The men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay event at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

took place on 31 July at the

London Aquatics Centre The London Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility with two swimming pools and a diving pool in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. The centre, designed by architect Zaha Hadid as one of the main venues of the 2012 Summer Olymp ...

London, United Kingdom London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The U.S. men's team smashed the seven-minute barrier in

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

to defend the Olympic title in the event, and most importantly, to keep

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold me ...

' all-time record alive. The American foursome of

Ryan Lochte Ryan Steven Lochte ( ; born August 3, 1984) is an American professional swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. Along with Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jenny Thompson, he is the second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured by to ...

(1:45.15),

Conor Dwyer Conor James Dwyer (born January 10, 1989) is a former American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. He competed in freestyle and medley events, and won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. 4×200-meter freestyle relay team a ...

(1:45.23),

Ricky Berens Richard "Ricky" Berens (born April 21, 1988) is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic gold medalist, world champion, and current world record-holder. As a member of the U.S. national team, he holds the world record in the 4× ...

(1:45.27), and Phelps (1:44.05) dominated the race from the start to put together a blazing fast finish in 6:59.70. As the Americans defended their Olympic title, Phelps also surpassed Soviet gymnast

Larisa Latynina Larisa Semyonovna Latynina (russian: link=yes, Лариса Семёновна Латынина, née Diriy, Дирий; born 27 December 1934) is a former Soviet artistic gymnast. Between 1956 and 1964 she won 14 individual Olympic medals and ...

to become the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time with a remarkable career tally of nineteen medals (15 golds, 2 silver, and 2 bronze). France's

Amaury Leveaux Amaury Raymond Leveaux (born 2 December 1985) is a French swimmer from Belfort. Leveaux is a former world record holder in the 100 m freestyle (short course – 44.94 sec), the 50 m freestyle (short course – 20.48 sec), and the 50 m butterfl ...

(1:46.70),

Grégory Mallet Grégory Mallet (born 21 March 1984)
from www.sports-reference.com; retrieved 2009-07-22. i ...

(1:46.83),

Clément Lefert Clément Lefert (born 26 September 1987 in Nice) is a retired French Olympic champion in swimming. He won a gold medal at the London 2012 Summer Olympics in the 4 × 100 meters freestyle relay, with teammates Amaury Leveaux, Fabien Gilot, and ...

(1:46.00), and

Yannick Agnel Yannick Agnel (born 9 June 1992) is a French former competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle events, and is a three-time Olympic medalist. In his Olympic debut at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, he won gold in the 200-meter freesty ...

(1:43.24, the fastest split in the field) trailed behind their newest rivals in the pool by a couple of seconds to take home the silver in 7:02.77. Meanwhile, China's

Hao Yun Hao Yun (; born 23 June 1995 in Hebei) is a Chinese swimmer. At the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held fro ...

(1:47.12),

Li Yunqi Li Yunqi (; born August 28, 1993) is a Chinese swimmer. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Men's 200 metre freestyle, finishing in 23rd place in the heats, failing to qualify for the semifinals. See also * China at the 2012 ...

(1:46.46), and

Jiang Haiqi Jiang Haiqi (; born January 17, 1992) is a retired Chinese swimmer and current Chinese water police. He competed for China at the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also kno ...

(1:47.17) struggled to keep their momentum throughout the race before

Sun Yang Sun Yang (; ; born 1 December 1991) is a Chinese Olympic and world-record-holding competitive swimmer. In 2012, Sun became the first Chinese athlete to win an Olympic swimming gold medal. Sun is the first male swimmer in history to earn Ol ...

dove into the pool at the final exchange. Sun then produced an astonishing anchor of 1:45.55 to deliver the Chinese team a historic relay bronze medal in 7:06.30, holding off the aggressive German foursome of

Paul Biedermann Paul Biedermann (; born 7 August 1986) is a German retired competitive swimmer, a 200 and 400 metre freestyle long course world champion. He holds the long course and short course world records in the 200 meters freestyle, and the long course wo ...

(1:46.15),

Dimitri Colupaev Dimitri Colupaev (born 29 January 1990) is a Moldovan-born German swimmer. He competed in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay event at the 2012 Summer Olympics and finished fourth. At the 2012 European Aquatics Championships, Colupaev and his Germa ...

(1:46.36),

Tim Wallburger Tim Wallburger (born 18 August 1989, Dresden) is a German swimmer. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay and finished in fourth place. He won a silver and a gold medal in this event at the European championship ...

(1:47.48), and

Clemens Rapp Clemens Andreas Rapp (born 14 July 1989 in Weingarten) is a German swimmer. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 200 m freestyle, finishing in 24th place in the heats, failing to qualify for the semifinals. His team was placed fourth ...

(1:46.60) by 29-hundredths of a second with a fourth-place finish (7:06.59). Australia's

Thomas Fraser-Holmes Thomas William Fraser-Holmes (born 9 October 1991) is an Australian swimmer who made his international debut in 2010. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he won individual bronze in the m ...

(1:46.13),

Kenrick Monk Kenrick John Monk (born 1 January 1988) is an Australian swimmer who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, as well as at an international level through the FINA World Aquatics Championships, Pan ...

(1:46.67),

Ned McKendry Edward "Ned" McKendry (born 4 July 1994) is a competition swimmer who represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an internatio ...

(1:47.60), and

Ryan Napoleon Ryan Napoleon (born 26 May 1990) is an Australian freestyle swimmer and Commonwealth Games medallist. Career Youth Swimming Napoleon won gold in the 4×200m freestyle relay, silver in the 4×100m medley relay and bronze in the 100m butterfly ...

(1:46.60) finished fifth in 7:07.00, while Great Britain (7:09.33), South Africa (7:09.65), and Hungary (7:13.66) also vied for an Olympic medal to round out a historic finish.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

Results

Heats

Final

References

External links

NBC Olympics Coverage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay Men's 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics