| Event: | Men's 200 metre breaststroke |
| Games: | 1920 Summer |
| Venue: | Stade Nautique d'Antwerp |
| Dates: | August 26–29 |
| Competitors: | 24 |
| Nations: | 11 |
| Gold: | Håkan Malmrot |
| Goldnoc: | SWE |
| Silver: | Thor Henning |
| Silvernoc: | SWE |
| Bronze: | Arvo Aaltonen |
| Bronzenoc: | FIN |
| Prev: | 1912 |
| Next: | 1924 |
The men's 200 metre breaststroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1920 Summer Olympics programme.[1] It was the third appearance of the event.
A total of 24 swimmers from 11 nations competed in the event, which was held from Thursday, August 26 to Sunday, August 29, 1920.
Despite Erich Rademacher from Germany being one of the fastest breaststroker in the world at the time, he was not able to compete due to Germany's role in WWI. Despite this, he would establish his dominance in the event by laying consistent claim to the world record through most of the next decade.[2]
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1920 Summer Olympics.
| World Record | 2:56.6 |  Percy Courtman | Garston (GBR) | July 28, 1914 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Record | 3:01.8 | Walter Bathe | Stockholm (SWE) | July 12, 1912 |
Thursday, August 26, 1920: 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 | 3:09.8 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 3:12.2 | Q | ||||
| 3 | 3:18.0 | |||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 |
Heat 2
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:16.0 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 3:16.4 | Q | ||||
| 3 | 3:16.6 | q | ||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | ||||||
| 6 |
Heat 3
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:04.0 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 3:11.6 | Q | ||||
| 3 | 3:22.6 | |||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | ||||||
| 6 |
Heat 4
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:12.8 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 3:18.8 | Q | ||||
| 3 | 3:20.8 | |||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | ||||||
| 6 | ||||||
| 7 |
Saturday, August 28, 1920: The fastest two in each semi-final and the faster of the two third-placed swimmer advanced to the final. Since both third-place swimmers had the same time, both advanced to the final.
Semifinal 1
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:10.8 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 3:14.6 | Q | ||||
| 3 | 3:16.0 | q | ||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 |
Semifinal 2
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time | width=90 | Qual. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:09.0 | Q | ||||
| 2 | 3:12.4 | Q | ||||
| 3 | 3:16.0 | q | ||||
| 4 |
Sunday, August 29, 1920:
| Place | width=220 | Swimmer | width=90 | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3:04.4 | |||
| 2 | 3:09.2 | |||
| 3 | 3:12.2 | |||
| 4 | ||||
| 5 | ||||
| — | DNF |