# Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place on July 19 at the Olympic Pool, Montreal. There were 55 competitors from 33 nations, with each nation having up to three swimmers. The medals were swept the United States, the only time there has been a medal sweep in the men's 200 metre freestyle (in 1984, nations were limited to two swimmers, making sweeps impossible). Bruce Furniss took gold, John Naber silver, and Jim Montgomery bronze. It was the second consecutive and third overall victory by an American swimmer.

## Background

This was the fifth appearance of the 200 metre freestyle event. It was first contested in 1900. It would be contested a second time, though at 220 yards, in 1904. After that, the event did not return until 1968; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games.
Two of the 8 finalists from the 1972 Games returned: bronze medalist Werner Lampe and sixth-place finisher Klaus Steinbach, both of West Germany. Reigning Olympic champion Mark Spitz had retired at the age of 22 after winning 7 gold medals in 1972. The American team was still strong, however. Jim Montgomery had won the inaugural 1973 World Aquatics Championships. Tim Shaw, the 1975 World Champion who had broken Spitz's world record, did not swim in this event after finishing 5th in the U.S. trials (he competed in longer races in 1976). The 1975 runner-up, Bruce Furniss, however, had broken Shaw's record three times and was a favourite in this event. Montgomery and Furniss were joined by backstroke specialist John Naber.
The Bahamas, Bulgaria, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Monaco, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, and the Virgin Islands each made their debut in the event. Australia and the United States made their fifth appearance each, the only two nations to have competed in all prior editions of the event.

## Competition format

The competition used a two-round (heats, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 8 heats of up to 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.
This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

## Records

The standing world and Olympic records prior to this competition were as follows. Clark's Olympic record was set as the first leg in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay final.
| World record | Bruce Furniss (USA) | 1:50.32 | Kansas City, United States | 21 August 1975 |
| Olympic record | Mark Spitz (USA) | 1:52.78 | Munich, West Germany | 29 August 1972 |
Making the final in the 1976 event required at least matching the Olympic record, with seven men coming in under that time and an eighth equaling it. Andrey Bogdanov held a new record briefly, swimming 1:52.71 in the second heat. Klaus Steinbach dropped more than a full second off that time in the next heat, though, with a time of 1:51.41. The fourth, fifth, and sixth heats saw four men swim between Bogdanov's and Steinbach's times. Bruce Furniss, swimming in the eighth heat, cut almost half a second off Steinbach's record, coming in at 1:50.93.
That record would not stand long; four men beat it in the final. Only one of those men came in under the world record however: Furniss bettered his own world and Olympic records with 1:50.29 to win gold.

## Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Monday, 19 July 1976 | 9:30 20:00 | Heats Final |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 8 | Bruce Furniss | United States | 1:50.93 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 3 | Klaus Steinbach | West Germany | 1:51.41 | Q, OR |
| 3 | 4 | Andrey Krylov | Soviet Union | 1:51.42 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Jim Montgomery | United States | 1:51.77 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | Peter Nocke | West Germany | 1:52.16 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | Gordon Downie | Great Britain | 1:52.47 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | Andrey Bogdanov | Soviet Union | 1:52.71 | Q, OR |
| 8 | 7 | John Naber | United States | 1:52.78 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | Brian Brinkley | Great Britain | 1:53.07 | |
| 10 | 1 | Sergey Koplyakov | Soviet Union | 1:53.44 | |
| 11 | 3 | Marcello Guarducci | Italy | 1:53.72 | |
| 12 | 5 | Steve Badger | Canada | 1:53.86 | |
| 13 | 6 | Bill Sawchuk | Canada | 1:54.07 | |
| 14 | 7 | Jorge Delgado, Jr. | Ecuador | 1:54.23 | |
| 15 | 4 | Graham Windeatt | Australia | 1:54.35 | |
| 16 | 8 | Mark Kerry | Australia | 1:54.86 | |
| 17 | 2 | David López-Zubero | Spain | 1:54.88 | |
| 18 | 8 | Peter Dawson | Australia | 1:55.16 | |
| 19 | 6 | Rainer Strohbach | East Germany | 1:55.25 | |
| 20 | 3 | Roberto Pangaro | Italy | 1:55.30 | |
| 21 | 7 | Frank Pfütze | East Germany | 1:55.57 | |
| 22 | 4 | James Hett | Canada | 1:55.58 | |
| 23 | 1 | René van der Kuil | Netherlands | 1:55.59 | |
| 24 | 4 | Ali Gharbi | Tunisia | 1:55.82 | |
| 25 | 7 | Alan McClatchey | Great Britain | 1:55.84 | |
| 26 | 3 | Werner Lampe | West Germany | 1:56.01 | |
| 27 | 1 | Bengt Gingsjö | Sweden | 1:56.31 | |
| 28 | 8 | Peter Pettersson | Sweden | 1:56.51 | |
| 29 | 7 | Anders Bellbring | Sweden | 1:57.20 | |
| 30 | 6 | Paolo Revelli | Italy | 1:57.25 | |
| 31 | 1 | Fritz Warncke | Norway | 1:57.59 | |
| 32 | 5 | Andre in het Veld | Netherlands | 1:57.60 | |
| 33 | 5 | John McConnochie | New Zealand | 1:57.77 | |
| 34 | 1 | Tsuyoshi Yanagidate | Japan | 1:58.04 | |
| 35 | 8 | Guillermo García | Mexico | 1:58.20 | |
| 36 | 2 | Georgios Karpouzis | Greece | 1:59.25 | |
| 37 | 2 | Eduardo Pérez | Mexico | 1:59.53 | |
| 38 | 7 | Francisco Cañales | Puerto Rico | 1:59.62 | |
| 39 | 1 | Luis Goicoechea | Venezuela | 1:59.68 | |
| 40 | 4 | Steven Newkirk | Virgin Islands | 1:59.95 | |
| 41 | 3 | Kevin Williamson | Ireland | 2:00.08 | |
| 42 | 6 | Andy Knowles | Bahamas | 2:00.18 | |
| 43 | 3 | Nikolay Ganev | Bulgaria | 2:00.54 | |
| 44 | 7 | Petar Georgiev | Bulgaria | 2:00.70 | |
| 45 | 2 | Tomas Becerra | Colombia | 2:00.72 | |
| 46 | 5 | Mark Crocker | Hong Kong | 2:00.81 | |
| 47 | 6 | Lutz Löscher | East Germany | 2:01.00 | |
| 48 | 1 | Kris Sumono | Indonesia | 2:01.12 | |
| 49 | 8 | Sigurður Ólafsson | Iceland | 2:01.18 | |
| 50 | 6 | Gianni Versari | Panama | 2:02.25 | |
| 51 | 5 | Paulo Frischknecht | Portugal | 2:02.65 | |
| 52 | 8 | Gerardo Rosario | Philippines | 2:02.81 | |
| 53 | 4 | José Pereira | Portugal | 2:03.03 | |
| 54 | 7 | Patrick Novaretti | Monaco | 2:04.29 | |
| 55 | 3 | Frank Richardson | Nicaragua | 2:12.33 | |

### Final

| Rank | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | Bruce Furniss | United States | 1:50.29 | WR |
| | John Naber | United States | 1:50.50 | |
| | Jim Montgomery | United States | 1:50.58 | |
| 4 | Andrey Krylov | Soviet Union | 1:50.73 | |
| 5 | Klaus Steinbach | West Germany | 1:51.09 | |
| 6 | Peter Nocke | West Germany | 1:51.71 | |
| 7 | Gordon Downie | Great Britain | 1:52.78 | |
| 8 | Andrey Bogdanov | Soviet Union | 1:53.33 | |