# Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre butterfly

The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 24 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Michael Gross (FRG) | 1:56.24 | Hannover, West Germany | 28 June 1986 |
| Olympic record | Jon Sieben (AUS) | 1:57.04 | Los Angeles, United States | 3 August 1984 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | Record |
| 24 September | Final A | Michael Gross | West Germany | 1:56.94 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | Michael Gross | West Germany | 1:58.09 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Anthony Mosse | New Zealand | 1:58.71 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | David Wilson | Australia | 1:59.02 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Benny Nielsen | Denmark | 1:59.26 | Q, NR |
| 5 | 4 | Jon Kelly | Canada | 1:59.40 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | Melvin Stewart | United States | 1:59.78 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | Tom Ponting | Canada | 2:00.08 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | Anthony Nesty | Suriname | 2:00.17 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 4 | Martin Roberts | Australia | 2:00.32 | q |
| 10 | 6 | Mark Dean | United States | 2:00.86 | q |
| 11 | 6 | Frank Drost | Netherlands | 2:00.99 | q |
| 12 | 4 | Tim Jones | Great Britain | 2:01.01 | q |
| 13 | 5 | Vadim Yaroshchuk | Soviet Union | 2:01.05 | q |
| 14 | 6 | Satoshi Takeda | Japan | 2:01.42 | q |
| 15 | 3 | Nick Hodgson | Great Britain | 2:01.44 | q |
| 16 | 5 | Christophe Bordeau | France | 2:01.70 | q |
| 17 | 4 | Rafał Szukała | Poland | 2:01.91 | |
| 18 | 5 | Reinhold Leitner | Austria | 2:02.18 | |
| 19 | 4 | Hiroshi Miura | Japan | 2:02.30 | |
| 20 | 3 | Ross Anderson | New Zealand | 2:02.40 | |
| 21 | 5 | Martin Herrmann | West Germany | 2:02.61 | |
| 22 | 4 | Ondřej Bureš | Czechoslovakia | 2:02.93 | |
| 23 | 6 | Jan Larsen | Denmark | 2:03.01 | |
| 24 | 5 | José Luis Ballester | Spain | 2:03.32 | |
| 25 | 3 | Jean-Marie Arnould | Belgium | 2:03.76 | |
| 26 | 2 | Diogo Madeira | Portugal | 2:03.79 | |
| 26 | 3 | Christer Wallin | Sweden | 2:03.79 | |
| 28 | 3 | Khazan Singh Tokas | India | 2:03.95 | |
| 29 | 2 | João Santos | Portugal | 2:04.74 | |
| 30 | 3 | Zhan Jiang | China | 2:05.22 | |
| 31 | 2 | Ahmed Abdullah | Egypt | 2:05.28 | |
| 32 | 2 | Joseph Eric Buhain | Philippines | 2:05.32 | |
| 33 | 3 | Théophile David | Switzerland | 2:05.58 | |
| 34 | 6 | Eduardo de Poli | Brazil | 2:06.15 | |
| 35 | 2 | Park Yeong-cheol | South Korea | 2:08.57 | |
| 36 | 1 | Emanuel Nascimento | Brazil | 2:09.40 | |
| 37 | 2 | Desmond Koh | Singapore | 2:10.86 | |
| 38 | 1 | Sultan Al-Otaibi | Kuwait | 2:12.89 | |
| 39 | 1 | William Cleveland | Virgin Islands | 2:13.19 | |
| 40 | 1 | Kristan Singleton | Virgin Islands | 2:19.68 | |
| | 1 | Julian Bolling | Sri Lanka | DNS | |
| | 5 | Matjaž Kozelj | Yugoslavia | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| 9 | 5 | Mark Dean | United States | 2:00.26 |
| 10 | 6 | Tim Jones | Great Britain | 2:00.32 |
| 11 | 2 | Vadim Yaroshchuk | Soviet Union | 2:00.34 |
| 12 | 1 | Nick Hodgson | Great Britain | 2:01.09 |
| 13 | 8 | Christophe Bordeau | France | 2:01.46 |
| 14 | 3 | Frank Drost | Netherlands | 2:01.59 |
| 15 | 7 | Satoshi Takeda | Japan | 2:02.18 |
| 16 | 4 | Martin Roberts | Australia | 2:04.28 |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Michael Gross | West Germany | 1:56.94 | OR |
| | 6 | Benny Nielsen | Denmark | 1:58.24 | NR |
| | 5 | Anthony Mosse | New Zealand | 1:58.28 | |
| 4 | 1 | Tom Ponting | Canada | 1:58.91 | |
| 5 | 7 | Melvin Stewart | United States | 1:59.19 | |
| 6 | 3 | David Wilson | Australia | 1:59.20 | |
| 7 | 2 | Jon Kelly | Canada | 1:59.48 | |
| 8 | 8 | Anthony Nesty | Suriname | 2:00.80 | |