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

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 12–14 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Japan's Kosuke Kitajima blasted a new Olympic record of 2:07.64 to strike another breaststroke double, and to defend his title in the event. He registered a straightforward triumph over Brenton Rickard, who earned a silver medal in an Australian record of 2:08.88. France's Hugues Duboscq added a second bronze and third overall to his collection in 2:08.94, finishing just ahead of Canada's Mike Brown by almost a tenth of a second (0.10) with a time of 2:09.03.
Hungary's Dániel Gyurta, silver medalist in Athens four years earlier, finished outside the medals in fifth place at 2:09.22. Earlier in the prelims, he established an Olympic record by winning the final of seven heats in 2:08.68.
U.S. swimmer Scott Spann turned in another sub-2:10 barrier to earn a sixth spot in 2:09.76. Italian tandem Loris Facci (2:10.57) and Paolo Bossini (2:11.48) closed out the field. Bossini set a new Olympic record of 2:08.98 to shave 0.46 seconds off Kitajima's mark in Athens, until Gyurta took three-tenths of a second (0.30) off the record time a few minutes later.
Notable swimmers failed to reach the top 8 final, featuring American Eric Shanteau, who entered the Games while battling testicular cancer, and Kazakhstan's Vladislav Polyakov, who finished fifth in Athens four years earlier. Norway's Alexander Dale Oen, silver medalist in the 100 m breaststroke, placed seventeenth in 2:11.30, but missed the semifinals by 0.11 seconds.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) | 2:07.51 | Tokyo, Japan | 8 June 2008 | |
| Olympic record | Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) | 2:09.44 | Athens, Greece | 18 August 2004 | - |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 12 | Heat 5 | Paolo Bossini | Italy | 2:08.98 | OR |
| August 12 | Heat 7 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 2:08.68 | OR |
| August 13 | Semifinal 1 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:08.61 | OR |
| August 14 | Final | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:07.64 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | 6 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 2:08.68 | Q, OR, EU |
| 2 | 5 | 2 | Paolo Bossini | Italy | 2:08.98 | Q |
| 3 | 7 | 2 | Loris Facci | Italy | 2:09.12 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | 5 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 2:09.42 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | 6 | Mike Brown | Canada | 2:09.84 | Q |
| 6 | 7 | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:09.89 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 3 | Eric Shanteau | United States | 2:10.29 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 2 | William Diering | South Africa | 2:10.39 | Q, AF |
| 9 | 6 | 7 | Neil Versfeld | South Africa | 2:10.50 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 5 | Scott Spann | United States | 2:10.61 | Q |
| 11 | 7 | 7 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 2:10.83 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 7 | Andrew Bree | Ireland | 2:10.91 | Q |
| 13 | 6 | 4 | Brenton Rickard | Australia | 2:11.00 | Q |
| 14 | 7 | 1 | Igor Borysik | Ukraine | 2:11.08 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 3 | Kristopher Gilchrist | Great Britain | 2:11.13 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 6 | Glenn Snyders | New Zealand | 2:11.19 | Q |
| 17 | 6 | 5 | Alexander Dale Oen | Norway | 2:11.30 | |
| 17 | 7 | 3 | Yuta Suenaga | Japan | 2:11.30 | |
| 19 | 3 | 3 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 2:11.40 | |
| 20 | 3 | 5 | Tom Be'eri | Israel | 2:11.44 | NR |
| 21 | 4 | 1 | Hunor Mate | Austria | 2:11.56 | |
| 22 | 7 | 8 | Valeriy Dymo | Ukraine | 2:11.65 | |
| 23 | 5 | 4 | Grigory Falko | Russia | 2:11.88 | |
| 24 | 5 | 8 | Mihail Alexandrov | Bulgaria | 2:11.94 | NR |
| 25 | 4 | 5 | Yevgeniy Ryzhkov | Kazakhstan | 2:12.44 | |
| 26 | 5 | 6 | Christian Sprenger | Australia | 2:12.56 | |
| 27 | 3 | 4 | Melquíades Álvarez | Spain | 2:12.59 | |
| 28 | 4 | 8 | Julien Nicolardot | France | 2:12.76 | |
| 29 | 5 | 1 | Mathieu Bois | Canada | 2:12.87 | |
| 30 | 6 | 1 | Henrique Barbosa | Brazil | 2:12.99 | |
| 31 | 1 | 4 | Edvinas Dautartas | Lithuania | 2:13.11 | |
| 32 | 2 | 4 | Carlos Almeida | Portugal | 2:13.34 | |
| 33 | 6 | 8 | Chris Christensen | Denmark | 2:13.92 | |
| 34 | 4 | 3 | Sergio García | Spain | 2:14.30 | |
| 35 | 4 | 2 | Maxim Podoprigora | Austria | 2:14.43 | |
| 36 | 1 | 6 | Sandeep Sejwal | India | 2:15.24 | |
| 37 | 4 | 4 | James Kirton | Great Britain | 2:15.25 | |
| 38 | 2 | 3 | Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson | Iceland | 2:15.58 | |
| 39 | 3 | 2 | Jiří Jedlička | Czech Republic | 2:15.79 | |
| 40 | 2 | 8 | Laurent Carnol | Luxembourg | 2:15.87 | |
| 41 | 3 | 8 | Romanos Alyfantis | Greece | 2:16.04 | |
| 42 | 3 | 7 | Sofiane Daid | Algeria | 2:16.15 | |
| 43 | 2 | 5 | Shin Su-jong | South Korea | 2:16.21 | |
| 44 | 3 | 6 | Lai Zhongjian | China | 2:16.28 | |
| 45 | 5 | 7 | Alexey Zinovyev | Russia | 2:16.40 | |
| 46 | 2 | 6 | Martti Aljand | Estonia | 2:16.52 | |
| 47 | 2 | 2 | Miguel Molina | Philippines | 2:16.94 | |
| 48 | 3 | 1 | Robin van Aggele | Netherlands | 2:17.14 | |
| 49 | 2 | 1 | Wang Wei-wen | Chinese Taipei | 2:17.20 | |
| 50 | 1 | 2 | Leopoldo Andara | Venezuela | 2:17.77 | NR |
| 51 | 1 | 5 | Ömer Aslanoglu | Turkey | 2:17.93 | |
| 52 | 1 | 3 | Sergio Andres Ferreyra | Argentina | 2:20.10 | |
| | 2 | 7 | Valentin Preda | Romania | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:08.61 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 2 | Scott Spann | United States | 2:09.08 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Paolo Bossini | Italy | 2:09.95 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 2:09.97 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Andrew Bree | Ireland | 2:10.16 | NR |
| 6 | 6 | William Diering | South Africa | 2:10.21 | |
| 7 | 1 | Igor Borysik | Ukraine | 2:10.99 | |
| 8 | 8 | Glenn Snyders | New Zealand | 2:12.07 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Mike Brown | Canada | 2:08.84 | Q, NR |
| 2 | 1 | Brenton Rickard | Australia | 2:09.72 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 2:09.73 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Loris Facci | Italy | 2:09.75 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Neil Versfeld | South Africa | 2:10.06 | AF |
| 6 | 6 | Eric Shanteau | United States | 2:10.10 | |
| 7 | 8 | Kristopher Gilchrist | Great Britain | 2:10.27 | NR |
| 8 | 7 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 2:11.87 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:07.64 | OR |
| | 6 | Brenton Rickard | Australia | 2:08.88 | OC |
| | 8 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 2:08.94 | NR |
| 4 | 5 | Mike Brown | Canada | 2:09.03 | |
| 5 | 2 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 2:09.22 | |
| 6 | 3 | Scott Spann | United States | 2:09.76 | |
| 7 | 7 | Loris Facci | Italy | 2:10.57 | |
| 8 | 1 | Paolo Bossini | Italy | 2:11.48 | |