Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

Double Asian Games champion Dmitriy Balandin surprised the field of breaststrokers from the outside to become Kazakhstan's first ever gold medalist in swimming.[2][3] Coming from behind in lane eight, he produced a late surge about the midway of the final leg to upset the pool for an unexpected Olympic triumph with a 2:07.46.[4][5] U.S. breaststroker Josh Prenot nearly charged to the front at the final stretch, before fading to a runner-up finish in 2:07.53, a 0.07 of a second behind the Kazakh.[6] Meanwhile, Russia's Anton Chupkov claimed the final podium spot, putting up a time of 2:07.70 to take the bronze.[7][8]

Great Britain's Andrew Willis improved upon his eighth-place feat from London 2012 to finish fourth with a 2:07.78, narrowly missing out of medals by 0.08 of a second.[9] Japan's Yasuhiro Koseki seized a comfortable lead throughout the majority of the race, but slipped down the home stretch to fifth in 2:07.80.[10] Koseki's teammate Ippei Watanabe posted a sixth-place time in 2:07.87, while defending World champion Marco Koch of Germany (2:08.00) and Prenot's fellow countryman Kevin Cordes (2:08.34) rounded out the top eight.[8]

Earlier in the semifinals, Watanabe threw down a top-seeded time of 2:07.22 to slice 0.07 seconds off the existing Olympic record set by Hungary's defending champion Dániel Gyurta, who had narrowly missed the top sixteen field in the heats.[11][12]

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

World record	Akihiro Yamaguchi (JPN)	2:07.01	Gifu, Japan	15 September 2012	[13][14]
Olympic record	Dániel Gyurta (HUN)	2:07.28	London, United Kingdom	1 August 2012	[15]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
9 August	Semifinal 1	Ippei Watanabe	Japan	2:07.22	OR

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.[1]