The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 12–14 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima blasted a new Olympic record of 2:07.64 to strike another breaststroke double, and to defend his title in the event. He registered a straightforward triumph over Brenton Rickard, who earned a silver medal in an Australian record of 2:08.88. France's Hugues Duboscq added a second bronze and third overall to his collection in 2:08.94, finishing just ahead of Canada's Mike Brown by almost a tenth of a second (0.10) with a time of 2:09.03.

Hungary's Dániel Gyurta, silver medalist in Athens four years earlier, finished outside the medals in fifth place at 2:09.22. Earlier in the prelims, he established an Olympic record by winning the final of seven heats in 2:08.68.

U.S. swimmer Scott Spann turned in another sub-2:10 barrier to earn a sixth spot in 2:09.76. Italian tandem Loris Facci (2:10.57) and Paolo Bossini (2:11.48) closed out the field. Bossini set a new Olympic record of 2:08.98 to shave 0.46 seconds off Kitajima's mark in Athens, until Gyurta took three-tenths of a second (0.30) off the record time a few minutes later.

Notable swimmers failed to reach the top 8 final, featuring American Eric Shanteau, who entered the Games while battling testicular cancer, and Kazakhstan's Vladislav Polyakov, who finished fifth in Athens four years earlier. Norway's Alexander Dale Oen, silver medalist in the 100 m breaststroke, placed seventeenth in 2:11.30, but missed the semifinals by 0.11 seconds.

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

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 12 Heat 5 Paolo Bossini 2:08.98 August 12 Heat 7 Dániel Gyurta 2:08.68 August 13 Semifinal 1 Kosuke Kitajima 2:08.61 August 14 Final Kosuke Kitajima 2:07.64

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 7 6 Dániel Gyurta 2:08.68 Q, , EU 2 5 2 Paolo Bossini 2:08.98 Q 3 7 2 Loris Facci 2:09.12 Q 4 7 5 Hugues Duboscq 2:09.42 Q 5 6 6 Mike Brown 2:09.84 Q 6 7 4 Kosuke Kitajima 2:09.89 Q 7 6 3 Eric Shanteau 2:10.29 Q 8 6 2 William Diering 2:10.39 Q, AF 9 6 7 Neil Versfeld 2:10.50 Q 10 5 5 Scott Spann 2:10.61 Q 11 7 7 Vladislav Polyakov 2:10.83 Q 12 4 7 Andrew Bree 2:10.91 Q 13 6 4 Brenton Rickard 2:11.00 Q 14 7 1 Igor Borysik 2:11.08 Q 15 5 3 Kristopher Gilchrist 2:11.13 Q 16 4 6 Glenn Snyders 2:11.19 Q17 6 5 Alexander Dale Oen2:11.30 7 3 Yuta Suenaga 19 3 3 Thiago Pereira 2:11.40 20 3 5 Tom Be'eri 2:11.44 NR 21 4 1 Hunor Mate 2:11.56 22 7 8 Valeriy Dymo 2:11.65 23 5 4 Grigory Falko 2:11.88 24 5 8 Mihail Alexandrov 2:11.94 NR 25 4 5 Yevgeniy Ryzhkov 2:12.44 26 5 6 Christian Sprenger 2:12.56 27 3 4 Melquíades Álvarez 2:12.59 28 4 8 Julien Nicolardot 2:12.76 29 5 1 Mathieu Bois 2:12.87 30 6 1 Henrique Barbosa 2:12.99 31 1 4 Edvinas Dautartas 2:13.11 32 2 4 Carlos Almeida 2:13.34 33 6 8 Chris Christensen 2:13.92 34 4 3 Sergio García 2:14.30 35 4 2 Maxim Podoprigora 2:14.43 36 1 6 Sandeep Sejwal 2:15.24 37 4 4 James Kirton 2:15.25 38 2 3 Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson 2:15.58 39 3 2 Jiří Jedlička 2:15.79 40 2 8 Laurent Carnol 2:15.87 41 3 8 Romanos Alyfantis 2:16.04 42 3 7 Sofiane Daid 2:16.15 43 2 5 Shin Su-jong 2:16.21 44 3 6 Lai Zhongjian 2:16.28 45 5 7 Alexey Zinovyev 2:16.40 46 2 6 Martti Aljand 2:16.52 47 2 2 Miguel Molina 2:16.94 48 3 1 Robin van Aggele 2:17.14 49 2 1 Wang Wei-wen 2:17.20 50 1 2 Leopoldo Andara 2:17.77 NR 51 1 5 Ömer Aslanoglu 2:17.93 52 1 3 Sergio Andres Ferreyra 2:20.10 2 7 Valentin Preda DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 Kosuke Kitajima 2:08.61 Q, 2 2 Scott Spann 2:09.08 Q 3 4 Paolo Bossini 2:09.95 Q 4 5 Hugues Duboscq 2:09.97 Q 5 7 Andrew Bree 2:10.16 NR 6 6 William Diering 2:10.21 7 1 Igor Borysik 2:10.99 8 8 Glenn Snyders 2:12.07

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 Mike Brown 2:08.84 Q, NR 2 1 Brenton Rickard 2:09.72 Q 3 4 Dániel Gyurta 2:09.73 Q 4 5 Loris Facci 2:09.75 Q 5 3 Neil Versfeld 2:10.06 AF 6 6 Eric Shanteau 2:10.10 7 8 Kristopher Gilchrist 2:10.27 NR 8 7 Vladislav Polyakov 2:11.87

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Kosuke Kitajima 2:07.64 6 Brenton Rickard 2:08.88 OC 8 Hugues Duboscq 2:08.94 NR 4 5 Mike Brown 2:09.03 5 2 Dániel Gyurta 2:09.22 6 3 Scott Spann 2:09.76 7 7 Loris Facci 2:10.57 8 1 Paolo Bossini 2:11.48

References

External links Official Olympic Report