# Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 5 and 7 August at the Empire Pool. This swimming event used the breaststroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.
John Davies' time was recorded by the timekeepers to be 0.2s faster than the bronze medallist Bob Sohl of the United States. However, the judges believed that Sohl had touched first and awarded him the bronze.

## Medalists

| Gold | Joe Verdeur United States |
| Silver | Keith Carter United States |
| Bronze | Bob Sohl United States |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Joe Verdeur | United States | 2:40.0 |
| 2 | Bob Sohl | United States | 2:44.9 |
| 3 | Ahmed Kandil | Egypt | 2:45.5 |
| 4 | Keith Carter | United States | 2:46.3 |
| 5 | Tone Cerer | Yugoslavia | 2:46.3 |
| 6 | Willy Otto Jordan | Brazil | 2:46.4 |
| 7 | Sándor Németh | Hungary | 2:48.2 |
| 8 | John Davies | Australia | 2:48.3 |
| 9 | Bob Bonte | Netherlands | 2:48.7 |
| 10 | Roy Romain | Great Britain | 2:49.4 |
| 11 | Maurice Lusien | France | 2:49.5 |
| 12 | Artem Nakache | France | 2:50.4 |
| 13 | Walter Pavlicek | Austria | 2:50.6 |
| 14 | Sigurður Jónsson | Iceland | 2:50.6 |
| 15 | Apolonio Castillo | Mexico | 2:50.7 |
| 16 | René Amabuyok | Philippines | 2:52.6 |
| 17 | Jiří Linhart | Czechoslovakia | 2:53.8 |
| 18 | Jacinto Cayco | Philippines | 2:54.0 |
| 19 | Carlos Espejo | Argentina | 2:55.0 |
| 20 | Sigurður Th. Jónsson | Iceland | 2:56.4 |
| 21 | Hans Widmer | Switzerland | 2:56.7 |
| 22 | Goldup Davies | Great Britain | 2:56.6 |
| 23 | Walter Kunz | Switzerland | 2:57.6 |
| 24 | Nicolas Wildhaber | Switzerland | 2:59.2 |
| 25 | John Service | Great Britain | 3:00.4 |
| 26 | César Benetti | Argentina | 3:00.6 |
| 27 | Peter Salmon | Canada | 3:01.5 |
| 28 | Kevin Hallett | Australia | 3:02.0 |
| 29 | Atli Steinarsson | Iceland | 3:02.3 |
| 30 | Des Cohen | South Africa | 3:03.3 |
| 31 | Prafulla Mullick | India | 3:14.9 |
| 32 | Iftikhar Ahmed Shah | Pakistan | 3:28.1 |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Joe Verdeur | United States | 2:40.7 | Q |
| 2 | Keith Carter | United States | 2:43.0 | Q |
| 3 | Ahmed Kandil | Egypt | 2:43.7 | Q |
| 4 | Willy Otto Jordan | Brazil | 2:43.9 | Q |
| 5 | Bob Sohl | United States | 2:44.4 | Q |
| 6 | John Davies | Australia | 2:44.8 | q |
| 7 | Bob Bonte | Netherlands | 2:47.0 | Q |
| 8 | Tone Cerer | Yugoslavia | 2:47.3 | q |
| 9 | Sándor Németh | Hungary | 2:48.1 | |
| 10 | Roy Romain | Great Britain | 2:49.6 | |
| 11 | Walter Pavlicek | Austria | 2:50.1 | |
| 12 | Maurice Lusien | France | 2:51.4 | |
| 13 | René Amabuyok | Philippines | 2:51.8 | |
| 14 | Sigurður Jónsson | Iceland | 2:52.4 | |
| 15 | Apolonio Castillo | Mexico | 2:53.5 | |
| 16 | Artem Nakache | France | 2:59.1 | |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Joe Verdeur | United States | 2:39.3 | OR |
| | Keith Carter | United States | 2:40.2 | |
| | Bob Sohl | United States | 2:43.9 | |
| 4 | John Davies | Australia | 2:43.7 | |
| 5 | Antun Cerer | Yugoslavia | 2:46.1 | |
| 6 | Willy Otto Jordan | Brazil | 2:46.4 | |
| 7 | Ahmed Kandil | Egypt | 2:47.5 | |
| 8 | Bob Bonte | Netherlands | 2:47.6 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record