Swimming at the 1979 Pan American Games – Men's 200 metre individual medley
The men's 200 metre individual medley competition of the swimming events at the 1979 Pan American Games took place on 6 July at the Piscina Olimpica Del Escambron. The last Pan American Games champion was Steve Furniss of US.
This race consisted of four lengths of the pool, one each in backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle swimming.Results
All times are in minutes and seconds.
| KEY: | q | Fastest non-qualifiers | Q | Qualified | GR | Games record | NR | National record | PB | Personal best | SB | Seasonal best |
Heats
The first round was held on July 6.
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Jesse Vassallo | | 2:07.90 | Q |
| 2 | Graham Smith | | 2:08.99 | Q |
| 3 | Bill Sawchuk | | 2:09.67 | Q |
| 4 | Scott Spann | | 2:10.16 | Q |
| 5 | Helmut Levy | | 2:10.39 | Q |
| 6 | Jorge Varela | | 2:10.60 | Q |
| 7 | Andrey Aguilar | | 2:10.78 | Q, NR |
| 8 | Ricardo Prado | | 2:13.93 | Q |
| 9 | Pablo Restrepo | | 2:14.15 | |
| 10 | José de Jesus | | 2:14.47 | |
| 11 | David Lindquist | | 2:14.73 | NR |
| 12 | Emilio Abreu | | 2:15.16 | NR |
| 13 | Glen Sochasky | | 2:16.02 | NR |
| 14 | Antonio Cerezo | | 2:16.51 | |
| 15 | Andrew Philipps | | 2:16.68 | |
| 16 | Roberto Ledesma | | 2:21.50 | |
| 17 | Enrique Leite | | 2:21.67 | |
| 18 | Donaldo Clough | | 2:34.30 | |
Final
The final was held on July 6.
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| Jesse Vassallo | | 2:03.29 | WR |
| Graham Smith | | 2:05.86 | |
| Scott Spann | | 2:06.29 | |
| 4 | Bill Sawchuk | | 2:07.51 | |
| 5 | Helmut Levy | | 2:08.76 | NR |
| 6 | Jorge Varela | | 2:09.63 | NR |
| 7 | Andrey Aguilar | | 2:11.51 | NR |
| 8 | Ricardo Prado | | 2:14.89 | |
