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

The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 11–13 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted a new world record of 1:52.03 to defend his title in the event, and more importantly, claim his fourth Olympic gold, tenth career, and twelfth overall medal. During the final, Phelps' goggles filled with water, which prevented him from seeing anything, while he was finishing the second lap.
Hungary's László Cseh added a second silver to his hardware from the 400 m individual medley, breaking a European record of 1:52.70. Japan's Takeshi Matsuda powered home with a bronze medal in 1:52.97.
New Zealand's Moss Burmester shared a fourth place with host nation China's Wu Peng in 1:54.35, while Poland's Paweł Korzeniowski finished sixth with a time of 1:54.60. Brazil's Kaio de Almeida (1:54.71) and Russia's Nikolay Skvortsov (1:55.14) rounded out the finale.
Earlier in the semifinals, Phelps registered his own Olympic record of 1:53.70 to establish a strong lead for the top 8 final, matching his preliminary time in the process.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:52.09 | Melbourne, Australia | 28 March 2007 | |
| Olympic record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:54.04 | Athens, Greece | 17 August 2004 | - |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 11 | Heat 6 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:53.70 | OR |
| August 12 | Semifinal 2 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:53.70 | =OR |
| August 13 | Final | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:52.03 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:53.70 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 4 | 2 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:54.48 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 3 | Kaio de Almeida | Brazil | 1:54.65 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 6 | Takeshi Matsuda | Japan | 1:55.06 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | Paweł Korzeniowski | Poland | 1:55.21 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | Nikolay Skvortsov | Russia | 1:55.33 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 5 | Wu Peng | China | 1:55.39 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 4 | Gil Stovall | United States | 1:55.42 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 7 | Michael Rock | Great Britain | 1:55.55 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 1:55.80 | Q |
| 11 | 5 | 3 | Ryuichi Shibata | Japan | 1:55.82 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 6 | Dinko Jukić | Austria | 1:55.96 | Q |
| 13 | 4 | 1 | Ioan Gherghel | Romania | 1:56.09 | Q, NR |
| 14 | 6 | 1 | Sergiy Advena | Ukraine | 1:56.24 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 6 | Chen Yin | China | 1:56.55 | Q |
| 16 | 3 | 2 | Hsu Chi-chieh | Chinese Taipei | 1:56.59 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | 2 | Christophe Lebon | France | 1:56.63 | |
| 18 | 6 | 2 | Travis Nederpelt | Australia | 1:56.64 | |
| 19 | 6 | 7 | Mathieu Fonteyn | Belgium | 1:56.65 | NR |
| 20 | 4 | 7 | Niccolo Beni | Italy | 1:56.99 | |
| 21 | 4 | 3 | Denys Sylantyev | Ukraine | 1:57.02 | |
| 22 | 5 | 1 | Tamás Kerékjártó | Hungary | 1:57.29 | |
| 23 | 6 | 8 | Juan Veloz | Mexico | 1:57.32 | NR |
| 24 | 3 | 6 | Pedro Oliveira | Portugal | 1:57.41 | |
| 25 | 4 | 8 | Adam Sioui | Canada | 1:57.45 | |
| 26 | 3 | 5 | Simon Sjödin | Sweden | 1:57.75 | |
| 27 | 5 | 8 | Romanos Alyfantis | Greece | 1:57.99 | |
| 28 | 3 | 8 | Alon Mandel | Israel | 1:59.27 | NR |
| 29 | 2 | 5 | James Walsh | Philippines | 1:59.39 | NR |
| 30 | 3 | 3 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | 1:59.47 | |
| 31 | 1 | 3 | Nikša Roki | Croatia | 1:59.58 | NR |
| 32 | 2 | 1 | Javier Núñez | Spain | 2:00.24 | |
| 33 | 2 | 7 | Andrés José González | Argentina | 2:00.36 | |
| 34 | 2 | 6 | Yoo Jung-nam | South Korea | 2:01.00 | |
| 35 | 3 | 4 | Jeremy Knowles | Bahamas | 2:01.08 | |
| 36 | 2 | 8 | Alexis Márquez Rivas | Venezuela | 2:01.25 | |
| 37 | 3 | 7 | Daniel Bego | Malaysia | 2:01.28 | |
| 38 | 2 | 3 | Douglas Lennox-Silva | Puerto Rico | 2:01.69 | |
| 39 | 3 | 1 | Georgi Palazov | Bulgaria | 2:01.84 | |
| 40 | 1 | 5 | Rehan Poncha | India | 2:01.89 | |
| 41 | 1 | 4 | Emmanuel Crescimbeni | Peru | 2:02.13 | |
| 42 | 1 | 6 | Javier Hernández Maradiaga | Honduras | 2:02.23 | |
| 43 | 2 | 4 | Vladan Marković | Serbia | 2:03.12 | |
| 44 | 2 | 2 | Donny Utomo | Indonesia | 2:03.44 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Takeshi Matsuda | Japan | 1:54.02 | Q, AS |
| 2 | 3 | Nikolay Skvortsov | Russia | 1:54.31 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:54.35 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 1:55.26 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Gil Stovall | United States | 1:55.36 | |
| 6 | 7 | Dinko Jukić | Austria | 1:55.65 | |
| 7 | 1 | Sergiy Advena | Ukraine | 1:56.64 | |
| 8 | 8 | Hsu Chi-chieh | Chinese Taipei | 1:57.48 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:53.70 | Q, =OR |
| 2 | 6 | Wu Peng | China | 1:54.93 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Kaio de Almeida | Brazil | 1:55.21 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Paweł Korzeniowski | Poland | 1:55.35 | Q |
| 5 | 8 | Chen Yin | China | 1:55.88 | |
| 6 | 2 | Michael Rock | Great Britain | 1:55.90 | |
| 7 | 7 | Ryuichi Shibata | Japan | 1:56.17 | |
| 8 | 1 | Ioan Gherghel | Romania | 1:56.57 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:52.03 | WR |
| | 6 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:52.70 | EU |
| | 5 | Takeshi Matsuda | Japan | 1:52.97 | AS |
| 4 | 1 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 1:54.35 | OC |
| 4 | 2 | Wu Peng | China | 1:54.35 | |
| 6 | 8 | Paweł Korzeniowski | Poland | 1:54.60 | |
| 7 | 7 | Kaio de Almeida | Brazil | 1:54.71 | |
| 8 | 3 | Nikolay Skvortsov | Russia | 1:55.14 | |