The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25 m) was held on 15 December 2024 at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
Records Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
The following records were established during this competition: Date Event Name Nationality Time Record 13 December Final*Luke Hobson 1:38.91 15 December FinalLuke Hobson1:38.61 * Split from the men's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay
Background The event field featured limited carryover from the 2022 Short Course World Championships. Lithuania’s Danas Rapšys, a five-time Short Course Worlds medalist, was the only swimmer from the Melbourne final entered in Budapest. Rapsys’s lifetime best stood at 1:40.85 from 2017; his season best was 1:42.00, recorded at the Incheon stop of the 2024 World Cup. Kieran Smith of the United States, who finished ninth in Melbourne, recorded a personal best of 1:41.04 while leading off the USA's 4×200 m freestyle relay and was expected to contend for a place in the final.
Olympic bronze medalist Luke Hobson also entered the event, though he had limited short-course meters experience. He was the current American record holder in the 200-yard freestyle (1:28.81). Australia’s Edward Sommerville had the fastest qualifying time with a 1:40.64 from the 2024 Australian Short Course Championships, where Max Giuliani also swam a personal best of 1:41.39. Other notable entries included Lukas Märtens, Lucas Henveaux, Tatsuya Murasa, Antonio Djakovic, and Aleksandr Shchegolev.
SwimSwam predicted Edward Sommerville would win, Luke Hobson would take second, and Max Giuliani would finish third.
Results Heats The heats were started at 9:21. Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 7 8 Luke Hobson 1:41.55 Q 2 6 5 Lucas Henveaux 1:41.58 Q, NR 3 6 9 Tomas Koski 1:41.92 Q, NR 4 7 3 Kieran Smith 1:42.22 Q 5 7 5 Tatsuya Murasa 1:42.28 Q 6 7 6 Rafael Miroslaw 1:42.38 Q 7 5 4 Maximillian Giuliani 1:42.67 Q 8 6 4 Danas Rapšys 1:42.84 Q 9 7 4 Edward Sommerville 1:42.87 R 10 5 5 Roman Fuchs 1:42.93 R 11 4 4 Kamil Sieradzki 1:42.94 12 4 8 Robin Hanson 1:43.21 NR 13 5 2 Carlos D'Ambrosio 1:43.25 14 5 3 Roman Akimov Neutral Athletes B 1:43.32 15 7 2 Aleksandr Shchegolev Neutral Athletes B 1:43.40 16 6 3 Kaique Alves 1:43.48 17 3 7 Max Litchfield 1:43.59 18 6 1 Evan Bailey 1:43.61 19 4 5 Velimir Stjepanović 1:43.67 20 7 1 Dimitrios Markos 1:43.89 NR 21 7 9 Alessandro Ragaini 1:43.92 22 3 4 Kregor Zirk 1:43.96 23 2 5 Nikoli Blackman 1:44.05 24 3 1 Petar Mitsin 1:44.07 25 4 2 Sašo Boškan 1:44.12 NR 26 7 7 Xu Yizhou 1:44.23 27 5 6 Lee Ho-joon 1:44.41 28 6 2 Miguel Pérez-Godoy 1:44.52 29 6 7 Richárd Márton 1:44.61 30 5 7 Sergio de Celis 1:44.67 31 4 3 Konstantinos Englezakis 1:44.75 32 7 0 Alexander Trampitsch 1:44.94 33 6 6 Antonio Djakovic 1:45.03 34 2 3 Abdalla Youssef Nasr 1:45.04 NR 35 2 4 Jovan Lekić 1:45.07 NR 36 5 9 Niko Janković 1:45.31 37 2 6 Simon Doueihy 1:45.32 NR 38 6 8 Markus Lie 1:45.44 39 6 0 Jakub Poliačik 1:45.85 40 5 8 Ondřej Gemov 1:45.95 41 3 5 Rafael Ponce 1:46.51 42 4 6 Juan Morales 1:46.61 43 4 7 Galymzhan Balabek 1:46.76 NR 44 5 1 Kris Mihaylov 1:47.00 45 3 2 Ben Littlejohn 1:47.01 46 5 0 Ardi Azman 1:47.40 47 4 1 Surasit Thongdeang 1:47.62 48 4 9 Terence Ng 1:48.12 49 4 0 Rami Rahmouni 1:48.44 50 3 8 Batbayaryn Enkhtamir 1:48.63 51 3 9 He Shing Ip 1:49.30 52 2 1 Aryaan Din 1:49.49 NR 52 3 0 Luka Kukhalashvili 1:49.49 54 3 6 Caleb Romero 1:49.51 55 2 2 Omar Abbass 1:50.05 56 1 4 Kaeden Gleason 1:53.29 57 2 9 Reidi Resuli 1:53.76 58 1 6 Mohammed Jibali 1:54.21 59 2 0 Stefano Mitchell 1:54.49 60 1 3 Andile Bekker 1:55.76 61 1 5 Rony Daher 1:57.06 62 1 1 Soud Alenezi 1:57.09 63 2 8 Arion Budima 1:57.49 64 1 2 Baritiana Andriampenomanana 1:58.34 65 1 8 Atharva Singh 2:01.16 66 1 7 Haziq Samil 2:01.34 67 1 0 Isihaka Isihaka 2:06.20 68 1 9 Magnim Jordano Daou 2:35.51 2 7 Adrian Eichler 3 3 Alex Axon
Final The final was held at 18:40. Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Luke Hobson 1:38.61 1 Maximillian Giuliani 1:40.36 OC 5 Lucas Henveaux 1:41.13 NR 4 8 Danas Rapšys 1:41.24 5 6 Kieran Smith 1:41.57 6 7 Rafael Miroslaw 1:41.71 7 3 Tomas Koski 1:42.47 8 2 Tatsuya Murasa 1:42.95
References