The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place August 28. This swimming event used the butterfly stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.
Results
Heats
Heat 1
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Gary Hall, Sr. 2:03.70 OR, Q 2 András Hargitay 2:05.05 Q 3 Roger Pyttel 2:08.72 4 Sean Maher 2:09.39 5 Jorge Jaramillo 2:10.24 6 Walter Mack 2:11.03 7 Vasil Dobrev 2:11.28
Key: OR = Olympic record, Q = Qualified
Heat 2
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Robin Backhaus 2:03.11 OR, Q 2 Folkert Meeuw 2:06.13 Q 3 Yasuhiro Komazaki 2:08.72 4 Hugo Valencia 2:09.56 5 Andrzej Chudziński 2:12.62 6 Geoffrey Ferreira 2:19.76 Angelo Tozzi 2:10.82 DQ
Key: DQ = Disqualified, OR = Olympic record, Q = Qualified
Heat 3
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Hans Fassnacht 2:05.39 Q 2 Jorge Delgado, Jr. 2:05.61 Q 3 Viktor Sharygin 2:06.76 4 James Findlay 2:08.36 5 Ron Jacks 2:09.04 6 Ricardo Marmolejo 2:10.00 7 Jacques Leloup 2:10.79 8 Roy Chan 2:20.30
Key: Q = Qualified
Heat 4
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Mark Spitz 2:02.11 OR, Q 2 Hartmut Flöckner 2:05.54 Q 3 John Mills 2:06.58 4 Brian Brinkley 2:06.82 5 Byron MacDonald 2:12.12 6 Gaetano Carboni 2:12.16 7 Hsu Tung-Hsiung 2:16.35 8 Carlos Singson 2:23.70
Key: OR = Olympic record, Q = Qualified
Final Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Mark Spitz 2:00.70 WR Gary Hall, Sr. 2:02.86 Robin Backhaus 2:03.23 4 Jorge Delgado, Jr. 2:04.60 5 Hans Fassnacht 2:04.69 6 András Hargitay 2:04.69 7 Hartmut Flöckner 2:05.34 8 Folkert Meeuw 2:05.57
Key: WR = World record
References