# Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre individual medley

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 1–2 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
Adding to an unprecedented medal tally to become the most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps made another milestone as the first male swimmer ever to defend his third straight Olympic title in the same individual event with a touch-out triumph over Ryan Lochte. Dominating the race from the start, Phelps held off a final showdown from Lochte on the freestyle leg to claim his sixteenth gold and twentieth career medal in 1:54.27. Meanwhile, Lochte came up short in the other half of a difficult double, as he produced his eleventh overall for the silver in 1:54.90, tying an all-time record with Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi. Hungary's László Cseh powered home with the bronze in 1:56.22 to keep the podium intact for the second straight Games.
Brazil's Thiago Pereira finished fourth in 1:56.74, and was followed in fifth and sixth by Japanese duo Kosuke Hagino (1:57.35) and Ken Takakuwa (1:58.53). Great Britain's James Goddard (1:59.05) and Germany's Markus Deibler (1:59.10) also vied for an Olympic medal to round out the historic finale.
Earlier in the semifinals, South Africa's Chad le Clos also earned a spot for the championship final, but later scratched to focus on the 100 m butterfly, allowing Deibler to join the roster. Meanwhile, Austria's Markus Rogan, double silver medalist and four-time Olympian, was disqualified for an illegal dolphin kick after a technical turn from backstroke to breaststroke.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Ryan Lochte (USA) | 1:54.00 | Shanghai, China | 28 July 2011 |
| Olympic record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:54.23 | Beijing, China | 15 August 2008 |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:57.20 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:58.03 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | Kosuke Hagino | Japan | 1:58.22 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:58.24 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 5 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:58.31 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | 5 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:58.56 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | Markus Deibler | Germany | 1:58.61 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 5 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 1:58.66 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 6 | Ken Takakuwa | Japan | 1:58.82 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 7 | Henrique Rodrigues | Brazil | 1:59.37 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 2 | Chad le Clos | South Africa | 1:59.45 | Q |
| 12 | 5 | 8 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1:59.56 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Daniel Tranter | Australia | 1:59.70 | Q |
| 14 | 5 | 1 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 1:59.84 | Q |
| 15 | 3 | 3 | Joe Roebuck | Great Britain | 2:00.04 | Q |
| 16 | 2 | 6 | Andrew Ford | Canada | 2:00.28 | Q |
| 17 | 2 | 3 | Raphaël Stacchiotti | Luxembourg | 2:00.38 | |
| 18 | 3 | 1 | Diogo Carvalho | Portugal | 2:00.40 | |
| 19 | 3 | 8 | Marcin Cieślak | Poland | 2:00.45 | |
| 20 | 4 | 8 | Federico Turrini | Italy | 2:00.63 | |
| 21 | 3 | 7 | Darian Townsend | South Africa | 2:00.67 | |
| 22 | 2 | 4 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 2:00.85 | |
| 22 | 3 | 6 | Wang Shun | China | 2:00.85 | |
| 24 | 2 | 5 | Alexander Tikhonov | Russia | 2:01.00 | |
| 25 | 2 | 7 | Martin Liivamägi | Estonia | 2:01.09 | |
| 26 | 2 | 1 | Andreas Vazaios | Greece | 2:01.23 | |
| 27 | 4 | 2 | Philip Heintz | Germany | 2:01.32 | |
| 28 | 2 | 8 | David Karasek | Switzerland | 2:01.35 | NR |
| 29 | 2 | 2 | Taki Mrabet | Tunisia | 2:01.41 | |
| 30 | 4 | 1 | Wu Peng | China | 2:01.43 | |
| 31 | 4 | 7 | Jayden Hadler | Australia | 2:01.54 | |
| 32 | 1 | 5 | Jung Won-yong | South Korea | 2:03.33 | |
| 33 | 1 | 4 | Maksym Shemberev | Ukraine | 2:03.40 | |
| 34 | 1 | 3 | Nuttapong Ketin | Thailand | 2:03.91 | |
| 35 | 5 | 2 | Dávid Verrasztó | Hungary | 2:04.53 | |
| 36 | 1 | 6 | Ensar Hajder | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2:05.70 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:56.13 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:57.11 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:58.49 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Gal Nevo | Israel | 1:59.17 | |
| 5 | 2 | Henrique Rodrigues | Brazil | 1:59.58 | |
| 6 | 1 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 2:00.13 | |
| 7 | 8 | Andrew Ford | Canada | 2:01.58 | |
| | 6 | Markus Rogan | Austria | DSQ | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:56.74 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:57.45 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Kosuke Hagino | Japan | 1:57.95 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Ken Takakuwa | Japan | 1:58.31 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Chad le Clos | South Africa | 1:58.49 | Q, WD |
| 6 | 6 | Markus Deibler | Germany | 1:58.88 | Q |
| 7 | 8 | Joe Roebuck | Great Britain | 1:59.57 | |
| 8 | 1 | Daniel Tranter | Australia | 2:00.46 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 3 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.27 |
| | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:54.90 |
| | 5 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:56.22 |
| 4 | 6 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 1:56.74 |
| 5 | 2 | Kosuke Hagino | Japan | 1:57.35 |
| 6 | 7 | Ken Takakuwa | Japan | 1:58.53 |
| 7 | 1 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 1:59.05 |
| 8 | 8 | Markus Deibler | Germany | 1:59.10 |