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

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 10–11 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

## Summary

As the most decorated Olympian of all-time, Michael Phelps continued to etch his name into the history records with a first Olympic four-peat in the same individual swimming event. Hanging with some of his career rivals at the final turn, Phelps established a body-length lead over the rest of the field on the freestyle leg to claim his 22nd gold medal and 26th overall in 1:54.66. Trailing almost two seconds behind Phelps, Japan's Kosuke Hagino produced a late surge to snatch the silver with a 1:56.61. Meanwhile, China's Wang Shun took home the bronze in 1:57.05, joining Hagino as the first Asian men to stand on the podium in this event.
Hagino's teammate Hiromasa Fujimori missed out of the medals with a fourth-place time in 1:57.21. Phelps' longtime rival and twelve-time medalist Ryan Lochte seized a brief lead into the halfway point with a signature backstroke swim, but faded down the home stretch to fifth, and missed out on his fourth straight medal in this event with a 1:57.47, a hundredth of a second ahead of Germany's Philip Heintz (1:57.48). Backed by the raucous home crowd, Brazilian medal favorite Thiago Pereira, who got off to an early lead with a powerful butterfly effort, slipped to seventh with a 1:58.02. Great Britain's Daniel Wallace posted an eighth-place finish of 1:58.54 to round out the field.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Ryan Lochte (USA) | 1:54.00 | Shanghai, China | 28 July 2011 |
| Olympic record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:54.23 | Beijing, China | 15 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 | 2 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:57.38 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 6 | Philip Heintz | Germany | 1:57.59 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:58.41 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | 5 | Henrique Rodrigues | Brazil | 1:58.56 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 5 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:58.63 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 4 | Kosuke Hagino | Japan | 1:58.79 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | Hiromasa Fujimori | Japan | 1:58.88 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 5 | Wang Shun | China | 1:58.98 | Q |
| 9 | 3 | 6 | Andreas Vazaios | Greece | 1:59.33 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 6 | Simon Sjödin | Sweden | 1:59.41 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 3 | Daniel Wallace | Great Britain | 1:59.44 | Q |
| 12 | 2 | 1 | Alexis Santos | Portugal | 1:59.67 | Q |
| 12 | 3 | 2 | Jérémy Desplanches | Switzerland | 1:59.67 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 2 | Eduardo Solaeche | Spain | 1:59.67 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 7 | Ieuan Lloyd | Great Britain | 1:59.74 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 8 | Bradlee Ashby | New Zealand | 1:59.77 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | 1 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1:59.80 | |
| 18 | 3 | 8 | Semen Makovich | Russia | 1:59.86 | |
| 19 | 4 | 1 | Diogo Carvalho | Portugal | 2:00.17 | |
| 20 | 2 | 2 | Travis Mahoney | Australia | 2:00.18 | |
| 21 | 1 | 3 | Raphaël Stacchiotti | Luxembourg | 2:00.21 | |
| 22 | 1 | 4 | Hu Yixuan | China | 2:00.70 | |
| 23 | 1 | 5 | Emmanuel Vanluchene | Belgium | 2:01.36 | |
| 24 | 1 | 6 | Uvis Kalniņš | Latvia | 2:02.34 | |
| 25 | 2 | 8 | Mohamed Hussein | Egypt | 2:02.36 | |
| 26 | 1 | 7 | Marko Blaževski | Macedonia | 2:02.54 | |
| 27 | 1 | 1 | Ahmed Mathlouthi | Tunisia | 2:04.95 | |
| | 2 | 3 | Thomas Fraser-Holmes | Australia | DNS | |
| | 2 | 7 | Federico Turrini | Italy | DNS | |
| | 3 | 7 | Dávid Verrasztó | Hungary | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Kosuke Hagino | Japan | 1:57.38 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | Wang Shun | China | 1:58.12 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Philip Heintz | Germany | 1:58.85 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Henrique Rodrigues | Brazil | 1:59.23 | |
| 5 | 7 | Alexis Santos | Portugal | 2:00.08 | |
| 6 | 8 | Bradlee Ashby | New Zealand | 2:00.45 | |
| 7 | 1 | Eduardo Solaeche | Spain | 2:00.47 | |
| 8 | 2 | Simon Sjödin | Sweden | 2:00.81 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:55.78 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:56.28 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:57.11 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Daniel Wallace | Great Britain | 1:57.97 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Hiromasa Fujimori | Japan | 1:58.20 | Q |
| 6 | 8 | Ieuan Lloyd | Great Britain | 1:59.49 | |
| 7 | 2 | Andreas Vazaios | Greece | 1:59.54 | |
| 8 | 1 | Jérémy Desplanches | Switzerland | 2:00.38 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.66 | |
| | 6 | Kosuke Hagino | Japan | 1:56.61 | |
| | 7 | Wang Shun | China | 1:57.05 | |
| 4 | 1 | Hiromasa Fujimori | Japan | 1:57.21 | |
| 5 | 5 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:57.47 | |
| 6 | 8 | Philip Heintz | Germany | 1:57.48 | NR |
| 7 | 3 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:58.02 | |
| 8 | 2 | Daniel Wallace | Great Britain | 1:58.54 | |