Swimming at the 1924 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

The men's 200 metre breaststroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1924 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fourth appearance of the event, which was established in 1908. The competition was held on Tuesday July 15, 1924, on Wednesday July 16, 1924, and on Thursday July 17, 1924.

Despite Erich Rademacher from Germany being arguably the fastest breaststroker in the world at the time, and holding the world record in the event, he was not able to compete due to Germany's role in WWI. Despite this, he would establish his dominance in the event by beating the world record several times, which was over 5 seconds faster than the Olympic record set in this event.Barney, David E., and Robert K. Barney. "A long night's journey into day: the Odyssey of the butterfly stroke in international swimming." Proceedings: International Symposium for Olympic Research, Oct. 2006, pp. 65+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A176818711/AONE?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=535b6e53. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.

Records These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1924 Summer Olympics.

World record 2:50.4 Erich Rademacher Magdeburg (GER) April 7, 1924 Olympic record 3:01.8 Walter Bathe Stockholm (SWE) July 12, 1912

In the first heat Bob Skelton set a new Olympic record with 2:56.0 minutes.

Results

Heats

Tuesday July 15, 1924: The fastest two in each heat and the fastest third-placed from across the heats advanced.

Heat 1

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 2:56.0 QQ OR 2 3:02.4 QQ 3 3:05.4 qq 4 3:09.6 5 3:10.3 6 3:11.2

Heat 2

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:02.0 QQ 2 3:07.0 QQ 3 3:09.8 4 3:11.0 5 3:11.2

Heat 3

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:01.0 QQ 2 3:10.8 QQ 3 3:12.2 4 3:12.4 5 3:23.0

Heat 4

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:05.2 QQ 2 3:06.4 QQ 3 3:07.8 4 3:18.8 5 3:26.8 6 3:28.4

Heat 5

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:03.4 QQ 2 3:03.6 QQ 3 3:09.0 4 3:09.2 5 3:22.0 6 3:32.4

Semifinals

Wednesday July 16, 1924: The fastest two in each semi-final and the faster of the two third-placed swimmer advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:00.2 QF 2 3:02.6 QF 3 3:04.2 qf 4 3:05.6 5 3:06.8 6 3:11.8

Semifinal 2

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:00.2 QF 2 3:01.4 QF 3 3:05.0 4 3:07.0 5 3:09.2

Final

Thursday July 17, 1924:

Place Swimmer Time 1 2:56.6 2 2:59.2 3 3:01.0 4 3:02.2 5 3:05.6

References

External links Olympic Report