# Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre individual medley

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 13–15 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted a new world record to defend his title in the event, and more importantly, claim his sixth Olympic gold, twelfth career, and fourteenth overall medal. He established a sterling time of 1:54.23 to lower his prior standard from the Olympic trials by almost six-tenths of a second (0.60). Hungary's László Cseh added a third silver to his collection, finishing with a European record of 1:56.52. Phelps' teammate and archrival Ryan Lochte earned a bronze in a time of 1:56.53, just a hundredth of a second (0.01) behind Cseh. The podium placements also replicated the results of the 400 m individual medley, held on the first day of the Games.
Brazil's Thiago Pereira finished fourth with a time of 1:58.14, and was followed in the fifth spot by Japan's Ken Takakuwa, in an Asian record of 1:58.22. A full second later, Great Britain's James Goddard posted a time of 1:59.24 to earn a sixth spot, while Canada's Keith Beavers (1:59.43) and Goddard's teammate Liam Tancock (2:00.76) rounded out the finale.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:54.80 | Omaha, United States | 5 July 2008 | |
| Olympic record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:57.14 | Athens, Greece | 19 August 2004 | - |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 15 | Final | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.23 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:58.15 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:58.29 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:58.41 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | Ken Takakuwa | Japan | 1:58.51 | Q, AS |
| 5 | 4 | 7 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 1:58.57 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 6 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:58.65 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 7 | Alessio Boggiatto | Italy | 1:58.80 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 2 | Takuro Fujii | Japan | 1:59.19 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 1 | Keith Beavers | Canada | 1:59.19 | Q, NR |
| 10 | 6 | 1 | Darian Townsend | South Africa | 1:59.22 | Q, AF |
| 11 | 6 | 6 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 1:59.63 | Q |
| 12 | 3 | 1 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1:59.66 | Q |
| 13 | 6 | 5 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:59.74 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 5 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 1:59.79 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 6 | Leith Brodie | Australia | 1:59.96 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 3 | Dinko Jukić | Austria | 2:00.57 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | 3 | Tamás Kerékjártó | Hungary | 2:00.60 | |
| 18 | 6 | 3 | Brian Johns | Canada | 2:00.66 | |
| 19 | 6 | 7 | Diogo Carvalho | Portugal | 2:00.66 | |
| 20 | 3 | 6 | Mihail Alexandrov | Bulgaria | 2:00.70 | NR |
| 21 | 5 | 2 | Dean Kent | New Zealand | 2:01.12 | |
| 22 | 6 | 8 | Alexander Tikhonov | Russia | 2:01.21 | |
| 23 | 3 | 5 | Ioannis Kokkodis | Greece | 2:01.22 | |
| 24 | 3 | 8 | Jeremy Knowles | Bahamas | 2:01.35 | NR |
| 25 | 2 | 6 | Gard Kvale | Norway | 2:01.52 | NR |
| 26 | 4 | 2 | Łukasz Wójt | Poland | 2:01.54 | |
| 27 | 2 | 3 | Miguel Molina | Philippines | 2:01.61 | |
| 28 | 2 | 4 | Vadym Lepskyy | Ukraine | 2:01.73 | |
| 29 | 3 | 7 | Saša Imprić | Croatia | 2:01.83 | |
| 30 | 1 | 7 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | 2:02.28 | |
| 31 | 2 | 2 | Tomáš Fučík | Czech Republic | 2:02.85 | |
| 32 | 1 | 5 | Chris Christensen | Denmark | 2:02.93 | |
| 33 | 4 | 1 | Brenton Cabello | Spain | 2:03.08 | |
| 34 | 3 | 4 | Qu Jingyu | China | 2:03.15 | |
| 35 | 4 | 8 | Martin Liivamägi | Estonia | 2:03.56 | |
| 36 | 2 | 5 | Nicholas Bovell | Trinidad and Tobago | 2:03.90 | |
| 37 | 3 | 3 | Dmitriy Gordiyenko | Kazakhstan | 2:03.92 | |
| 38 | 1 | 1 | Andrejs Dūda | Latvia | 2:04.18 | |
| 39 | 5 | 8 | Robin van Aggele | Netherlands | 2:04.33 | |
| 40 | 3 | 2 | Markus Deibler | Germany | 2:04.54 | |
| 41 | 1 | 2 | Mehdi Hamama | Algeria | 2:04.91 | |
| 42 | 2 | 8 | Serkan Atasay | Turkey | 2:05.25 | |
| 43 | 2 | 1 | Leopoldo Andara | Venezuela | 2:05.71 | NR |
| 44 | 1 | 4 | Park Beom-ho | South Korea | 2:06.17 | |
| 45 | 1 | 3 | Iurii Zakharov | Kyrgyzstan | 2:07.01 | |
| 46 | 1 | 6 | Danil Bugakov | Uzbekistan | 2:10.04 | |
| | 2 | 7 | Andrew Bree | Ireland | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:57.70 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:58.19 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Ken Takakuwa | Japan | 1:58.49 | Q, AS |
| 4 | 1 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 1:59.42 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Keith Beavers | Canada | 1:59.43 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | Darian Townsend | South Africa | 1:59.65 | |
| 7 | 7 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 2:00.43 | |
| 8 | 8 | Dinko Jukić | Austria | 2:00.98 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:57.69 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:58.06 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:58.63 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 1:59.53 | |
| 5 | 2 | Takuro Fujii | Japan | 1:59.59 | |
| 6 | 6 | Alessio Boggiatto | Italy | 1:59.77 | |
| 7 | 8 | Leith Brodie | Australia | 2:00.57 | |
| 8 | 7 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 2:00.76 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 5 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.23 | WR |
| | 6 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:56.52 | EU |
| | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:56.53 | |
| 4 | 3 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:58.14 | |
| 5 | 2 | Ken Takakuwa | Japan | 1:58.22 | AS |
| 6 | 7 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:59.24 | |
| 7 | 8 | Keith Beavers | Canada | 1:59.43 | |
| 8 | 1 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 2:00.76 | |