Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle


The men's 200-metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 18–19 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.
Australia's Duncan Armstrong set a new world record to win the Olympic title in the event. Swimming in lane six and coming from third at the final turn, he edged out a vastly experienced field for the gold medal in 1:47.25. His time also sliced 0.19 seconds off the global standard set by West Germany's Michael Gross at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Sweden's Anders Holmertz overtook U.S. swimmer Matt Biondi about midway through the final stretch, but could not catch Armstrong near the wall to finish with a silver in 1:47.89. Leading almost the entire race, Biondi faded down the stretch to break the 1:48 barrier and take the bronze at 1:47.99.
Poland's Artur Wojdat, a top qualifier on the morning preliminaries, dropped off the podium to a fourth-place time in 1:48.40. Meanwhile, Groß missed a chance to defend his Olympic title with a fifth-place finish in 1:48.59.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
DateRoundNameNationalityTimeRecord
19 SeptemberFinal ADuncan Armstrong1:47.25

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
17Artur Wojdat1:48.02Q, NR
27Matt Biondi1:48.39Q
38Michael Gross1:48.55Q
48Duncan Armstrong1:48.86Q
58Troy Dalbey1:48.96Q
67Thomas Fahrner1:49.02Q
77Steffen Zesner1:49.13Q
86Anders Holmertz1:49.28Q
98Roberto Gleria1:49.51q
108Thomas Flemming1:49.52q
116Stéphan Caron1:49.66q,
126Giorgio Lamberti1:50.47q,
136Aleksey Kuznetsov1:50.84q
146Mariusz Podkościelny1:50.95q
156Tom Stachewicz1:51.02q
165Shigeo Ogata1:51.14q
177Franz Mortensen1:51.15q
186Paul Howe1:51.22q
197Carlos Scanavino1:51.42
206Alberto Bottini1:51.45
217Tommy Werner1:51.96
228Iurie Başcatov1:52.04
238Cristiano Michelena1:52.32
244Patrick Dybiona1:52.67
254Stéfan Voléry1:52.94
264Rodrigo González1:52.99
275Michael Green1:53.03
285Magnús Ólafsson1:53.05
285Daniel Serra1:53.05
305Júlio César Rebolal1:53.16
315Jan Larsen1:53.61
324Ignacio Escamilla1:53.63
335Jean-Marie Arnould1:53.73
345Zoltán Szilágyi1:53.75
357Ludovic Depickère1:53.81
364Salvador Vassallo1:53.82
378Norbert Ágh1:54.72
384Yves Clausse1:54.90
394Xie Jun1:55.04
403René Concepcion1:55.58
413Alexander Placheta1:56.11
424Vaughan Smith1:56.13
432David Lim1:56.44
442Joseph Eric Buhain1:56.84
452Kwon Sang-won1:56.88
462Oon Jin Gee1:57.28
473Moustafa Amer1:57.50
483Richard Sam Bera1:57.60
493Jonathan Sakovich1:57.72
503Stephen Cullen1:57.90
512Arthur Li Kai Yien1:58.10
523Hakan Eskioğlu1:58.45
533Jeffrey Ong1:58.62
542Kwon Soon-kun1:58.95
551Wu Ming-hsun2:00.43
562Tsang Yi Ming2:01.02
572Richard Gheel2:01.73
581Hans Foerster2:01.94
591Kristan Singleton2:06.45
601Jason Chute2:09.05
611Mohamed Bin Abid2:09.43
621Ahmad Faraj2:13.21
631Émile Lahoud2:16.39

Finals

Final B

Final A