Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

Swimming events at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m		women
1500 m	men
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
Medley relay
4×100 m	men	women

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place August 29. 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.

Medalists

Gold	Mark Spitz United States
Silver	Steve Genter United States
Bronze	Werner Lampe West Germany

Results

Heats

8 fastest swimmer from seven heats advanced to final.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Mike Wenden	Australia	1:56.66	Q
2	Robert Nay	Australia	1:57.69
3	Viktor Mazanov	Soviet Union	1:57.92
4	Hans Ljungberg	Sweden	1:59.42
5	Alfredo Machado	Brazil	2:00.14

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	1:56.15	Q
2	Georgijs Kuļikovs	Soviet Union	1:57.04
3	Pierre Calland	France	2:00.75
4	Michael Bailey	Great Britain	2:00.79
5	Zbigniew Pacelt	Poland	2:01.28
6	Arnaldo Cinquetti	Italy	2:01.78

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Werner Lampe	West Germany	1:55.97	Q
2	Graham White	Australia	1:58.60
3	John Mills	Great Britain	2:00.17
4	Fritz Warncke	Norway	2:00.98
5	Kamal Kenavi Ali Mustofa	23x15px Egypt	2:05.30
6	Luis Ayesa	23x15px Philippines	2:05.97

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	1:55.80	Q
2	Wilfried Hartung	East Germany	1:56.95
3	Gerardo Vera	23x15px Venezuela	1:57.33
4	Olaf, Baron von Schilling	West Germany	2:00.27
5	Bernt Zarnowiecki	Sweden	2:01.34
6	Riccardo Targhetti	Italy	2:02.58
7	Fawzi Irhama	Kuwait	2:33.75

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Fred Tyler	United States	1:56.04	Q
2	Peter Bruch	East Germany	1:58.49
3	Bruce Robertson	Canada	1:59.02
4	Marian Slavic	Romania	2:00.23
5	Colin Herring	New Zealand	2:00.29
6	Ian MacKenzie	Canada	2:01.22
7	Hanspeter Würmli	Switzerland	2:03.14
8	Roberto Strauss	Mexico	2:03.57

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Steve Genter	United States	1:55.42	Q
2	Brian Brinkley	Great Britain	1:56.99
3	Peter Prijdekker	Netherlands	1:58.78
4	Ruy de Oliveira	Brazil	2:00.48
5	Roberto Pangaro	Italy	2:00.97
6	Sandro Rudan	Yugoslavia	2:05.88
7	Tomás Rengifo	El Salvador	2:08.67
8	Finnur Garðarsson	Iceland	2:08.88

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Mark Spitz	United States	1:55.29	Q
2	Ralph Hutton	Canada	1:56.84	Q
3	Udo Poser	East Germany	1:57.23
4	Rolf Petterson	Sweden	2:00.02
5	Mark Crocker	23x15px Hong Kong	2:12.85
6	Samnang Prak	Cambodia	2:13.34

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Mark Spitz	United States	1:52.78	WR
	Steve Genter	United States	1:53.73
	Werner Lampe	West Germany	1:53.99
4	Mike Wenden	Australia	1:54.40
5	Fred Tyler	United States	1:54.96
6	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	1:55.65
7	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	1:57.24
8	Ralph Hutton	Canada	1:57.56