race, Hobson had the fastest turns and underwaters, while Popovici was the fastest during the front crawl sections.[14] Popovici's gold was the first Olympic medal for Romania since 2004,[16] and after the race he said: "I don’t know how to describe it. It’s so simple, yet so beautiful."[17]
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