The men's 200-metre butterfly event at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships took place between 23 July – 24 July. Both the heats and semifinals were held on 23 July with the heats being held in the morning session and the semifinals being held in the evening session. The final was held on 24 July.

In the final, American swimmer Michael Phelps broke his own world record with a time of 1:54.58, bettering his previous record of 1:54.92. For Phelps, this was also his first world title since finishing 5th in the same event at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows: World record 1:54.92 Austin, United States 30 March 2001Championship record 1:55.69 Perth, Australia 12 January 1991 The following record was established during the competition: DateRoundNameNationTimeRecord 23 July Semifinal 2 Franck Esposito 1:55.03 CR Tom Malchow 24 July Final Michael Phelps 1:54.58 WR

Results

Heats Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Franck Esposito 1:56.05 Q 2 Michael Phelps 1:56.11 Q 3 Tom Malchow 1:56.13 Q 4 Takashi Yamamoto 1:57.76 Q 5 Justin Norris 1:57.79 Q 6 Thomas Rupprath 1:57.80 Q 7 Anatoly Polyakov 1:58.27 Q 8 Denys Sylantyev 1:58.41 Q 9 Ioan Gherghel 1:58.71 Q 10 Andrew Livingston 1:58.72 Q 11 Juan José Veloz 1:58.85 Q 12 Christian Galenda 1:59.31 Q 13 Ioannis Drymonakos 1:59.41 Q 14 Tero Välimaa 1:59.77 Q 15 William Kirby 2:00.12 Q 16 Viktor Bodrogi 2:00.54 Q 17 Alessio Boggiatto 2:01.32 18 Xie Xufeng 2:01.37 19 Mickey Halika 2:01.67 20 Simão Morgado 2:02.10 21 Hisayoshi Tanaka 2:02.72 22 Dean Kent 2:03.09 23 Zoran Lazarevski 2:03.71 24 Jacob Fraire 2:03.72 25 Joe Jae-hyon 2:03.95 26 Yoo Jung-nam 2:03.96 27 Benjamin Gan 2:04.19 28 Aleksandar Miladinovski 2:04.22 29 Raazik Nordien 2:05.29 30 Georgi Palazov 2:05.31 31 Sergio Cabrera 2:06.51 32 Sergio Rafael De Leon Alfaro 2:06.81 33 Jiang Bing-Ru 2:08.73 34 Chen Jui-Chen 2:08.97 35 Oleg Lyashko 2:09.90 36 Carlos Melendez 2:11.38 37 Bertrand Bristol 2:12.28 38 Zulfiqar Ali 2:15.78 39 Obaid Ahmed Al Jassimi 2:17.03 40 Zaid Saeed 2:29.74

Semifinals Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Franck Esposito 1:55.03 Q, 1 Tom Malchow 1:55.03 Q, 3 Michael Phelps 1:56.41 Q 4 Denys Sylantyev 1:56.51 Q 5 Takashi Yamamoto 1:56.85 Q 6 Justin Norris 1:56.98 Q 7 Anatoly Polyakov 1:57.34 Q 8 Andrew Livingston 1:57.94 Q 9 Ioan Gherghel 1:57.96 10 Thomas Rupprath 1:58.15 11 Christian Galenda 1:58.20 12 Viktor Bodrogi 1:58.60 13 Juan José Veloz 1:59.06 14 William Kirby 1:59.52 15 Ioannis Drymonakos 1:59.56 16 Tero Välimaa 2:01.37

Final

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Michael Phelps 1:54.58 WR Tom Malchow 1:55.28 Anatoly Polyakov 1:55.68 4 Franck Esposito 1:55.71 5 Takashi Yamamoto 1:55.84 6 Denys Sylantyev 1:56.71 7 Justin Norris 1:57.18 8 Andrew Livingston 1:58.68

Key: WR = World record

References