# Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre individual medley

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 25 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Tamás Darnyi (HUN) | 2:00.56 | Strasbourg, France | 23 August 1987 |
| Olympic record | Alex Baumann (CAN) | 2:01.42 | Los Angeles, United States | 4 August 1984 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | Record |
| 24 September | Final A | Tamás Darnyi | Hungary | 2:00.17 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 8 | Tamás Darnyi | Hungary | 2:02.15 | Q |
| 2 | 8 | Vadim Yaroshchuk | Soviet Union | 2:02.77 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Patrick Kühl | East Germany | 2:03.77 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Mikhail Zubkov | Soviet Union | 2:03.79 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Gary Anderson | Canada | 2:04.00 | Q |
| 6 | 8 | Raik Hannemann | East Germany | 2:04.03 | Q |
| 7 | 8 | Peter Bermel | West Germany | 2:04.18 | Q |
| 8 | 7 | Robert Bruce | Australia | 2:04.31 | Q |
| 9 | 7 | David Wharton | United States | 2:04.64 | q |
| 10 | 7 | Jens-Peter Berndt | West Germany | 2:04.80 | q |
| 11 | 7 | Christophe Bordeau | France | 2:04.95 | q |
| 12 | 6 | Bill Stapleton | United States | 2:05.32 | q |
| 13 | 6 | Luca Sacchi | Italy | 2:05.45 | q |
| 14 | 7 | Charalambos Papanikolaou | Greece | 2:05.53 | q |
| 15 | 6 | John Davey | Great Britain | 2:05.55 | q |
| 16 | 7 | Neil Cochran | Great Britain | 2:05.56 | q |
| 17 | 8 | Rob Woodhouse | Australia | 2:05.87 | |
| 18 | 6 | Roberto Cassio | Italy | 2:05.88 | |
| 19 | 5 | Takahiro Fujimoto | Japan | 2:07.23 | |
| 20 | 6 | Gary O'Toole | Ireland | 2:07.77 | |
| 21 | 8 | Darren Ward | Canada | 2:07.84 | |
| 22 | 5 | Satoshi Takeda | Japan | 2:08.11 | |
| 23 | 7 | József Szabó | Hungary | 2:09.08 | |
| 24 | 5 | Javier Careaga | Mexico | 2:09.38 | |
| 25 | 5 | Rodrigo González | Mexico | 2:09.52 | |
| 26 | 4 | Júlio César Rebolal | Brazil | 2:09.62 | |
| 27 | 5 | Eðvarð Þór Eðvarðsson | Iceland | 2:10.18 | |
| 28 | 4 | Diogo Madeira | Portugal | 2:10.21 | |
| 29 | 5 | Renato Ramalho | Brazil | 2:10.32 | |
| 30 | 4 | René Concepcion | Philippines | 2:10.37 | |
| 31 | 5 | Xie Jun | China | 2:10.52 | |
| 31 | 5 | Martín López-Zubero | Spain | 2:10.52 | |
| 33 | 4 | Sidney Appelboom | Belgium | 2:10.55 | |
| 34 | 4 | David Lim Fong Jock | Singapore | 2:11.57 | |
| 35 | 3 | Lee Jae-soo | South Korea | 2:11.88 | |
| 36 | 8 | Sergio López Miró | Spain | 2:13.48 | |
| 37 | 3 | Richard Sam Bera | Indonesia | 2:13.90 | |
| 38 | 4 | Wirmandi Sugriat | Indonesia | 2:13.93 | |
| 39 | 3 | Hakan Eskioğlu | Turkey | 2:14.32 | |
| 40 | 4 | Yip Hor Man | Hong Kong | 2:14.65 | |
| 41 | 3 | Desmond Koh | Singapore | 2:14.77 | |
| 42 | 2 | Sultan Al-Otaibi | Kuwait | 2:15.63 | |
| 43 | 3 | Eric Greenwood | Costa Rica | 2:15.64 | |
| 44 | 2 | Horst Niehaus | Costa Rica | 2:16.16 | |
| 45 | 3 | Jonathan Sakovich | Guam | 2:16.70 | |
| 46 | 2 | Kraig Singleton | Virgin Islands | 2:16.93 | |
| 47 | 2 | Graham Thompson | Zimbabwe | 2:17.06 | |
| 48 | 3 | Arthur Li Kai Yien | Hong Kong | 2:17.10 | |
| 49 | 2 | Tsai Hsin-yen | Chinese Taipei | 2:17.95 | |
| 50 | 1 | Vaughan Smith | Zimbabwe | 2:18.07 | |
| 51 | 2 | Chiang Chi-li | Chinese Taipei | 2:18.76 | |
| 52 | 2 | Mouhamed Diop | Senegal | 2:20.74 | |
| 53 | 1 | Mohamed Bin Abid | United Arab Emirates | 2:29.08 | |
| 54 | 2 | Bruno N'Diaye | Senegal | 2:29.18 | |
| 55 | 1 | Mohamed Abdullah | United Arab Emirates | 2:31.44 | |
| 56 | 1 | Rami Kantari | Lebanon | 2:34.53 | |
| | 3 | Patrick Concepcion | Philippines | DNS | |
| | 8 | Jan Bidrman | Sweden | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| 9 | 4 | David Wharton | United States | 2:03.05 |
| 10 | 1 | John Davey | Great Britain | 2:04.17 |
| 11 | 8 | Neil Cochran | Great Britain | 2:05.44 |
| 12 | 3 | Christophe Bordeau | France | 2:05.51 |
| 13 | 2 | Luca Sacchi | Italy | 2:05.68 |
| 14 | 7 | Charalambos Papanikolaou | Greece | 2:06.61 |
| 15 | 5 | Jens-Peter Berndt | West Germany | 2:06.76 |
| 16 | 6 | Bill Stapleton | United States | 2:06.82 |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Tamás Darnyi | Hungary | 2:00.17 | WR |
| | 3 | Patrick Kühl | East Germany | 2:01.61 | |
| | 5 | Vadim Yaroshchuk | Soviet Union | 2:02.40 | |
| 4 | 6 | Mikhail Zubkov | Soviet Union | 2:02.92 | |
| 5 | 1 | Peter Bermel | West Germany | 2:03.81 | |
| 6 | 8 | Robert Bruce | Australia | 2:04.34 | |
| 7 | 7 | Raik Hannemann | East Germany | 2:04.82 | |
| 8 | 2 | Gary Anderson | Canada | 2:06.35 | |