| Event: | Men's 200 metre butterfly |
| Games: | 2016 Summer |
| Venue: | Olympic Aquatics Stadium |
| Dates: | 8 August 2016 (heats &<br />semifinals) 9 August 2016 (final) |
| Competitors: | 29 |
| Nations: | 21 |
| Win Value: | 1:53.36 |
| Gold: | Michael Phelps |
| Goldnoc: | USA |
| Silver: | Masato Sakai |
| Silvernoc: | JPN |
| Bronze: | Tamás Kenderesi |
| Bronzenoc: | HUN |
| Prev: | 2012 |
| Next: | 2020 |
The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 8–9 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.[1]
As the most decorated Olympian of all-time, Michael Phelps got the opportunity to avenge the distance butterfly title that he lost in London four years earlier, when South Africa's Chad le Clos beat him to the wall.[2] Moving to the front at the halfway turn, Phelps held off the Japanese challenger Masato Sakai by a 0.04-second margin to claim his twentieth Olympic gold medal and twenty-fifth overall in 1:53.36.[3] [4] [5] Coming from sixth at the 150-metre turn, Sakai made a late surge on the final length to nearly upset Phelps towards a close finish, but he ended up taking the silver in 1:53.40.[6] Meanwhile, Hungary's top seed and 2014 Youth Olympic champion Tamás Kenderesi powered home with a bronze in 1:53.62.[7] [8]
Le Clos did not produce another striking effort to halt the most decorated Olympian from snatching the title, as he was shut out of the medals to fourth in 1:54.06.[9] Sakai's teammate Daiya Seto finished fifth in 1:54.82, with Denmark's Viktor Bromer following him to pick up the sixth spot in 1:55.64.[6] Hungarian swimmer, 2008 Olympic silver medalist, and reigning world champion László Cseh commanded a brief lead on the initial length, but faded shortly to seventh place in 1:56.24. Belgium's Louis Croenen rounded out the field with an eighth-place time in 1:57.04.[8]
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.[1]
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 3 | 1:54.73 | Q | |||
| 2 | 4 | 4 | 1:55.14 | Q | |||
| 3 | 2 | 4 | 1:55.57 | Q | |||
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1:55.64 | Q | |||
| 5 | 3 | 4 | 1:55.73 | Q | |||
| 6 | 2 | 5 | 1:55.76 | Q | |||
| 7 | 4 | 3 | 1:55.77 | Q | |||
| 8 | 3 | 5 | 1:55.79 | Q | |||
| 9 | 4 | 6 | 1:55.98 | Q | |||
| 10 | 2 | 7 | 1:56.01 | Q | |||
| 11 | 2 | 3 | 1:56.13 | Q | |||
| 12 | 4 | 7 | 1:56.45 | Q | |||
| 13 | 1 | 4 | 1:56.46 | Q | |||
| 14 | 3 | 6 | 1:56.48 | Q | |||
| 15 | 4 | 8 | 1:56.65 | Q | |||
| 16 | 2 | 6 | 1:56.72 | Q | |||
| 17 | 4 | 5 | 1:56.73 | ||||
| 18 | 3 | 7 | 1:56.76 | ||||
| 19 | 4 | 2 | 1:56.81 | ||||
| 20 | 2 | 2 | 1:56.93 | ||||
| 21 | 3 | 1 | 1:56.98 | ||||
| 22 | 1 | 5 | 1:57.05 | ||||
| 23 | 4 | 1 | 1:57.33 | ||||
| 24 | 2 | 8 | 1:57.36 | ||||
| 25 | 2 | 1 | 1:58.62 | ||||
| 26 | 1 | 6 | 1:58.64 | ||||
| 27 | 3 | 8 | 1:59.04 | ||||
| 28 | 1 | 3 | 1:59.37 | ||||
| 29 | 1 | 2 | 2:01.22 |
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 1:55.18 | Q | |||
| 2 | 6 | 1:55.28 | Q | |||
| 3 | 3 | 1:55.32 | Q | |||
| 4 | 1 | 1:56.03 | Q | |||
| 5 | 5 | 1:56.07 | ||||
| 6 | 2 | 1:56.11 | ||||
| 7 | 7 | 1:57.45 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | 1:57.62 |
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 1:53.96 | Q | |||
| 2 | 3 | 1:54.12 | Q | |||
| 3 | 5 | 1:55.19 | Q | |||
| 4 | 6 | 1:55.59 | Q | |||
| 5 | 7 | 1:56.46 | ||||
| 6 | 1 | 1:56.71 | ||||
| 7 | 2 | 1:56.77 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | 1:57.47 |
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 1:53.36 | |||||
| 7 | 1:53.40 | |||||
| 4 | 1:53.62 | |||||
| 4 | 6 | 1:54.06 | ||||
| 5 | 2 | 1:54.82 | ||||
| 6 | 1 | 1:55.64 | ||||
| 7 | 3 | 1:56.24 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | 1:57.04 |