The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted a new world record of 1:52.03 to defend his title in the event, and more importantly, claim his fourth Olympic gold, tenth career, and twelfth overall medal. During the final, Phelps' goggles filled with water, which prevented him from seeing anything, while he was finishing the second lap.

Hungary's László Cseh added a second silver to his hardware from the 400 m individual medley, breaking a European record of 1:52.70. Japan's Takeshi Matsuda powered home with a bronze medal in 1:52.97.

New Zealand's Moss Burmester shared a fourth place with host nation China's Wu Peng in 1:54.35, while Poland's Paweł Korzeniowski finished sixth with a time of 1:54.60. Brazil's Kaio de Almeida (1:54.71) and Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov (1:55.14) rounded out the finale.

Earlier in the semifinals, Phelps registered his own Olympic record of 1:53.70 to establish a strong lead for the top 8 final, matching his preliminary time in the process.

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 11 Heat 6 Michael Phelps 1:53.70 August 12 Semifinal 2 Michael Phelps 1:53.70 August 13 Final Michael Phelps 1:52.03

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 4 Michael Phelps 1:53.70 Q, 2 4 2 László Cseh 1:54.48 Q 3 6 3 Kaio de Almeida 1:54.65 Q 4 6 6 Takeshi Matsuda 1:55.06 Q 5 4 4 Paweł Korzeniowski 1:55.21 Q 6 6 5 Nikolay Skvortsov 1:55.33 Q 7 5 5 Wu Peng 1:55.39 Q 8 5 4 Gil Stovall 1:55.42 Q 9 5 7 Michael Rock 1:55.55 Q 10 4 5 Moss Burmester 1:55.80 Q 11 5 3 Ryuichi Shibata 1:55.82 Q 12 4 6 Dinko Jukić 1:55.96 Q 13 4 1 Ioan Gherghel 1:56.09 Q, NR 14 6 1 Sergiy Advena 1:56.24 Q 15 5 6 Chen Yin 1:56.55 Q 16 3 2 Hsu Chi-chieh 1:56.59 Q 17 5 2 Christophe Lebon 1:56.63 18 6 2 Travis Nederpelt 1:56.64 19 6 7 Mathieu Fonteyn 1:56.65 NR 20 4 7 Niccolo Beni 1:56.99 21 4 3 Denys Sylantyev 1:57.02 22 5 1Tamás Kerékjártó 1:57.29 23 6 8 Juan Veloz 1:57.32 NR 24 3 6 Pedro Oliveira 1:57.41 25 4 8 Adam Sioui 1:57.45 26 3 5 Simon Sjödin 1:57.75 27 5 8 Romanos Alyfantis 1:57.99 28 3 8 Alon Mandel 1:59.27 NR 29 2 5 James Walsh 1:59.39 NR 30 3 3 Omar Pinzón 1:59.47 31 1 3 Nikša Roki 1:59.58 NR 32 2 1 Javier Núñez 2:00.24 33 2 7 Andrés José González 2:00.36 34 2 6 Yoo Jung-nam 2:01.00 35 3 4 Jeremy Knowles 2:01.08 36 2 8 Alexis Márquez Rivas 2:01.25 37 3 7 Daniel Bego 2:01.28 38 2 3 Douglas Lennox-Silva 2:01.69 39 3 1 Georgi Palazov2:01.84 40 1 5 Rehan Poncha 2:01.89 41 1 4 Emmanuel Crescimbeni 2:02.13 42 1 6 Javier Hernández Maradiaga 2:02.23 43 2 4 Vladan Marković 2:03.12 44 2 2 Donny Utomo 2:03.44

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 5 Takeshi Matsuda 1:54.02 Q, AS 2 3 Nikolay Skvortsov 1:54.31 Q, NR 3 4 László Cseh 1:54.35 Q 4 2 Moss Burmester 1:55.26 Q 5 6 Gil Stovall 1:55.36 6 7 Dinko Jukić 1:55.65 7 1 Sergiy Advena 1:56.64 8 8 Hsu Chi-chieh 1:57.48

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Michael Phelps 1:53.70 Q, 2 6 Wu Peng 1:54.93 Q 3 5 Kaio de Almeida 1:55.21 Q 4 3 Paweł Korzeniowski 1:55.35 Q 5 8 Chen Yin 1:55.88 6 2 Michael Rock 1:55.90 7 7 Ryuichi Shibata 1:56.17 8 1 Ioan Gherghel 1:56.57

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Michael Phelps 1:52.03 6 László Cseh 1:52.70 ER 5 Takeshi Matsuda 1:52.97 AS 4 1 Moss Burmester 1:54.35 OC 4 2 Wu Peng 1:54.35 NR 6 8 Paweł Korzeniowski 1:54.60 7 7 Kaio de Almeida 1:54.71 NR 8 3 Nikolay Skvortsov 1:55.14

References

External links Official Reports