The men's 200 metre butterfly 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 30–31 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 ...

. For the second time at the 2012 Olympic Games,

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 ...

fell short in his attempt to win the same event three consecutive times, due to a spectacular performance from South Africa's

Chad le Clos Chad Guy Bertrand le Clos, OIS (born 12 April 1992) is a South African competitive swimmer who is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth Games champion. He is the African record, Commonwealth record, and South African record holder in the short ...

. Phelps was considered a favorite to win the race, but Le Clos came from third at the final turn to edge out the superstar (and his personal hero) by five-hundredths of a second (0.05) for the gold medal and an African record in 1:52.96. By finishing with a time of 1:53.01, Phelps earned his second silver medal of the games, bringing his overall total to eighteen, and matching

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 ...

's record of eighteen medals as the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time. Japan's

Takeshi Matsuda is a retired Japanese Olympic, Asian and National Record holding swimmer. He swam for Japan at the 2004, 2008 Olympics, 2012 Olympics, and 2016 Olympics, winning four medals. At the 2008 Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the men's 200 m bu ...

managed to repeat his bronze from Beijing four years earlier in 1:53.21. Austria's

Dinko Jukić Dinko Jukić (born 9 January 1989 in Dubrovnik) is a retired medley and butterfly swimmer from Austria of Croatian origin. Biography He competed for Austria at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, finishing in tenth place in the men's ...

, who claimed the top seed earlier in the prelims, missed the podium by over a body length with a fourth-place time and a national record in 1:54.35. U.S. swimmer

Tyler Clary Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

finished fifth in 1:55.06 to hold off a close battle from Serbia's

Velimir Stjepanović Velimir Stjepanović (Serbian Cyrillic: Велимир Стјепановић; born 7 August 1993) is a Serbian professional swimmer currently representing DC Trident at the International Swimming League. He has won gold medals at the European ...

(1:55.07) and Poland's three-time Olympic finalist

Paweł Korzeniowski Paweł Korzeniowski (born 9 July 1985) is a Polish competitive swimmer who won the 200-meter butterfly at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal. He also competes in the freestyle events. Initially trained by Paweł Woźnicki in O� ...

(1:55.08) by a hundredth of a second (0.01) each. China's Chen Yin rounded out the historic finale with an eighth-place time in 1:55.18. Hungary's

László Cseh László Cseh (; born 3 December 1985) is a retired Hungarian competitive swimmer and six-time Olympic medalist. He is a 33-time European Champion. His father, László Cseh Sr., also represented Hungary at the Olympics in swimming. In 2020 ...

missed a chance to reach the final roster and defend his Olympic silver medal after placing twelfth in the semifinals (1:55.88).

Records

Prior to this competition, the world and Olympic records were:

Results

Heats

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

References

External links

NBC Olympics Coverage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's 200 metre butterfly Men's 00200 metre butterfly Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics