Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle


The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
After winning a bronze in Athens four years earlier, Michael Phelps blasted a new world record of 1:42.96 to claim his third straight gold, ninth career, and eleventh overall medal at the Olympics. South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan added a silver to his collection, following an unprecedented triumph in the 400 m freestyle two days earlier. He established a new Asian record of 1:44.85 to clear a 1:45 barrier, and used a final-lap split of 26.17 to edge out Phelps' teammate Peter Vanderkaay, who took home a bronze medal in a personal best of 1:45.14.
South Africa's Jean Basson finished fourth with a time of 1:45.97, and was followed in the fifth spot by Germany's Paul Biedermann in 1:46.00. Switzerland's Dominik Meichtry, who raced to a top seed in the prelims, earned a sixth spot in 1:46.95, while Japan's Yoshihiro Okumura and Great Britain's Robbie Renwick rounded out the finale. Renwick missed out the semifinals by 0.01 of a second from the prelims, but was offered a second shot, following a sudden withdrawal of two swimmers. Canada's Brent Hayden and France's Amaury Leveaux later scratched the event to focus on their duty in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
August 12FinalMichael Phelps1:42.96,

Results

Heats

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
14Jean Basson1:46.13Q
23Danila Izotov1:47.24
32Ross Davenport1:47.35
46Emiliano Brembilla1:47.70
57Nicholas Sprenger1:47.80
61Dominik Koll1:47.87
75Colin Russell1:48.13
88Rodrigo Castro1:48.71

Semifinal 2

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
17Peter Vanderkaay1:45.76Q
23Park Tae-Hwan1:45.99Q, AS
35Michael Phelps1:46.28Q
42Paul Biedermann1:46.41Q
56Yoshihiro Okumura1:46.44Q
64Dominik Meichtry1:46.54Q
78Robbie Renwick1:47.07Q
81Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or1:48.16

Final