# Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre butterfly

The men's 200 metre butterfly competition of the swimming events at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships took place on September 6.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.
| World record | Mark Spitz (USA) | 2:00.70 | Munich, West Germany | 28 August 1972 |
| Competition record | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 6 September | Heat 1 | Brian Brinkley | United Kingdom | 2:05.35 | CR |
| 6 September | Heat 2 | Robin Backhaus | United States | 2:04.93 | CR |
| 6 September | Heat 4 | Steve Gregg | United States | 2:04.59 | CR |
| 6 September | Final | Robin Backhaus | United States | 2:03.32 | CR |

## Results
### Heats

27 swimmers participated in 4 heats.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | - | Steve Gregg | United States | 2:04.59 | Q, CR |
| 2 | 4 | - | Hartmut Flöckner | East Germany | 2:04.60 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | - | Robin Backhaus | United States | 2:04.93 | Q, CR |
| 4 | 1 | - | Brian Brinkley | Great Britain | 2:05.35 | Q, CR |
| 5 | 3 | - | Jorge Delgado | Ecuador | 2:05.64 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | - | Folkert Meeuw | West Germany | 2:06.04 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | - | András Hargitay | Hungary | 2:06.12 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | - | Jorge Jaramillo | Colombia | 2:07.28 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | - | Hideaki Hara | Japan | 2:07.75 | |
| 10 | 3 | - | Ross Seymour | Australia | 2:07.86 | |
| 11 | 1 | - | Gerd Glogowsky | East Germany | 2:07.87 | |
| 12 | 4 | - | Sergey Zakharov | Soviet Union | 2:08.82 | |
| 13 | 1 | - | Miguel Lang | Spain | 2:10.06 | |
| 14 | 2 | - | Peter Tetlow | Australia | 2:10.83 | |
| 15 | 2 | - | Ignacio Álvarez | Mexico | 2:11.50 | |
| 16 | 4 | - | Csaba Sós | Hungary | 2:11.60 | |
| 17 | 3 | - | Vasil Dobrev | Bulgaria | 2:11.95 | |
| 18 | 4 | - | Angelo Tozzi | Italy | 2:12.13 | |
| 19 | 2 | - | Eduardo Alijo | Brazil | 2:12.29 | |
| 20 | 4 | - | John Duncan | Canada | 2:12.39 | |
| 21 | 3 | - | Ian Mackenzie | Canada | 2:12.61 | |
| 22 | 2 | - | Mikhail Gorelik | Soviet Union | 2:14.37 | |
| 23 | 4 | - | Eugen Almer | Romania | 2:19.05 | |
| 24 | 2 | - | Jean-Jacques Scheuren | Luxembourg | 2:19.12 | |
| 25 | 3 | - | John Daly | Puerto Rico | 2:21.82 | |
| 26 | 1 | - | José Ferraioli | Puerto Rico | 2:22.21 | |
| 27 | 2 | - | O. Mehmat | Iran | 2:43.75 | |
| – | 1 | - | Anders Bellbring | Sweden | Did not start | Did not start |
| – | 3 | - | Ali Gharbi | Tunisia | Did not start | Did not start |
| – | 1 | - | Sérgio Waismaun | Brazil | Did not start | Did not start |

### Final

The results of the final are below.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | - | Robin Backhaus | United States | 2:03.32 | CR |
| | - | Steve Gregg | United States | 2:03.58 | |
| | - | Hartmut Flöckner | East Germany | 2:03.84 | |
| 4 | - | Brian Brinkley | Great Britain | 2:03.94 | NR |
| 5 | - | Jorge Delgado | Ecuador | 2:04.03 | |
| 6 | - | András Hargitay | Hungary | 2:04.10 | |
| 7 | - | Folkert Meeuw | West Germany | 2:05.33 | |
| 8 | - | Jorge Jaramillo | Colombia | 2:10.36 | |