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

Event:	Men's 200 metre butterfly
Games:	2008 Summer
Venue:	Beijing National Aquatics Center
Date:	August 11, 2008 (heats) August 12, 2008 (semifinals) August 13, 2008 (final)
Competitors:	44
Nations:	39
Win Value:	1:52.03
Gold:	Michael Phelps
Goldnoc:	USA
Silver:	László Cseh
Silvernoc:	HUN
Bronze:	Takeshi Matsuda
Bronzenoc:	JPN
Prev:	2004
Next:	2012

The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.^[1]

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted a new world record of 1:52.03 to defend his title in the event, and more importantly, claim his fourth Olympic gold, tenth career, and twelfth overall medal. During the final, Phelps' goggles filled with water, which prevented him from seeing anything, while he was finishing the second lap.^[2]

Hungary's László Cseh added a second silver to his hardware from the 400 m individual medley, breaking a European record of 1:52.70. Japan's Takeshi Matsuda powered home with a bronze medal in 1:52.97.^{[3] [4]}

New Zealand's Moss Burmester shared a fourth place with host nation China's Wu Peng in 1:54.35, while Poland's Paweł Korzeniowski finished sixth with a time of 1:54.60. Brazil's Kaio de Almeida (1:54.71) and Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov (1:55.14) rounded out the finale.^[3]

Earlier in the semifinals, Phelps registered his own Olympic record of 1:53.70 to establish a strong lead for the top 8 final, matching his preliminary time in the process.^[5]

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	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
August 11	Heat 6	align=left		align=left		1:53.70
August 12	Semifinal 2	align=left		align=left		1:53.70
August 13	Final	align=left		align=left		1:52.03

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	6	4			1:53.70	Q,
2	4	2			1:54.48	Q
3	6	3			1:54.65	Q
4	6	6			1:55.06	Q
5	4	4			1:55.21	Q
6	6	5			1:55.33	Q
7	5	5	Wu Peng		1:55.39	Q
8	5	4	Gil Stovall		1:55.42	Q
9	5	7	Michael Rock		1:55.55	Q
10	4	5			1:55.80	Q
11	5	3	Ryuichi Shibata		1:55.82	Q
12	4	6			1:55.96	Q
13	4	1			1:56.09	Q, NR
14	6	1			1:56.24	Q
15	5	6	Chen Yin		1:56.55	Q
16	3	2	Hsu Chi-chieh		1:56.59	Q
17	5	2	Christophe Lebon		1:56.63
18	6	2			1:56.64
19	6	7			1:56.65	NR
20	4	7			1:56.99
21	4	3			1:57.02
22	5	1	Tamás Kerékjártó		1:57.29
23	6	8			1:57.32	NR
24	3	6	Pedro Oliveira		1:57.41
25	4	8			1:57.45
26	3	5	Simon Sjödin		1:57.75
27	5	8	Romanos Alyfantis		1:57.99
28	3	8	Alon Mandel		1:59.27	NR
29	2	5	James Walsh		1:59.39	NR
30	3	3	Omar Pinzón		1:59.47
31	1	3	Nikša Roki		1:59.58	NR
32	2	1	Javier Núñez		2:00.24
33	2	7	Andrés José González		2:00.36
34	2	6	Yoo Jung-nam		2:01.00
35	3	4	Jeremy Knowles		2:01.08
36	2	8	Alexis Márquez Rivas		2:01.25
37	3	7	Daniel Bego		2:01.28
38	2	3	Douglas Lennox-Silva		2:01.69
39	3	1	Georgi Palazov		2:01.84
40	1	5	Rehan Poncha		2:01.89
41	1	4	Emmanuel Crescimbeni		2:02.13
42	1	6	Javier Hernández Maradiaga		2:02.23
43	2	4	Vladan Marković		2:03.12
44	2	2	Donny Utomo		2:03.44

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5			1:54.02	Q, AS
2	3			1:54.31	Q, NR
3	4			1:54.35	Q
4	2			1:55.26	Q
5	6			1:55.36
6	7			1:55.65
7	1			1:56.64
8	8			1:57.48

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4			1:53.70	Q,
2	6			1:54.93	Q
3	5			1:55.21	Q
4	3			1:55.35	Q
5	8			1:55.88
6	2			1:55.90
7	7			1:56.17
8	1			1:56.57

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4			1:52.03
	6			1:52.70	EU
	5			1:52.97	AS
4	1			1:54.35	OC
4	2			1:54.35
6	8			1:54.60
7	7			1:54.71
8	3			1:55.14

External links

• Official Reports

Notes and References

1. Web site: Olympic Swimming Schedule. USA Today. 9 August 2008. 14 May 2013.
2. News: Larry. Siddons. Water-Filled Goggles Can't Keep Phelps From Gold Mark. Bloomberg L.P.. 13 August 2008. 17 May 2013.
3. News: Lohn. John. Olympics, Swimming: World Record Bonanza Continues, Michael Phelps Clips Standard in 200 Fly. Swimming World Magazine. 13 August 2008. 17 May 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130509233107/http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/18792.asp. 9 May 2013.
4. News: Phelps sets world marks, becomes winningest Olympic athlete. ESPN. 13 August 2008. 17 May 2013.
5. News: Lohn. John. Olympics, Swimming: Michael Phelps Ties Olympic Record in 200 Fly Semis. Swimming World Magazine. 12 August 2008. 17 May 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130506132614/http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/18775.asp. 6 May 2013.