The men's 200 metre breaststroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1920 Summer Olympics programme. It was the third appearance of the event.

A total of 24 swimmers from 11 nations competed in the event, which was held from Thursday, August 26 to Sunday, August 29, 1920.

Despite Erich Rademacher from Germany being one of the fastest breaststroker in the world at the time, he was not able to compete due to Germany's role in WWI. Despite this, he would establish his dominance in the event by laying consistent claim to the world record through most of the next decade.Barney, David E., and Robert K. Barney. "A long night's journey into day: the Odyssey of the butterfly stroke in international swimming." Proceedings: International Symposium for Olympic Research, Oct. 2006, pp. 65+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A176818711/AONE?u=googlescholar&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=535b6e53. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1920 Summer Olympics.

World record 2:56.6 Percy Courtman Garston (GBR) July 28, 1914 Olympic record 3:01.8 Walter Bathe Stockholm (SWE) July 12, 1912

Results

Quarterfinals

Thursday, August 26, 1920: The fastest two in each heat and the fastest third-placed from across the heats advanced.

Heat 1

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:09.8 Q 2 3:12.2 Q 3 3:18.0 4 5

Heat 2

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:16.0 Q 2 3:16.4 Q 3 3:16.6 q 4 5 6

Heat 3

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:04.0 Q 2 3:11.6 Q 3 3:22.6 4 5 6

Heat 4

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:12.8 Q 2 3:18.8 Q 3 3:20.8 4 5 6 7

Semifinals

Saturday, August 28, 1920: The fastest two in each semi-final and the faster of the two third-placed swimmer advanced to the final. Since both third-place swimmers had the same time, both advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:10.8 Q 2 3:14.6 Q 3 3:16.0 q 4 5

Semifinal 2

Place Swimmer Time Qual. 1 3:09.0 Q 2 3:12.4 Q 3 3:16.0 q 4

Final

Sunday, August 29, 1920:

Place Swimmer Time 1 3:04.4 2 3:09.2 3 3:12.2 4 5 — DNF

References

Notes