The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 8–9 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Summary As the most decorated Olympian of all-time, Michael Phelps got the opportunity to avenge the distance butterfly title that he lost in London four years earlier, when South Africa's Chad le Clos beat him to the wall. Moving to the front at the halfway turn, Phelps held off the Japanese challenger Masato Sakai by a 0.04-second margin to claim his twentieth Olympic gold medal and twenty-fifth overall in 1:53.36. Coming from sixth at the 150-metre turn, Sakai made a late surge on the final length to nearly upset Phelps towards a close finish, but he ended up taking the silver in 1:53.40. Meanwhile, Hungary's top seed and 2014 Youth Olympic champion Tamás Kenderesi powered home with a bronze in 1:53.62.

Le Clos did not produce another striking effort to halt the most decorated Olympian from snatching the title, as he was shut out of the medals to fourth in 1:54.06. Sakai's teammate Daiya Seto finished fifth in 1:54.82, with Denmark's Viktor Bromer following him to pick up the sixth spot in 1:55.64. Hungarian swimmer, 2008 Olympic silver medalist, and reigning world champion László Cseh commanded a brief lead on the initial length, but faded shortly to seventh place in 1:56.24. Belgium's Louis Croenen rounded out the field with an eighth-place time in 1:57.04.

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

Competition format

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

Results Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 3 Tamás Kenderesi 1:54.73 Q 2 4 4 László Cseh 1:55.14 Q 3 2 4 Chad le Clos 1:55.57 Q 4 3 2 Grant Irvine 1:55.64 Q 5 3 4 Michael Phelps 1:55.73 Q 6 2 5 Masato Sakai 1:55.76 Q 7 4 3 Viktor Bromer 1:55.77 Q 8 3 5 Daiya Seto 1:55.79 Q 9 4 6 Leonardo de Deus 1:55.98 Q 10 2 7 Quah Zheng Wen 1:56.01 Q 11 2 3 Evgeny Koptelov 1:56.13 Q 12 4 7 Kaio de Almeida 1:56.45 Q 13 1 4 Simon Sjödin 1:56.46 Q 14 3 6 Louis Croenen 1:56.48 Q 15 4 8 Jonathan Gómez 1:56.65 Q 16 2 6 Li Zhuhao 1:56.72 Q 17 4 5 Jan Świtkowski 1:56.73 18 3 7 Stefanos Dimitriadis 1:56.76 19 4 2 David Morgan 1:56.81 20 2 2 Tom Shields 1:56.93 21 3 1 Carlos Peralta 1:56.98 22 1 5 Robert Žbogar 1:57.05 23 4 1 Sebastien Rousseau 1:57.33 24 2 8 Daniil Pakhomov 1:57.36 25 2 1 Jordan Coelho 1:58.62 26 1 6 Gal Nevo 1:58.64 27 3 8 Wu Yuhang 1:59.04 28 1 3 Sajan Prakash 1:59.37 29 1 2 Bradlee Ashby 2:01.22

Semifinals Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 László Cseh 1:55.18 Q 2 6 Daiya Seto 1:55.28 Q 3 3 Masato Sakai 1:55.32 Q 4 1 Louis Croenen 1:56.03 Q 5 5 Grant Irvine 1:56.07 6 2 Quah Zheng Wen 1:56.11 7 7 Kaio de Almeida 1:57.45 8 8 Li Zhuhao 1:57.62

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Tamás Kenderesi 1:53.96 Q 2 3 Michael Phelps 1:54.12 Q 3 5 Chad le Clos 1:55.19 Q 4 6 Viktor Bromer 1:55.59 Q 5 7 Evgeny Koptelov 1:56.46 6 1 Simon Sjödin 1:56.71 7 2 Leonardo de Deus 1:56.77 8 8 Jonathan Gómez 1:57.47

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 5 Michael Phelps 1:53.36 7 Masato Sakai 1:53.40 4 Tamás Kenderesi 1:53.62 4 6 Chad le Clos 1:54.06 5 2 Daiya Seto 1:54.82 6 1 Viktor Bromer 1:55.64 7 3 László Cseh 1:56.24 8 8 Louis Croenen 1:57.04

References