Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke explained

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 5 and 7 August at the Empire Pool.^[1] This swimming event used the breaststroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

John Davies' time was recorded by the timekeepers to be 0.2s faster than the bronze medallist Bob Sohl of the United States. However, the judges believed that Sohl had touched first and awarded him the bronze.

Results

Heats

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			2:40.0
2			2:44.9
3			2:45.5
4			2:46.3
5			2:46.3
6			2:46.4
7			2:48.2
8			2:48.3
9			2:48.7
10			2:49.4
11			2:49.5
12			2:50.4
13			2:50.6
14			2:50.6
15			2:50.7
16			2:52.6
17			2:53.8
18			2:54.0
19			2:55.0
20			2:56.4
21			2:56.7
22			2:56.6
23			2:57.6
24			2:59.2
25			3:00.4
26			3:00.6
27			3:01.5
28			3:02.0
29			3:02.3
30			3:03.3
31			3:14.9
32			3:28.1

Semifinals

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			2:40.7	Q
2			2:43.0	Q
3			2:43.7	Q
4			2:43.9	Q
5			2:44.4	Q
6			2:44.8	q
7			2:47.0	Q
8			2:47.3	q
9			2:48.1
10			2:49.6
11			2:50.1
12			2:51.4
13			2:51.8
14			2:52.4
15			2:53.5
16			2:59.1

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
			2:39.3	OR
			2:40.2
			2:43.9
4			2:43.7
5			2:46.1
6			2:46.4
7			2:47.5
8			2:47.6

Key: OR = Olympic record

Notes and References

Web site: Swimming at the 1948 London Summer Games: Men's 200 metres Breaststroke . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417170334/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1948/SWI/mens-200-metres-breaststroke.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 18 September 2016 . Sports Reference.