Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle


The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 29–30 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
After overhauling the Americans in the 4x100 freestyle relay with a stunning anchor leg, France's Yannick Agnel pulled away from a star-studded field by over a full body length to earn his second Olympic gold in swimming at these Games. Billed as the "Race of the Century", he came up again with a spectacular swim on the final stretch to hit the wall first in 1:43.14, posting a textile best in the process and moving rapidly to third in the world's all time rankings. Meanwhile, South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan and China's Sun Yang tied for the silver medal in a matching time of 1:44.93, following a dramatic rivalry in the 400 m freestyle final two days earlier.
U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte, the reigning world champion, missed the podium by 11-hundredths of a second with a fourth-place time in 1:45.04. Germany's world-record holder Paul Biedermann faded down the stretch to pick up a fifth spot in 1:45.53, edging out British home favorite Robbie Renwick by a full body length with a highly-creditable, sixth-place effort. Australia's Thomas Fraser-Holmes and Russia's Danila Izotov also vied for an Olympic medal to round out the stellar championship field.
Notable swimmers missed out the final roster featuring Lochte's teammate Ricky Berens, who replaced Michael Phelps to fill out the slot for the Americans but placed ninth ; and Switzerland's Dominik Meichtry, a sixth-place finalist in Beijing four years earlier, who finished fifteenth in the semifinals.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
155Sun Yang1:46.24Q
254Ryan Lochte1:46.45Q
364Yannick Agnel1:46.60Q
445Danila Izotov1:46.61Q
565Park Tae-hwan1:46.79Q
642Robert Renwick1:46.86Q
762Kenrick Monk1:46.94Q
853Ricky Berens1:47.07Q
957Dominik Kozma1:47.18Q
1044Paul Biedermann1:47.27Q
1163Sebastiaan Verschuren1:47.31Q
1243Grégory Mallet1:47.39Q
1366Thomas Fraser-Holmes1:47.50Q
1452Brett Fraser1:47.74Q
1567Artem Lobuzov1:47.91Q
1646Dominik Meichtry1:47.97Q
1733Blake Worsley1:48.14
1861Matthew Stanley1:48.19
1941Ieuan Lloyd1:48.52
2068Shaune Fraser1:48.53
2134Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or1:48.60
2235Cristian Quintero Valero1:48.71
2356Li Yunqi1:48.72
2447Clemens Rapp1:48.75
2537Glenn Surgeloose1:48.77
2658Benjamin Hockin1:48.91
2732David Brandl1:49.00
2751Dion Dreesens1:49.00
2948Marco Belotti1:49.14
3036Ahmed Mathlouthi1:49.68
3125Matias Koski1:49.84
3224Radovan Siljevski1:51.40
3322Mario Montoya1:51.66
3423Sebastián Jahnsen Madico1:52.36
3538Tiago Venâncio1:52.36
3626Jessie Lacuna1:52.91
3714Nicholas Schwab1:53.41NR
3827Raul Martinez Colomer1:54.23
3915Mathieu Marquet1:58.91
4013Anderson Lim2:02.26NR
31Mads Glæsner

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
5Yannick Agnel1:43.14NR
4Sun Yang1:44.93NR
3Park Tae-hwan1:44.93
42Ryan Lochte1:45.04
56Paul Biedermann1:45.53
61Robbie Renwick1:46.53
78Thomas Fraser-Holmes1:46.93
87Danila Izotov1:47.75