# Swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre butterfly

The men's 200-metre butterfly event at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships took place between 23 July – 24 July. Both the heats and semifinals were held on 23 July with the heats being held in the morning session and the semifinals being held in the evening session. The final was held on 24 July.
In the final, American swimmer Michael Phelps broke his own world record with a time of 1:54.58, bettering his previous record of 1:54.92. For Phelps, this was also his first world title since finishing 5th in the same event at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

## Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows:
| World record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:54.92 | Austin, United States | 30 March 2001 |
| Championship record | Melvin Stewart (USA) | 1:55.69 | Perth, Australia | 12 January 1991 |
The following record was established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | Record |
| 23 July | Semifinal 2 | Franck Esposito | France | 1:55.03 | CR |
| 23 July | Semifinal 2 | Tom Malchow | United States | 1:55.03 | CR |
| 24 July | Final | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.58 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Franck Esposito | France | 1:56.05 | Q |
| 2 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:56.11 | Q |
| 3 | Tom Malchow | United States | 1:56.13 | Q |
| 4 | Takashi Yamamoto | Japan | 1:57.76 | Q |
| 5 | Justin Norris | Australia | 1:57.79 | Q |
| 6 | Thomas Rupprath | Germany | 1:57.80 | Q |
| 7 | Anatoly Polyakov | Russia | 1:58.27 | Q |
| 8 | Denys Sylantyev | Ukraine | 1:58.41 | Q |
| 9 | Ioan Gherghel | Romania | 1:58.71 | Q |
| 10 | Andrew Livingston | Puerto Rico | 1:58.72 | Q |
| 11 | Juan José Veloz | Mexico | 1:58.85 | Q |
| 12 | Christian Galenda | Italy | 1:59.31 | Q |
| 13 | Ioannis Drymonakos | Greece | 1:59.41 | Q |
| 14 | Tero Välimaa | Finland | 1:59.77 | Q |
| 15 | William Kirby | Australia | 2:00.12 | Q |
| 16 | Viktor Bodrogi | Hungary | 2:00.54 | Q |
| 17 | Alessio Boggiatto | Italy | 2:01.32 | |
| 18 | Xie Xufeng | China | 2:01.37 | |
| 19 | Mickey Halika | Israel | 2:01.67 | |
| 20 | Simão Morgado | Portugal | 2:02.10 | |
| 21 | Hisayoshi Tanaka | Japan | 2:02.72 | |
| 22 | Dean Kent | New Zealand | 2:03.09 | |
| 23 | Zoran Lazarevski | Macedonia | 2:03.71 | |
| 24 | Jacob Fraire | Mexico | 2:03.72 | |
| 25 | Joe Jae-hyon | South Korea | 2:03.95 | |
| 26 | Yoo Jung-nam | South Korea | 2:03.96 | |
| 27 | Benjamin Gan | Singapore | 2:04.19 | |
| 28 | Aleksandar Miladinovski | Macedonia | 2:04.22 | |
| 29 | Raazik Nordien | South Africa | 2:05.29 | |
| 30 | Georgi Palazov | Bulgaria | 2:05.31 | |
| 31 | Sergio Cabrera | Paraguay | 2:06.51 | |
| 32 | Sergio Rafael De Leon Alfaro | Guatemala | 2:06.81 | |
| 33 | Jiang Bing-Ru | Chinese Taipei | 2:08.73 | |
| 34 | Chen Jui-Chen | Chinese Taipei | 2:08.97 | |
| 35 | Oleg Lyashko | Uzbekistan | 2:09.90 | |
| 36 | Carlos Melendez | El Salvador | 2:11.38 | |
| 37 | Bertrand Bristol | Seychelles | 2:12.28 | |
| 38 | Zulfiqar Ali | Pakistan | 2:15.78 | |
| 39 | Obaid Ahmed Al Jassimi | United Arab Emirates | 2:17.03 | |
| 40 | Zaid Saeed | Iraq | 2:29.74 | |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Franck Esposito | France | 1:55.03 | Q, CR |
| 1 | Tom Malchow | United States | 1:55.03 | Q, CR |
| 3 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:56.41 | Q |
| 4 | Denys Sylantyev | Ukraine | 1:56.51 | Q |
| 5 | Takashi Yamamoto | Japan | 1:56.85 | Q |
| 6 | Justin Norris | Australia | 1:56.98 | Q |
| 7 | Anatoly Polyakov | Russia | 1:57.34 | Q |
| 8 | Andrew Livingston | Puerto Rico | 1:57.94 | Q |
| 9 | Ioan Gherghel | Romania | 1:57.96 | |
| 10 | Thomas Rupprath | Germany | 1:58.15 | |
| 11 | Christian Galenda | Italy | 1:58.20 | |
| 12 | Viktor Bodrogi | Hungary | 1:58.60 | |
| 13 | Juan José Veloz | Mexico | 1:59.06 | |
| 14 | William Kirby | Australia | 1:59.52 | |
| 15 | Ioannis Drymonakos | Greece | 1:59.56 | |
| 16 | Tero Välimaa | Finland | 2:01.37 | |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.58 | WR |
| | Tom Malchow | United States | 1:55.28 | |
| | Anatoly Polyakov | Russia | 1:55.68 | |
| 4 | Franck Esposito | France | 1:55.71 | |
| 5 | Takashi Yamamoto | Japan | 1:55.84 | |
| 6 | Denys Sylantyev | Ukraine | 1:56.71 | |
| 7 | Justin Norris | Australia | 1:57.18 | |
| 8 | Andrew Livingston | Puerto Rico | 1:58.68 | |
Key: WR = World record