Jump to content

Swimming at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Men's 200 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXV Olympiad
Gold medalist Yevgeny Sadovyi
VenuePiscines Bernat Picornell
Date26 July 1992 (heats & finals)
Competitors55 from 39 nations
Winning time1:46.70 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Yevgeny Sadovyi  Unified Team
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Anders Holmertz  Sweden
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Antti Kasvio  Finland
← 1988
1996 →

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1992 Summer Olympics took place on 26 July at the Piscines Bernat Picornell in Barcelona, Spain.[1] There were 55 competitors from 39 nations, with each nation having up to two swimmers (a limit in place since 1984).[2] The event was won by Yevgeny Sadovyi of the Unified Team; it was the first victory in the men's 200 metre freestyle by an athlete from the former Soviet Union since Moscow 1980. Anders Holmertz of Sweden repeated as the silver medalist, becoming the first man to win multiple medals in the event. Antti Kasvio earned a bronze medal in Finland's debut in the event.

Background

[edit]

This was the ninth appearance of the 200 metre freestyle event. It was first contested in 1900. It would be contested a second time, though at 220 yards, in 1904. After that, the event did not return until 1968; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games.[2]

Three of the 8 finalists from the 1988 Games returned: silver medalist Anders Holmertz of Sweden, fourth-place finisher Artur Wojdat of Poland, and sixth-place finisher Steffen Zesner of East Germany (now competing for unified Germany). Reigning World Champion and world record holder Giorgio Lamberti of Italy competed in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay but not this event after a bout of flu at the Italian trials kept him from qualifying. Reigning Olympic champion and Olympic record holder Duncan Armstrong of Australia also competed only in the relay. The other two medalists from the 1991 World Aquatics Championships were Zesner (silver) and Wojdat (bronze).[2]

Bolivia, Finland, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Slovenia, and Sri Lanka each made their debut in the event; some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team. Australia made its ninth appearance, the only nation to have competed in all prior editions of the event.

Competition format

[edit]

The competition used a two-round (heats, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 8 heats of up to 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. The 1984 event had also introduced a consolation or "B" final; the swimmers placing 9th through 16th in the heats competed in this "B" final for placing. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Records

[edit]

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

World record  Giorgio Lamberti (ITA) 1:46.69 Bonn, West Germany 15 August 1989
Olympic record  Duncan Armstrong (AUS) 1:47.25 Seoul, South Korea 19 September 1988

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Round Swimmer Nation Time Record
26 July Heat 8 Yevgeny Sadovyi  Unified Team 1:46.74 OR
26 July Final A Yevgeny Sadovyi  Unified Team 1:46.70 OR

Schedule

[edit]

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round
Sunday, 26 July 1992 11:30
18:45
Heats
Finals

Results

[edit]

Heats

[edit]

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).[3]

Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 6 5 Yevgeny Sadovyi  Unified Team 1:46.74 QA, OR
2 6 4 Anders Holmertz  Sweden 1:46.76 QA, NR
3 7 6 Vladimir Pyshnenko  Unified Team 1:47.94 QA
4 6 3 Steffen Zesner  Germany 1:48.12 QA
5 8 6 Antti Kasvio  Finland 1:48.31 QA
6 8 5 Joe Hudepohl  United States 1:48.52 QA
7 8 4 Artur Wojdat  Poland 1:48.60 QA
8 8 3 Doug Gjertsen  United States 1:48.65 QA
9 7 5 Roberto Gleria  Italy 1:49.19 QB, WD
10 8 1 Paul Palmer  Great Britain 1:49.21 QB
11 7 3 Kieren Perkins  Australia 1:49.26 QB
12 8 2 Ian Brown  Australia 1:49.32 QB
13 7 4 Massimo Trevisan  Italy 1:49.80 QB
14 7 1 Paul Howe  Great Britain 1:49.86 QB
15 6 8 Tommy Werner  Sweden 1:50.01 QB, WD
16 7 2 Christian Keller  Germany 1:50.07 QB
17 8 8 Turlough O'Hare  Canada 1:50.42 QB
18 4 6 John Steel  New Zealand 1:50.56 QB
19 8 7 Jarl Inge Melberg  Norway 1:50.70
20 6 6 Uğur Taner  Turkey 1:50.95
21 6 1 Cristiano Michelena  Brazil 1:51.04
22 6 2 Gustavo Borges  Brazil 1:51.42
23 7 7 Darren Ward  Canada 1:51.62
24 7 8 Stefaan Maene  Belgium 1:51.85
25 5 2 Robert Pinter  Romania 1:52.24
26 5 4 Trent Bray  New Zealand 1:52.49
27 6 7 Béla Szabados  Hungary 1:52.50
28 4 3 Vesa Hanski  Finland 1:53.17
29 5 3 Jure Bučar  Slovenia 1:53.19
30 5 6 Shigeo Ogata  Japan 1:53.42
31 5 1 Toshiaki Kurasawa  Japan 1:53.75
32 4 4 Franz Mortensen  Denmark 1:53.86
33 3 4 Arthur Li Kai Yien  Hong Kong 1:54.35
34 4 7 Yves Clausse  Luxembourg 1:54.45
35 4 1 Nace Majcen  Slovenia 1:54.57
36 3 3 Jeffrey Ong  Malaysia 1:55.37
37 5 5 Xie Jun  China 1:55.51
38 4 2 Ivor Le Roux  Zimbabwe 1:56.17
39 3 5 Kenneth Yeo  Singapore 1:57.80
40 3 7 Gustavo Bucaro  Guatemala 1:58.13
41 3 1 Kelvin Li  Hong Kong 1:59.40
42 3 6 Benoît Fleurot  Mauritius 1:59.73
43 2 6 Plutarco Castellanos  Honduras 1:59.91
44 2 3 Helder Torres  Guatemala 2:00.04
45 2 5 Frank Flores  Guam 2:00.48
46 3 2 Luis Medina  Bolivia 2:00.87
47 1 3 Émile Lahoud  Lebanon 2:01.06
48 1 4 Hussein Al-Sadiq  Saudi Arabia 2:01.31
49 2 2 Julian Bolling  Sri Lanka 2:02.01
50 1 6 Carl Probert  Fiji 2:04.52
51 2 7 Laurent Alfred  Virgin Islands 2:04.59
52 1 5 Daniele Casadei  San Marino 2:06.14
53 1 2 Ahmad Faraj  United Arab Emirates 2:07.61
54 1 7 Jean-Paul Adam  Seychelles 2:09.99
5 7 Zoltán Szilágyi  Hungary DSQ
2 4 Nayef Al-Hasawi  Kuwait DNS

Finals

[edit]

There were two finals, one for the top 8 swimmers and one for the next 8 (9th through 16th).[4]

Final B

[edit]
Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time
9 4 Paul Palmer  Great Britain 1:48.92
10 5 Kieren Perkins  Australia 1:49.75
11 3 Ian Brown  Australia 1:49.77
12 6 Massimo Trevisan  Italy 1:49.85
13 2 Paul Howe  Great Britain 1:50.15
14 7 Christian Keller  Germany 1:50.46
15 1 Turlough O'Hare  Canada 1:51.01
16 8 John Steel  New Zealand 1:51.12

Final A

[edit]
Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 4 Yevgeny Sadovyi  Unified Team 1:46.70 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 Anders Holmertz  Sweden 1:46.86
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 2 Antti Kasvio  Finland 1:47.63 NR
4 1 Artur Wojdat  Poland 1:48.24
5 3 Vladimir Pyshnenko  Unified Team 1:48.32
6 7 Joe Hudepohl  United States 1:48.36
7 6 Steffen Zesner  Germany 1:48.84
8 8 Doug Gjertsen  United States 1:50.57

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Swimming at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games: Men's 200 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "200 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Barcelona 1992: Swimming – Men's 200m Freestyle Heats" (PDF). Barcelona 1992. LA84 Foundation. p. 359. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  4. ^ "Barcelona 1992: Swimming – Men's 200m Freestyle Finals" (PDF). Barcelona 1992. LA84 Foundation. p. 359. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
[edit]