Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre backstroke
| Men's 200 metre backstroke at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Paris La Défense Arena after it was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events | |||||||||||||
| Venue | Paris La Défense Arena | ||||||||||||
| Dates | 31 July 2024 (Heats and Semis) 1 August 2024 (Final) | ||||||||||||
| Competitors | 29 from 22 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 1:54.26 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Qualification | |||
| Freestyle | |||
| 50 m | men | women | |
| 100 m | men | women | |
| 200 m | men | women | |
| 400 m | men | women | |
| 800 m | men | women | |
| 1500 m | men | women | |
| Backstroke | |||
| 100 m | men | women | |
| 200 m | men | women | |
| Breaststroke | |||
| 100 m | men | women | |
| 200 m | men | women | |
| Butterfly | |||
| 100 m | men | women | |
| 200 m | men | women | |
| Individual medley | |||
| 200 m | men | women | |
| 400 m | men | women | |
| Freestyle relay | |||
| 4 × 100 m | men | women | |
| 4 × 200 m | men | women | |
| Medley relay | |||
| 4 × 100 m | men | mixed | women |
| Marathon | |||
| 10 km | men | women | |
The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 31 July to 1 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.[1] Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, each competitor had to swim four lengths of the pool.
The USA's Ryan Murphy and Hungary's Hubert Kós were the favourites going into the event. Other contenders were Great Britain's Luke Greenbank, Hugo González of Spain and Roman Mityukov of Switzerland. Greenbank was eliminated in the heats after getting disqualified for swimming more than 15 metres underwater, while Murphy did not qualify for the final.
In the final, Greece's Apostolos Christou let for the first three quarters of the race, but Kós overtook him on the final 50 metres to win gold with a time of 1:54.26. Christou claimed the silver medal with a national record of 1:54.82, and Mityukov won the bronze with another national record of 1:56.85. France's fourth place finisher, Mewen Tomac also broke his country's national record with 1:55.38, while the seventh place finisher, Pieter Coetze, broke the African record with 1:55.60.
Background
[edit]The USA's Ryan Murphy won the event at the 2016 Olympics, won silver at the 2020 Games and won the event at the 2022 World Championships. At the 2023 World Championships, Hungary's Hubert Kós won gold, with Murphy taking silver. Murphy qualified with for the Paris Olympics with a time of 1:54.33 at the US Olympic Trials—the fastest time of the season, where Keaton Jones also qualified with 1:54.61—the third fastest time of the season.[2]
Other competitors included Great Britain's defending Olympic bronze medallist Luke Greenbank, 2024 World Champion Hugo González of Spain, the 2023 Championships bronze medallist and 2024 Championships silver medallist Roman Mityukov of Switzerland, and 2024 Championships bronze medallist Pieter Coetze of South Africa. Russia's defending Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov was not eligible to compete.[a][2]
SwimSwam predicted Murphy would win and Kós would take second, while Swimming World predicted Kós would win and Murphy would take second. Both predicted Hugo González would take third.[2][5]
Qualification
[edit]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 1:57.50. 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][7] Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 01:58.09 for this event.[6] In total, 27 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, two athletes qualified through universality places and one athlete qualified through achieving the OCT.[7]
| Swimmer | Country | Time | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hubert Kós |  Hungary
|
01:54:14 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Ryan Murphy |  United States
|
01:54:33 | 2024 United States Olympic Trials |
| Hugo González |  Spain
|
01:54:51 | 2024 Spanish Summer Open Championships |
| Keaton Jones | United States
|
01:54:61 | 2024 United States Olympic Trials |
| Roman Mityukov |  Switzerland
|
01:55:34 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Xu Jiayu |  China
|
01:55:37 | 2022 Asian Games |
| Apostolos Siskos |  Greece
|
01:55:42 | 2024 European Championships |
| Mewen Tomac |  France
|
01:55:54 | 2024 French Elite Championships |
| Bradley Woodward |  Australia
|
01:55:56 | 2023 Japan Open |
| Ádám Telegdy | Hungary
|
01:55:57 | 2024 Hungarian Championships |
Heats
[edit]Three heats took place on 31 July 2024, starting at 11:21.[b][8] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[9] Mityukov qualified with the fastest time of 1:56.62. Kós, Murphy, González, Jones and Coetze all qualified.[10]
Greenbank won the fourth heat but was disqualified for swimming more than 15 metres underwater off the start.[11][12] China's Xu Jaiyu, the sixth seed for the event, did not show up to his heat, without giving an explanation.[13][10] Denilson Cyprianos of Zimbabwe lowered his own national record in the event to 2:01.91.[14]
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | Roman Mityukov | Switzerland |
1:56.62 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 2 | Lukas Märtens |  Germany |
1:56.89 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | 6 | Pieter Coetze |  South Africa |
1:56.92 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 4 | Hubert Kós | Hungary |
1:57.01 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 4 | Ryan Murphy | United States |
1:57.03 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 4 | Hugo González | Spain |
1:57.08 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 7 | Apostolos Christou | Greece |
1:57.18 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 7 | Hidekazu Takehara |  Japan |
1:57.23 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 3 | Apostolos Siskos | Greece |
1:57.26 | Q |
| 10 | 3 | 2 | Lee Ju-ho |  South Korea |
1:57.39 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 5 | Keaton Jones | United States |
1:57.54 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 7 | Oliver Morgan |  Great Britain |
1:57.56 | Q |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | Mewen Tomac | France |
1:57.62 | Q |
| 14 | 2 | 1 | Thomas Ceccon |  Italy |
1:57.69 | Q |
| 15 | 2 | 2 | Yohann Ndoye-Brouard | France |
1:57.92 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 6 | Ádám Telegdy | Hungary |
1:57.98 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | 1 | Ksawery Masiuk |  Poland |
1:58.01 | |
| 18 | 1 | 4 | Se-Bom Lee | Australia |
1:58.30 | |
| 19 | 4 | 8 | Blake Tierney |  Canada |
1:58.39 | |
| 20 | 3 | 6 | Oleksandr Zheltyakov |  Ukraine |
1:58.41 | |
| 21 | 1 | 5 | Kane Follows |  New Zealand |
1:58.63 | |
| 22 | 1 | 3 | David Gerchik |  Israel |
1:58.79 | |
| 23 | 2 | 8 | Kai van Westering |  Netherlands |
1:58.99 | |
| 24 | 3 | 8 | Matteo Restivo | Italy |
1:59.05 | |
| 25 | 2 | 3 | Bradley Woodward | Australia |
2:00.50 | |
| 26 | 1 | 6 | Yeziel Morales |  Puerto Rico |
2:00.60 | |
| 27 | 1 | 2 | Ziyad Saleem |  Sudan |
2:01.44 | |
| 28 | 1 | 7 | Denilson Cyprianos |  Zimbabwe |
2:01.91 | NR |
| 2 | 5 | Xu Jiayu | China |
DNS | ||
| 4 | 1 | Luke Greenbank | Great Britain |
DSQ |
Semifinals
[edit]Two semifinals took place on 31 July, starting at 21:47.[15] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[9] Kós won the first semifinal with 1:55.96, and Mityukov won the second with 1:56.05.[16] Murphy did not qualify.[17]
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 5 | Hubert Kós | Hungary |
1:55.96 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | Roman Mityukov | Switzerland |
1:56.05 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | Pieter Coetze | South Africa |
1:56.09 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | 4 | Lukas Märtens | Germany |
1:56.33 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | 6 | Apostolos Christou | Greece |
1:56.33 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 7 | Keaton Jones | United States |
1:56.39 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 1 | Mewen Tomac | France |
1:56.43 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | 3 | Hugo González | Spain |
1:56.52 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | 1 | Thomas Ceccon | Italy |
1:56.59 | |
| 10 | 2 | 3 | Ryan Murphy | United States |
1:56.62 | |
| 11 | 1 | 2 | Lee Ju-ho | South Korea |
1:56.76 | |
| 12 | 1 | 7 | Oliver Morgan | Great Britain |
1:57.28 | |
| 13 | 1 | 8 | Ádám Telegdy | Hungary |
1:57.58 | |
| 14 | 2 | 2 | Apostolos Siskos | Greece |
1:57.77 | |
| 15 | 1 | 6 | Hidekazu Takehara | Japan |
1:58.03 | |
| 16 | 2 | 8 | Yohann Ndoye-Brouard | France |
1:58.65 |
Final
[edit]| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Men's 200 metre backstroke final |
The final took place at 20:37 on 31 July.[18] Greece's Apostolos Christou led the race at the 50 metre, 100 metre and 150 metre splits. At the 150 metre split he was over a second ahead of Kós in second.[19][20] Over the final 50 metres, Kós overtook Christou to claim the gold medal, finishing with a time of 1:54.26. Christou won the silver with a national record of 1:54.82, and Mityukov won the bronze with a national record of 1:54.85.[19] France's Mewen Tomac finished fourth with 1:55.38 which was also a new national record.[21] Coetze finished seventh with 1:55.60, which broke the African record set by George Du Rand in 2009.[22] Rand's record was set with a supersuit, before they were banned in 2009.[23]
Kós' win made him the second Hungarian Olympic gold medallist.[24][25] Christou's second place finish made him the first Greek Olympic medallist in pool swimming since the first Olympics in 1896.[26] SwimSwam said his performance was "one of the biggest surprises of the meet", with him being the oldest swimmer in the final and having the slowest personal best.[27]
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
4 | Hubert Kós | Hungary |
1:54.26 | |
 |
2 | Apostolos Christou | Greece |
1:54.82 | NR |
 |
5 | Roman Mityukov | Switzerland |
1:54.85 | NR |
| 4 | 1 | Mewen Tomac | France |
1:55.38 | NR |
| 5 | 7 | Keaton Jones | United States |
1:55.39 | |
| 6 | 8 | Hugo González | Spain |
1:55.47 | |
| 7 | 3 | Pieter Coetze | South Africa |
1:55.60 | AF |
| 8 | 6 | Lukas Märtens | Germany |
1:55.97 |
| Name | 50 metre split | 100 metre split | 150 metre split | Time | Stroke rate (strokes/min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubert Kós | 00:27.06 | 00:56.30 | 01:25.38 | 1:54.26 | 40.4 |
| Apostolos Christou | 00:26.39 | 00:55.14 | 01:24.36 | 1:54.82 | 40.3 |
| Roman Mityukov | 00:27.16 | 00:56.36 | 01:25.75 | 1:54.85 | 43.5 |
| Mewen Tomac | 00:27.25 | 00:56.56 | 01:26.44 | 1:55.38 | 43.1 |
| Keaton Jones | 00:27.31 | 00:56.40 | 01:26.09 | 1:55.39 | 42.8 |
| Hugo González | 00:26.99 | 00:55.89 | 01:25.72 | 1:55.47 | 41.0 |
| Pieter Coetze | 00:26.83 | 00:56.53 | 01:25.73 | 1:55.60 | 41.7 |
| Lukas Märtens | 00:27.11 | 00:56.60 | 01:26.40 | 1:55.97 | 41.3 |
Notes
[edit]- ^ World Aquatics required Russian athletes to have not shown any support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine to be able to compete as neutral athletes at the Games.[3] Rylov had participated in a pro-war rally so was not elegible.[4]
- ^ All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
References
[edit]- ^ Burgaud, Florian (22 July 2024). "From concert hall and rugby stadium to Olympic swimming pool arena in a matter of weeks, the metamorphosis of the Paris La Défense Arena is complete". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). Archived from the original on 4 August 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
- ^ a b c Kaufman, Sophie (16 July 2024). "2024 Olympic Previews: Ryan Murphy Aims To Reclaim 200 Back Gold". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 12 August 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Sutherland, James (4 September 2023). "World Aquatics Approves Participation of Russian, Belarusian Athletes As Neutrals". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 8 December 2024. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
- ^ Penland, Spencer (22 April 2022). "FINA Suspends Tokyo 2020 Gold Medalist Evgeny Rylov for 9 Months". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 6 December 2023. Retrieved 11 February 2025.
- ^ Rieder, David (24 July 2024). "Olympic Swimming Predictions, Day 6: Kos-Murphy, McIntosh-Smith Among Gold-Medal Matchups". Swimming World. Archived from the original on 28 July 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ a b c "Paris 2024 – Swimming Info". World Aquatics. 5 April 2022. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
- ^ a b c Entries list - Swimming, World Aquatics, archived from the original on 12 July 2024, retrieved 18 December 2024
- ^ a b "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ a b "Olympic swimming rules: How can swimmers qualify for finals and win medals - format explained". olympics.com. International Olympic Committee (IOC). 24 July 2024. Archived from the original on 21 August 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
- ^ a b Penland, Spencer (31 July 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics: Day 5 Prelims Live Recap". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 23 December 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Savage, Sean (31 July 2024). "Luke Greenbank disqualified, Xu Jiayu missing at Olympic swimming". New York Post. Archived from the original on 1 August 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Nahal, Alumbir (31 July 2024). "Why did Team GB swimmer Luke Greenbank get disqualified? What is the underwater rule? Why was the rule introduced?". Eurosport. Archived from the original on 31 July 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Miller, Nicole (31 July 2024). "#6 Seed, 100 Backstroke Silver Medalist Xu Jiayu No-Shows 200 Backstroke Heat". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 13 August 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Bush, Bradley (31 July 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics Data Dive: Day 5 Prelims". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ a b "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ Penland, Spencer (1 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics: Day 5 Finals Live Recap". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 24 December 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Pelshaw, Anya (31 July 2024). "Ryan Murphy Misses Men's 200 Back Final After 10th Place Finish In Semifinals". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 12 August 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ a b "Results" (PDF). olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
- ^ a b Wild, Mark (1 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics: Day 6 Finals Live Recap". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 24 September 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ a b Bodard, Simon; Decron, Nathan; Dernoncourt, Eric; Hui, Pierre; Jambu, Clément; Loisel, Camille; Pla, Robin; Raineteau, Yannis. "Jeux Olympiques 2024: Analyses de course des Finales" (PDF). French Swimming Federation. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 August 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
- ^ Kaufman, Sophie (1 August 2024). "Paris 2024, Euro Recap: Apostolos Christou Wins Greece's First Medal In The Pool Since 1896". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Sutherland, James (1 August 2024). "Pieter Coetze Breaks Super-Suited African Record With 1:55.60 200 Back". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 7 August 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Roberts, Jacob (9 February 2017). "Winning Skin". Distillations (magazine). Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Bush, Bradley (1 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics Day 6 Finals: Fun Facts". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 20 August 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Baldwin, Alan (1 August 2024). "Swimming-Hungary's Kos wins men's 200m backstroke gold". Reuters. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Bush, Bradley (1 August 2024). "2024 Paris Olympics Day 6 Finals: Fun Facts". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 20 August 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
- ^ Kaufman, Sophie (1 August 2024). "Paris 2024, Euro Recap: Apostolos Christou Wins Greece's First Medal In The Pool Since 1896". SwimSwam. Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 14 February 2025.
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