# Swimming at the 2012 European Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre freestyle

The men's 100 metre backstroke competition of the swimming events at the 2012 European Aquatics Championships took place May 22 and 23. The heats and semifinals took place on May 22, the final on May 23.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world, European and championship records were as follows.
| | Name | Nation | Time | Location | Date |
| World record European record | Paul Biedermann | Germany | 1:42.00 | Rome | July 28, 2009 |
| Championship record | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 1:44.89 | Berlin | August 2, 2002 |

## Results
### Heats

48 swimmers participated in 7 heats.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | 4 | Paul Biedermann | Germany | 1:47.39 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 7 | Dominik Kozma | Hungary | 1:47.52 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 3 | Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or | Israel | 1:48.93 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 5 | Tim Wallburger | Germany | 1:49.04 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 1 | Riccardo Maestri | Italy | 1:49.13 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 6 | Alex di Giorgio | Italy | 1:49.21 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | Viacheslav Andrusenko | Russia | 1:49.24 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 2 | Marco Belotti | Italy | 1:49.30 | |
| 9 | 6 | 6 | Gianluca Maglia | Italy | 1:49.32 | |
| 10 | 7 | 2 | Pieter Timmers | Belgium | 1:49.52 | Q |
| 11 | 7 | 5 | Robert Renwick | Great Britain | 1:49.55 | Q |
| 12 | 6 | 8 | Dorde Marković | Serbia | 1:49.57 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 7 | Norbert Trandafir | Romania | 1:49.69 | Q |
| 14 | 7 | 6 | Dimitri Colupaev | Germany | 1:49.78 | |
| 15 | 7 | 7 | Glenn Surgeloose | Belgium | 1:49.88 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 2 | Pavel Medvetskiy | Russia | 1:50.19 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | 4 | Dominik Meichtry | Switzerland | 1:50.20 | Q |
| 18 | 7 | 3 | Clemens Rapp | Germany | 1:50.29 | |
| 19 | 4 | 5 | Radovan Siljevski | Serbia | 1:50.34 | Q |
| 20 | 6 | 4 | Amaury Leveaux | France | 1:50.38 | Q |
| 21 | 4 | 3 | Kemal Arda Gural | Turkey | 1:50.40 | =NR |
| 22 | 6 | 7 | Lorys Bourelly | France | 1:50.45 | |
| 23 | 6 | 1 | Tiago Andre Venancio | Portugal | 1:50.56 | |
| 24 | 7 | 8 | Christian Scherübl | Austria | 1:50.83 | |
| 25 | 6 | 5 | Jérémy Stravius | France | 1:50.91 | |
| 26 | 3 | 1 | Gard Kvale | Norway | 1:51.15 | |
| 27 | 3 | 3 | Radoslaw Bor | Poland | 1:51.30 | |
| 28 | 4 | 8 | Jean-Baptiste Febo | Switzerland | 1:51.34 | |
| 29 | 4 | 4 | Pholien Systermans | Belgium | 1:51.49 | |
| 30 | 4 | 7 | Balázs Zámbó | Hungary | 1:51.62 | |
| 31 | 3 | 8 | Stefan Šorak | Serbia | 1:51.63 | |
| 32 | 4 | 2 | Alexander Selin | Russia | 1:51.66 | |
| 33 | 4 | 1 | Uvis Kalnins | Latvia | 1:51.68 | |
| 34 | 3 | 4 | Filip Bujoczek | Poland | 1:51.71 | |
| 35 | 2 | 4 | Danas Rapšys | Lithuania | 1:51.92 | |
| 36 | 3 | 5 | Simonas Bilis | Lithuania | 1:52.03 | |
| 37 | 3 | 6 | Květoslav Svoboda | Czech Republic | 1:52.10 | |
| 38 | 4 | 6 | Luis Emanuel Vaz | Portugal | 1:52.17 | |
| 39 | 7 | 1 | Pawel Werner | Poland | 1:52.19 | |
| 40 | 1 | 5 | Evgheni Coroliuc | Moldova | 1:52.61 | |
| 41 | 2 | 2 | Jean-François Schneiders | Luxembourg | 1:53.71 | |
| 42 | 5 | 8 | Mario Alexandre Pereira | Portugal | 1:53.88 | |
| 43 | 2 | 3 | Marco Aldabe-Bomstad | Norway | 1:54.34 | |
| 44 | 2 | 6 | Ole-Martin Ree | Norway | 1:55.03 | |
| 45 | 1 | 4 | David Gamburg | Israel | 1:55.17 | |
| 46 | 3 | 2 | Irakli Revishvili | Georgia | 1:55.37 | |
| 47 | 2 | 7 | Aleksandar Nikolov | Bulgaria | 1:57.36 | |
| 48 | 1 | 3 | Hedin Olsen | Faroe Islands | 2:04.26 | |
| | 2 | 5 | Michal Szuba | Poland | DNS | |

### Semifinals

The eight fastert swimmers advanced to the final.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Dominik Kozma | Hungary | 1:47.59 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Tim Wallburger | Germany | 1:47.90 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Dominik Meichtry | Switzerland | 1:48.35 | Q |
| 4 | 8 | Amaury Leveaux | France | 1:48.38 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Pieter Timmers | Belgium | 1:49.25 | |
| 6 | 3 | Alex di Giorgio | Italy | 1:49.32 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | Dorde Marković | Serbia | 1:49.69 | |
| 8 | 7 | Glenn Surgeloose | Belgium | 1:49.79 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Paul Biedermann | Germany | 1:47.92 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Robert Renwick | Great Britain | 1:48.89 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Viacheslav Andrusenko | Russia | 1:49.03 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Norbert Trandafir | Romania | 1:49.57 | |
| 5 | 5 | Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or | Israel | 1:49.69 | |
| 6 | 8 | Radovan Siljevski | Serbia | 1:50.11 | |
| 7 | 3 | Riccardo Maestri | Italy | 1:50.49 | |
| 8 | 1 | Pavel Medvetskiy | Russia | 1:51.20 | |

### Final

The final was held at 17:47.
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 3 | Paul Biedermann | Germany | 1:46.27 |
| | 2 | Amaury Leveaux | France | 1:47.69 |
| | 4 | Dominik Kozma | Hungary | 1:47.72 |
| 4 | 5 | Tim Wallburger | Germany | 1:47.75 |
| 5 | 6 | Dominik Meichtry | Switzerland | 1:48.53 |
| 6 | 1 | Viacheslav Andrusenko | Russia | 1:49.34 |
| 7 | 8 | Alex di Giorgio | Italy | 1:49.45 |
| 8 | 7 | Robert Renwick | Great Britain | 1:49.57 |