Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place between 30 November and 6 December. This swimming event used the breaststroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Results

Heats

Three heats were held; the swimmers with the fastest eight times advanced to the Finals. The athletes that advanced are highlighted.

Heat One Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Masaru Furukawa Japan 2:36.1 2 Knud Gleie Denmark 2:36.4 3 Farid Dosayev Soviet Union 2:43.9 4 Louis Kozma Belgium 2:48.4 5 Shamsher Khan India 3:17.0 – Octávio Mobiglia Brazil DSQ – Palsons Naibula Philippines DSQ

Heat Two Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Igor Zaseda Soviet Union 2:40.1 2 Terry Gathercole Australia 2:40.2 3 Manuel Sanguily Cuba 2:41.8 4 René Kohn Luxembourg 2:50.9 5 István Szívós Hungary 3:18.7 – Álvaro Gómez Colombia DSQ – Herbert Klein Germany DSQ

Heat Three Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Masahiro Yoshimura Japan 2:38.6 2 Kharis Yunichev Soviet Union 2:41.2 3 Hugues Broussard France 2:43.0 4 Gilbert Desmit Belgium 2:43.5 5 Christopher Walkden Great Britain 2:47.1 6 Robert Hughes United States 2:52.2 – Ghulam Rasul Pakistan DSQ

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Masaru Furukawa 2:34.7 Masahiro Yoshimura 2:36.7 Kharis Yunichev 2:36.8 4 Terry Gathercole 2:38.7 5 Igor Zaseda 2:39.0 6 Knud Gleie 2:40.0 7 Manuel Sanguily 2:42.0 Hugues Broussard DSQ

A loophole in the rules allowed swimmers to swim below the surface of the water, which was quicker and more efficient, with Furukawa spending 75% of the race underwater. Underwater swimming was banned in early 1957.

Key: DSQ = Disqualified

References