| Event: | Men's 200 metre breaststroke |
| Games: | 1924 Summer |
| Date: | July 15–17 |
| Competitors: | 28 |
| Nations: | 16 |
| Gold: | Bob Skelton |
| Goldnoc: | USA |
| Silver: | Joseph De Combe |
| Silvernoc: | BEL |
| Bronze: | Bill Kirschbaum |
| Bronzenoc: | USA |
| Prev: | 1920 |
| Next: | 1928 |
The men's 200 metre breaststroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1924 Summer Olympics program.[1] It was the fourth appearance of the event, which was established in 1908. The competition was held on Tuesday July 15, 1924, on Wednesday July 16, 1924, and on Thursday July 17, 1924.
Despite Erich Rademacher from Germany being arguably the fastest breaststroker in the world at the time, and holding the world record in the event, he was not able to compete due to Germany's role in WWI. Despite this, he would establish his dominance in the event by beating the world record several times, which was over 5 seconds faster than the Olympic record set in this event.[2]
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1924 Summer Olympics.
| World Record | 2:50.4 | Erich Rademacher | Magdeburg (GER) | April 7, 1924 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Record | 3:01.8 | Walter Bathe | Stockholm (SWE) | July 12, 1912 |
In the first heat Bob Skelton set a new Olympic record with 2:56.0 minutes.
Tuesday July 15, 1924: The fastest two in each heat and the fastest third-placed from across the heats advanced.
Heat 1
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2:56.0 | QQ OR | ||||
| 2 | 3:02.4 | |||||
| 3 | 3:05.4 | |||||
| 4 | 3:09.6 | |||||
| 5 | 3:10.3 | |||||
| 6 | 3:11.2 |
Heat 2
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:02.0 | |||||
| 2 | 3:07.0 | |||||
| 3 | 3:09.8 | |||||
| 4 | 3:11.0 | |||||
| 5 | 3:11.2 |
Heat 3
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:01.0 | |||||
| 2 | 3:10.8 | |||||
| 3 | 3:12.2 | |||||
| 4 | 3:12.4 | |||||
| 5 | 3:23.0 |
Heat 4
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:05.2 | |||||
| 2 | 3:06.4 | |||||
| 3 | 3:07.8 | |||||
| 4 | 3:18.8 | |||||
| 5 | 3:26.8 | |||||
| 6 | 3:28.4 |
Heat 5
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:03.4 | |||||
| 2 | 3:03.6 | |||||
| 3 | 3:09.0 | |||||
| 4 | 3:09.2 | |||||
| 5 | 3:22.0 | |||||
| 6 | 3:32.4 |
Wednesday July 16, 1924: The fastest two in each semi-final and the faster of the two third-placed swimmer advanced to the final.
Semifinal 1
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:00.2 | QF | ||||
| 2 | 3:02.6 | QF | ||||
| 3 | 3:04.2 | qf | ||||
| 4 | 3:05.6 | |||||
| 5 | 3:06.8 | |||||
| 6 | 3:11.8 |
Semifinal 2
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:00.2 | QF | ||||
| 2 | 3:01.4 | QF | ||||
| 3 | 3:05.0 | |||||
| 4 | 3:07.0 | |||||
| 5 | 3:09.2 |
Thursday July 17, 1924:
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2:56.6 | |||
| 2 | 2:59.2 | |||
| 3 | 3:01.0 | |||
| 4 | 3:02.2 | |||
| 5 | 3:05.6 |