Swimming at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre backstroke
The men's 200 metre backstroke competition of the swimming events at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships was held on July 28 with the heats and the semifinals and July 29 with the final.
Records
Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.| Name | Nation | Time | Location | Date | |
| World record Championship record | Aaron Peirsol | 1:51.92 | Rome | July 31, 2009 |
Results
Heats
32 swimmers participated in 5 heats.| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | Tyler Clary | 1:56.32 | Q | |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | Péter Bernek | 1:57.23 | Q | |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | Stanislav Donets | 1:57.30 | Q | |
| 4 | 3 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | 1:57.34 | Q | |
| 5 | 3 | 5 | Zhang Fenglin | 1:57.37 | Q | |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | Ryosuke Irie | 1:57.58 | Q | |
| 7 | 2 | 3 | Kazuki Watanabe | 1:57.62 | Q | |
| 8 | 2 | 5 | Radoslaw Kawecki | 1:57.97 | Q | |
| 9 | 4 | 7 | Nick Driebergen | 1:58.10 | Q | |
| 10 | 4 | 1 | Tobias Oriwol | 1:58.19 | Q | |
| 11 | 3 | 8 | Yakov-Yan Toumarkin | 1:58.21 | Q, NR | |
| 12 | 3 | 2 | Sebastiano Ranfagni | 1:58.26 | Q | |
| 13 | 2 | 8 | Leonardo de Deus | 1:58.29 | Q | |
| 14 | 4 | 2 | Yannick Lebherz | 1:58.30 | Q | |
| 15 | 4 | 6 | Benjamin Stasiulis | 1:58.42 | Q | |
| 16 | 1 | 5 | Omar Pinzón | 1:58.48 | Q | |
| 17 | 3 | 3 | Chris Walker-Hebborn | 1:58.59 | ||
| 18 | 1 | 6 | Darren Murray | 1:58.73 | ||
| 19 | 2 | 7 | Matthew Hawes | 1:58.84 | ||
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Cheng Feiyi | 1:59.08 | ||
| 21 | 2 | 6 | Ashley Delaney | 2:00.15 | ||
| 22 | 1 | 3 | Mattias Carlsson | 2:00.44 | NR | |
| 23 | 4 | 8 | Mitch Larkin | 2:00.52 | ||
| 24 | 3 | 6 | Gareth Kean | 2:00.74 | ||
| 25 | 2 | 1 | Kim Ji-Heun | 2:01.06 | ||
| 26 | 1 | 4 | Sebastian Stoss | 2:01.13 | ||
| 27 | 1 | 2 | Pedro Medel | 2:02.16 | ||
| 28 | 1 | 7 | Jean-François Schneiders | 2:03.68 | ||
| 29 | 1 | 1 | Abdullah Al-Tuwaini | 2:07.63 | ||
| 30 | 1 | 8 | Awse Ma'aya | 2:12.22 | ||
| – | 3 | 7 | Aschwin Wildeboer | DNS | ||
| – | 4 | 5 | James Goddard | DNS |
Semifinals
The semifinals were held at 19:23.Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
Final
The final was held at 18:10.| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 4 | Ryan Lochte | 1:52.96 | |||
| 5 | Ryosuke Irie | 1:54.11 | |||
| 3 | Tyler Clary | 1:54.69 | |||
| 4 | 6 | Zhang Fenglin | 1:56.39 | ||
| 5 | 2 | Radoslaw Kawecki | 1:57.33 | ||
| 6 | 8 | Stanislav Donets | 1:57.36 | ||
| 7 | 7 | Sebastiano Ranfagni | 1:57.49 | ||
| 8 | 1 | Kazuki Watanabe | 1:57.82 |