# Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre butterfly

The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 8–9 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

## Summary

As the most decorated Olympian of all-time, Michael Phelps got the opportunity to avenge the distance butterfly title that he lost in London four years earlier, when South Africa's Chad le Clos beat him to the wall. Moving to the front at the halfway turn, Phelps held off the Japanese challenger Masato Sakai by a 0.04-second margin to claim his twentieth Olympic gold medal and twenty-fifth overall in 1:53.36. Coming from sixth at the 150-metre turn, Sakai made a late surge on the final length to nearly upset Phelps towards a close finish, but he ended up taking the silver in 1:53.40. Meanwhile, Hungary's top seed and 2014 Youth Olympic champion Tamás Kenderesi powered home with a bronze in 1:53.62.
Le Clos did not produce another striking effort to halt the most decorated Olympian from snatching the title, as he was shut out of the medals to fourth in 1:54.06. Sakai's teammate Daiya Seto finished fifth in 1:54.82, with Denmark's Viktor Bromer following him to pick up the sixth spot in 1:55.64. Hungarian swimmer, 2008 Olympic silver medalist, and reigning world champion László Cseh commanded a brief lead on the initial length, but faded shortly to seventh place in 1:56.24. Belgium's Louis Croenen rounded out the field with an eighth-place time in 1:57.04.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:51.51 | Rome, Italy | 29 July 2009 |
| Olympic record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:52.03 | Beijing, China | 13 August 2008 |

## Competition format

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 3 | Tamás Kenderesi | Hungary | 1:54.73 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:55.14 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | 4 | Chad le Clos | South Africa | 1:55.57 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | Grant Irvine | Australia | 1:55.64 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:55.73 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 5 | Masato Sakai | Japan | 1:55.76 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | Viktor Bromer | Denmark | 1:55.77 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 5 | Daiya Seto | Japan | 1:55.79 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 6 | Leonardo de Deus | Brazil | 1:55.98 | Q |
| 10 | 2 | 7 | Quah Zheng Wen | Singapore | 1:56.01 | Q |
| 11 | 2 | 3 | Evgeny Koptelov | Russia | 1:56.13 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 7 | Kaio de Almeida | Brazil | 1:56.45 | Q |
| 13 | 1 | 4 | Simon Sjödin | Sweden | 1:56.46 | Q |
| 14 | 3 | 6 | Louis Croenen | Belgium | 1:56.48 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 8 | Jonathan Gómez | Colombia | 1:56.65 | Q |
| 16 | 2 | 6 | Li Zhuhao | China | 1:56.72 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 5 | Jan Świtkowski | Poland | 1:56.73 | |
| 18 | 3 | 7 | Stefanos Dimitriadis | Greece | 1:56.76 | |
| 19 | 4 | 2 | David Morgan | Australia | 1:56.81 | |
| 20 | 2 | 2 | Tom Shields | United States | 1:56.93 | |
| 21 | 3 | 1 | Carlos Peralta | Spain | 1:56.98 | |
| 22 | 1 | 5 | Robert Žbogar | Slovenia | 1:57.05 | |
| 23 | 4 | 1 | Sebastien Rousseau | South Africa | 1:57.33 | |
| 24 | 2 | 8 | Daniil Pakhomov | Russia | 1:57.36 | |
| 25 | 2 | 1 | Jordan Coelho | France | 1:58.62 | |
| 26 | 1 | 6 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1:58.64 | |
| 27 | 3 | 8 | Wu Yuhang | China | 1:59.04 | |
| 28 | 1 | 3 | Sajan Prakash | India | 1:59.37 | |
| 29 | 1 | 2 | Bradlee Ashby | New Zealand | 2:01.22 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:55.18 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | Daiya Seto | Japan | 1:55.28 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Masato Sakai | Japan | 1:55.32 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Louis Croenen | Belgium | 1:56.03 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | Grant Irvine | Australia | 1:56.07 | |
| 6 | 2 | Quah Zheng Wen | Singapore | 1:56.11 | |
| 7 | 7 | Kaio de Almeida | Brazil | 1:57.45 | |
| 8 | 8 | Li Zhuhao | China | 1:57.62 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Tamás Kenderesi | Hungary | 1:53.96 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.12 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Chad le Clos | South Africa | 1:55.19 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Viktor Bromer | Denmark | 1:55.59 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Evgeny Koptelov | Russia | 1:56.46 | |
| 6 | 1 | Simon Sjödin | Sweden | 1:56.71 | |
| 7 | 2 | Leonardo de Deus | Brazil | 1:56.77 | |
| 8 | 8 | Jonathan Gómez | Colombia | 1:57.47 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 5 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:53.36 |
| | 7 | Masato Sakai | Japan | 1:53.40 |
| | 4 | Tamás Kenderesi | Hungary | 1:53.62 |
| 4 | 6 | Chad le Clos | South Africa | 1:54.06 |
| 5 | 2 | Daiya Seto | Japan | 1:54.82 |
| 6 | 1 | Viktor Bromer | Denmark | 1:55.64 |
| 7 | 3 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:56.24 |
| 8 | 8 | Louis Croenen | Belgium | 1:57.04 |