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Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 200-metre individual medley
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The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 1 to 2 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.
France's Léon Marchand and China's Wang Shun were the considered the most likely to win gold and silver, respectively. Other medal contenders included the US' Carson Foster and Shaine Casas, Great Britain's Duncan Scott and Tom Dean, and Canada's Finlay Knox. All except Casas qualified for the final.
In the final, Wang was ahead at 50 metres, but Marchand overtook him and stayed ahead to claim gold with a new Olympic and European record of 1:54.06. Scott defended his silver medal from the previous Olympics with 1:55.31, whilst Wang won bronze with 1:56.00. The win gave Marchand his fourth gold medal of the games and Wang's third consecutive Olympic medal in the event.
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Background
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China's Wang Shun was the defending Olympic champion in the event, and he had the fastest qualifying time of 1:54.62, which he swam to win the event at the 2022 Asian Games.[1] France's Léon Marchand had the second fastest qualifying time of 1:54.82, which he swam to win the event at the 2023 World Championships. Marchand also won the event at the 2022 World Championships.[1] The US' Carson Foster recorded the third fastest qualifying time of 1:55.65 at the US Olympic Trials, where fellow American Shaine Casas also qualified with the fourth fastest time of 1:55.83.[1][2] Other medal contenders were Duncan Scott and Tom Dean of Great Britain who won silver and bronze at the previous Olympics, respectively, and also won silver and bronze at the 2023 World Championships.[1] Canada's Finlay Knox won the event at the 2024 World Championships.[a][1] Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Marchand would win and Wang would take second. SwimSwam predicted Scott would come third, while Swimming World predicted Foster would take third.[1][4]
Prior to the event, the world record was 1:54.00, set by Ryan Lochte of the United States in 2011. The Olympic record was 1:54.23, set by the USA's Michael Phelps in 2008.[1]
The event was held at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.[5]
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Qualification
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Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).[6] For this event, the OQT was 1:57.94. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[6][2] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 1:58.53 for this event.[6] In total, 16 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, seven athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.[2]
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Heats
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Four heats (preliminary rounds) took place on 1 August 2024, starting at 11:47.[b][7] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[8] Japan's Daiya Seto qualified with the fastest time of 1:57.48, Scott qualified second with 1:57.77 and Marchand qualified third with 1:57.86. Wang, Dean, Casas, Foster and Knox, among others, also all qualified.[9] For the first Olympics since London 2012, swimming under 2 minutes was not required to qualify.[10]
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Semifinals
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Two semifinals took place on 1 August, starting at 21:47.[11] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[8] Foster won the first semifinal with the second fastest time of 1:56.37, and Marchand won the second semifinal to qualify with the fastest time of 1:56.31. Scott, Wang, Seto, Dean, Knox and Italy's Alberto Razzetti made up the rest of the spots in the final. Casas led the second semifinal at 50 metres but finished fourth and did not qualify.[12]
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Final
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The final took place at 20:45 on 2 August.[13] France's president Emmanuel Macron attended in support of Marchand,[14] and the International Olympic Committee, BBC Sport and The Guardian all noted that the crowd strongly supported Marchand.[15][16][17] Track and field events in the Olympic athletics arena were delayed due to the crowd at that venue cheering for Marchand.[17]
Wang swam the fastest fly split of the field, reaching the 50 metre mark ahead of Marchand in second.[18] At 100 metres Marchand had taken the lead, which he extended over the breaststroke section of the race (100–150 m) and maintained over the freestyle section (150–200 m)[18][19] to win gold with a new Olympic and European record of 1:54.06.[20] During the breaststroke leg, Wang was also overtaken by Scott, who maintained the second position to win the silver medal with 1:55.31.[21] Wang won bronze with 1:56.00, ahead of Foster, who finished fourth with 1:56.10.[18][22]
Marchand's time of 1:54.06 was the second fastest swim ever in this event, 0.06 seconds behind Ryan Lochte's world record set in 2011.[20] The win gave Marchand his fourth gold medal of the games, having already won the 400 metre individual medley, the 200 metre butterfly and the 200 metre breaststroke events. He was the fourth swimmer in history to win four individual gold medals at a single Olympics, along with Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Kristin Otto.[23] Scott defended his silver from the previous Olympics and Wang's bronze was his third medal in this event at the Olympics.[24]
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Further reading
- Smirnova, Lena (3 August 2024). "Paris 2024 Olympics: 'Marchand Mania' captivates France as fans and athletes celebrate his flawless Olympic debut". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). Archived from the original on 22 September 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
Notes
- Several top swimmers chose not to attend the 2024 World Championships to focus on their Olympic training regime.[3]
- All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
References
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