# Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre individual medley

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 1968 Olympic Games took place between 19 and 20 October. This swimming event used medley swimming. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool. The first length was swum using the butterfly stroke, the second with the backstroke, the third length in breaststroke, and the fourth freestyle. Unlike other events using freestyle, swimmers could not use butterfly, backstroke, or breaststroke for the freestyle leg; most swimmers use the front crawl in freestyle events anyway.
Silver medalist Greg Buckingham's younger brother, Lindsey, went on to fame as a member of the rock group Fleetwood Mac.

## Medalists

| Gold | Charlie Hickcox United States |
| Silver | Greg Buckingham United States |
| Bronze | John Ferris United States |

## Results
### Heats

Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Charlie Hickcox | United States | 2:16.1 |
| 2 | Péter Lázár | Hungary | 2:17.1 |
| 3 | Lars Kraus Jensen | Denmark | 2:21.2 |
| 4 | Zbigniew Pacelt | Poland | 2:23.3 |
| 5 | Guðmundur Gíslason | Iceland | 2:24.1 |
| 6 | Andrey Dunayev | Soviet Union | 2:25.9 |
| 7 | Francisco Ramis | Puerto Rico | 2:31.9 |
| 8 | Rubén Guerrero | El Salvador | 2:37.5 |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | George Smith | Canada | 2:16.4 |
| 2 | Mike Holthaus | West Germany | 2:17.5 |
| 3 | Frank Wiegand | East Germany | 2:18.0 |
| 4 | Ronnie Wong | Hong Kong | 2:36.1 |
| 5 | Donnacha O'Dea | Ireland | 2:36.6 |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | John Ferris | United States | 2:14.6 | |
| 2 | Reinhard Merkel | West Germany | 2:17.8 | |
| 3 | Hans Ljungberg | Sweden | 2:17.8 | |
| 4 | Yulyan Rusev | Bulgaria | 2:22.7 | |
| 5 | Raymond Terrell | Great Britain | 2:23.5 | |
| 6 | Olle Ferm | Sweden | 2:27.5 | |
| 7 | Lee Tong-shing | Chinese Taipei | | DQ |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Vladimir Kravchenko | Soviet Union | 2:18.6 |
| 2 | István Szentirmay | Hungary | 2:21.0 |
| 3 | Angel Chakarov | Bulgaria | 2:24.0 |
| 4 | José Joaquín Santibáñez | Mexico | 2:24.6 |
| 5 | Karl Byrom | Australia | 2:28.0 |
| 6 | Chan King-ming | Chinese Taipei | 2:44.9 |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Sandy Gilchrist | Canada | 2:16.8 |
| 2 | Juan Carlos Bello | Peru | 2:17.5 |
| 3 | Juan Fortuny | Spain | 2:20.6 |
| 4 | François Simons | Belgium | 2:22.5 |
| 5 | Rafael Hernández | Mexico | 2:24.7 |
| 6 | Salvador Vilanova | El Salvador | 2:33.8 |
| 7 | Bob Loh | Hong Kong | 2:39.3 |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Greg Buckingham | United States | 2:15.6 |
| 2 | Michele D'Oppido | Italy | 2:18.5 |
| 3 | Ken Campbell | Canada | 2:20.9 |
| 4 | Eduardo Alanís | Mexico | 2:23.0 |
| 5 | Gershon Shefa | Israel | 2:26.6 |
| 6 | Peter Schmid | Austria | 2:36.4 |
| 7 | Friedrich Jokisch | El Salvador | 2:41.6 |
Heat 7
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time |
| 1 | Jürgen Schiller | West Germany | 2:20.8 |
| 2 | Martyn Woodroffe | Great Britain | 2:22.0 |
| 3 | Jacek Krawczyk | Poland | 2:23.8 |
| 4 | Tony Asamali | Philippines | 2:24.6 |
| 5 | José Martínez | Cuba | 2:31.4 |
| 6 | Andrew Loh | Hong Kong | 2:42.0 |

### Final

| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| | Charlie Hickcox | United States | 2:12.0 | OR |
| | Greg Buckingham | United States | 2:13.0 | |
| | John Ferris | United States | 2:13.3 | |
| 4 | Juan Carlos Bello | Peru | 2:13.7 | |
| 5 | George Smith | Canada | 2:15.9 | |
| 6 | Sandy Gilchrist | Canada | 2:16.6 | |
| 7 | Mike Holthaus | West Germany | 2:16.8 | |
| 8 | Péter Lázár | Hungary | 2:18.3 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record