Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre butterfly explained

Event:	Men's 200 metre butterfly
Games:	2000 Summer
Venue:	Sydney International Aquatic Centre
Date:	September 18, 2000 (heats &<br />semifinals) September 19, 2000 (final)
Competitors:	46
Nations:	40
Win Value:	1:55.35
Gold:	Tom Malchow
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	Denys Sylantyev
Silvernoc:	UKR
Bronze:	Justin Norris
Bronzenoc:	AUS
Prev:	1996
Next:	2004

The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 18–19 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.^[1]

U.S. swimmer Tom Malchow shattered his own Olympic record to claim a gold medal in the event. Coming from third place on the final turn, he held off a challenge from fast-pacing Denys Sylantyev of Ukraine to touch the wall first in 1:55.35.^[2] ^[3] Sylantyev trailed behind by almost half a second (0.50) to take a silver in 1:55.76, while Australia's Justin Norris settled for the bronze in an Oceanian record of 1:56.17.^[4] ^[5]

Russia's Anatoly Polyakov finished outside the medals in 1:56.34. 15-year-old Michael Phelps, the youngest male U.S. Olympic swimmer in 68 years, continued to improve his personal best of 1:56.50, but it was only enough to pull off a fifth-place finish.^[5] ^[6] ^[7]

Phelps, who later emerged as the most-decorated Olympian of all-time, was followed in the sixth spot by Great Britain's Stephen Parry in 1:57.01. Defending Olympic champion Denis Pankratov seized a powerful lead on the first length, but faded shortly to seventh place in 1:57.97. France's Franck Esposito (1:58.39), bronze medalist in Barcelona eight years earlier, closed out the field.^[5]

Earlier, Malchow posted a top-seeded time of 1:56.25 on the morning prelims to cut off Melvin Stewart's 1992 Olympic record by a hundredth of a second (0.01).^[8] Followed by an evening session on day three, he eventually lowered it to 1:56.02 in the semifinals.^[9]

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.

Date	Event	Nationality	Record
18 September	Heat 6	align=left	1:56.25
18 September	Semifinal 2	align=left	1:56.02
19 September	Final	align=left	1:55.35

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Time	Notes
1	6	4	1:56.25	Q,
2	4	4	1:56.42	Q
3	5	3	1:57.30	Q
4	6	6	1:57.60	Q
5	5	5	1:57.67	Q
6	6	3	1:57.88	Q
7	5	4	1:57.97	Q
8	6	5	1:58.00	Q
9	5	2	1:58.01	Q
10	5	6	1:58.07	Q
11	4	5	1:58.32	Q
12	4	3	1:58.82	Q
13	6	8	1:58.89	Q
14	4	6	1:59.00	Q
15	6	7	1:59.05	Q
16	6	1	1:59.41	Q
17	4	2	1:59.48
18	6	2	1:59.59
19	5	8	1:59.85
20	5	7	2:00.02
21	3	6	2:00.11
22	2	3	2:00.12	NR
23	4	1	2:00.15
24	3	4	2:00.74
25	3	3	2:00.75
26	3	1	2:00.90
27	3	5	2:01.06	NR
28	3	2	2:01.20	NR
29	2	6	2:01.30
30	4	7	2:01.32
31	4	8	2:01.97
32	2	7	2:01.99
33	5	1	2:02.00
34	3	7	2:02.46
35	1	5	2:03.62
36	2	5	2:03.67
37	3	8	2:03.91
38	2	2	2:04.15
39	2	8	2:04.35
40	1	3	2:04.40
41	2	1	2:04.86
42	2	4	2:05.13
43	1	4	2:08.18
44	1	6	2:09.34
45	1	2	2:10.54
46	1	7	2:11.56

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	4	1:56.81	Q
2	5	1:57.10	Q
3	6	1:57.23	Q
4	2	1:57.66
5	3	1:57.84
6	7	1:57.90
7	1	1:58.06
8	8	1:59.03

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	4	1:56.02	Q,
2	3	1:56.78	Q
3	5	1:57.00	Q
4	6	1:57.04	Q
5	2	1:57.24	Q
6	8	1:58.63	NR
7	1	1:58.66
8	7	1:58.96

Final

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
	4	1:55.35
	3	1:55.76	NR
	7	1:56.17	OC
4	5	1:56.34
5	6	1:56.50
6	1	1:57.01
7	8	1:57.97
8	2	1:58.39

External links

Official Olympic Report

Notes and References

Web site: Swimming schedule . Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 September 2000. 14 May 2013.
News: Fitzpatrick. Frank. Malchow Captures Gold In Butterfly He Suffers From Asthma And Says He Is Not Much Of An Athlete. But, Yesterday The 200-meter Race Was His. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304062600/http://articles.philly.com/2000-09-20/sports/25583291_1_200-meter-individual-medley-susie-o-neill-ukraine-s-yana-klochkova. dead. March 4, 2016. Daily News (New York). 20 September 2000. 8 June 2013.
News: Longman. Jere. Sydney 2000: Swimming; Malchow Lies Low, Then Rockets To the Wall. New York Times. 20 September 2000. 8 June 2013.
News: Bondy. Filip. Malchow's gold has ripple effect. Daily News (New York). 20 September 2000. 8 June 2013.
News: Whitten. Phillip. Olympic Day 4 Finals. Swimming World Magazine. 19 September 2000. 8 June 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930154751/http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/1804.asp. 30 September 2007.
News: Aussies rule relays. https://web.archive.org/web/20010507072211/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2000/swimming/news/2000/09/19/swimming_finals_ap/. dead. May 7, 2001. Sports Illustrated. CNN. 19 September 2000. 8 June 2013.
News: Dillman. Lisa. Phelps to Sydney, Oh, Boy!. Los Angeles Times. 13 August 2000. 8 June 2013.
News: McMullen. Paul. Another Phelps growth spurt in 200 fly. The Baltimore Sun. 18 September 2000. 8 June 2013.
News: Whitten. Phillip. Olympic Day 3 Finals (100 Breast, 100 Back M, 100 Back W, 200 Free). Swimming World Magazine. 18 September 2000. 23 May 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070930154738/http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/1799.asp. 30 September 2007.