# Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 30 to 31 July 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim four lengths of the pool.

## Background

Australian Zac Stubblety-Cook was the defending Olympic champion in the event. He also won the event at the 2022 World Championships, took silver at the 2023 World Championships, and owned the second fastest qualifying time of 2:06.40. China's Qin Haiyang won the event at the 2023 World Championships, where he swam the world record of 2:05.48. That time had not been beaten since and was the fastest qualifying time.
France's Léon Marchand had the fourth fastest qualifying time of 2:06.59, and Braden Keith writing for SwimSwam stated that "under ideal circumstances, Marchand is the best 200 breaststroker in the world." However Marchand was also racing in the 200 metre butterfly finals around an hour and a half beforehand, which Keith opined may slow him down. The Olympic swimming schedule for this evening had been changed earlier in the year to give Marchand a better chance to swim both these events.
Other contenders included China's Dong Zhihao, the world junior record holder; the USA's Matt Fallon, the 2023 World Championships bronze medallist; and Japan’s duet of Ippei Watanabe and Yu Hanaguruma, the fifth and sixth fastest qualifiers, respectively.
Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Haiyang would take gold and Marchand would take silver. Swimming World predicted Fallon would take bronze, while SwimSwam predicted Stubblety-Cook would come third.

## Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 2:09.68. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 2:10.33 for this event. In total, 18 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 6 athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT.
Top 10 fastest qualification times :
| Swimmer | Country | Time | Competition |
| Qin Haiyang | China | 02:05:48 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Zac Stubblety-Cook | Australia | 02:06:40 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Matthew Fallon | United States | 02:06:54 | 2024 United States Olympic Trials |
| Léon Marchand | France | 02:06:59 | 2024 French Elite Championships |
| Ippei Watanabe | Japan | 02:06:94 | 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials |
| Yu Hanaguruma | Japan | 02:07:07 | 2024 Japanese Olympic Trials |
| Dong Zhihao | China | 02:07:94 | 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
| Caspar Corbeau | Netherlands | 02:07:99 | 2023 Rotterdam Qualification Meet |
| Joshua Yong | Australia | 02:08:08 | 2024 Australian Olympic Trials |
| Arno Kamminga | Netherlands | 02:08:30 | 2023 Rotterdam Qualification Meet |

## Heats

Four heats took place on 30 July 2024, starting at 13:01. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 7 | Cho Sung-jae | South Korea | 2:09.45 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | Zac Stubblety-Cook | Australia | 2:09.49 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | Léon Marchand | France | 2:09.55 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 3 | Caspar Corbeau | Netherlands | 2:09.78 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 5 | Ippei Watanabe | Japan | 2:09.86 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Dong Zhihao | China | 2:09.91 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 5 | Yu Hanaguruma | Japan | 2:10.35 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 2 | Erik Persson | Sweden | 2:10.35 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 2 | Anton McKee | Iceland | 2:10.36 | Q |
| 10 | 3 | 6 | Josh Matheny | United States | 2:10.39 | Q |
| 11 | 2 | 4 | Matthew Fallon | United States | 2:10.49 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 6 | Arno Kamminga | Netherlands | 2:10.53 | Q, WD |
| 13 | 2 | 2 | Lyubomir Epitropov | Bulgaria | 2:10.59 | Q |
| 14 | 2 | 3 | Joshua Yong | Australia | 2:10.68 | Q |
| 15 | 4 | 4 | Qin Haiyang | China | 2:10.98 | Q |
| 16 | 3 | 1 | Denis Petrashov | Kyrgyzstan | 2:10.99 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | 7 | Miguel de Lara | Mexico | 2:11.16 | q |
| 18 | 2 | 6 | Matti Mattsson | Finland | 2:11.18 | |
| 19 | 2 | 7 | Aleksas Savickas | Lithuania | 2:11.53 | |
| 20 | 4 | 1 | Jan Kalusowski | Poland | 2:11.87 | |
| 21 | 4 | 8 | Daniils Bobrovs | Latvia | 2:13.66 | |
| 22 | 1 | 5 | Tyler Christianson | Panama | 2:15.62 | |
| 23 | 2 | 1 | Amro Al-Wir | Jordan | 2:15.78 | |
| 24 | 1 | 4 | Julio Horrego | Honduras | 2:18.91 | |
| 25 | 1 | 3 | Saud Ghali | Bahrain | 2:22.51 | |

## Semifinals

Two semifinals took place on 30 July, starting at 21:59. The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 5 | Léon Marchand | France | 2:08.11 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | Zac Stubblety-Cook | Australia | 2:08.57 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | Dong Zhihao | China | 2:08.99 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | 5 | Caspar Corbeau | Netherlands | 2:09.52 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | 3 | Ippei Watanabe | Japan | 2:09.62 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | 2 | Josh Matheny | United States | 2:09.70 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 6 | Yu Hanaguruma | Japan | 2:09.72 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | 1 | Joshua Yong | Australia | 2:09.89 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 1 | Lyubomir Epitropov | Bulgaria | 2:09.93 | |
| 10 | 2 | 7 | Matthew Fallon | United States | 2:09.96 | |
| 10 | 2 | 8 | Qin Haiyang | China | 2:09.96 | |
| 12 | 2 | 4 | Cho Sung-jae | South Korea | 2:10.03 | |
| 13 | 1 | 6 | Erik Persson | Sweden | 2:10.11 | |
| 14 | 1 | 8 | Denis Petrashov | Kyrgyzstan | 2:10.19 | |
| 15 | 2 | 2 | Anton McKee | Iceland | 2:10.42 | |
| 16 | 1 | 7 | Miguel de Lara | Mexico | 2:11.28 | |

## Final

The final took place at 21:59 on 31 July.
Results :
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Léon Marchand | France | 2:05.85 | OR, ER |
| | 5 | Zac Stubblety-Cook | Australia | 2:06.79 | |
| | 6 | Caspar Corbeau | Netherlands | 2:07.90 | |
| 4 | 3 | Dong Zhihao | China | 2:08.46 | |
| 5 | 1 | Yu Hanaguruma | Japan | 2:08.79 | |
| 6 | 2 | Ippei Watanabe | Japan | 2:08.83 | |
| 7 | 7 | Josh Matheny | United States | 2:09.52 | |
| 8 | 8 | Joshua Yong | Australia | 2:11.44 | |
Statistics :
| Name | 50 metre split | 100 metre split | 150 metre split | Time | Stroke rate (strokes/min) |
| Léon Marchand | 00:28.42 | 01:00.59 | 01:33.12 | 2:05.85 | 39.2 |
| Zac Stubblety-Cook | 00:29.30 | 01:01.56 | 01:34.30 | 2:06.79 | 41.1 |
| Caspar Corbeau | 00:29.19 | 01:01.40 | 01:34.77 | 2:07.90 | 34.3 |
| Dong Zhihao | 00:29.05 | 01:02.24 | 01:36.16 | 2:08.46 | 44.8 |
| Ippei Watanabe | 00:29.44 | 01:02.44 | 01:35.37 | 2:08.83 | 33.9 |
| Josh Matheny | 00:29.17 | 01:02.01 | 01:35.73 | 2:09.52 | 48.6 |
| Joshua Yong | 00:29.72 | 01:02.66 | 01:36.92 | 2:11.44 | 36.0 |