Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held on 21 July at the Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex.[1] There were 42 competitors from 24 nations, with each nation having up to three swimmers.[2] The event was won by Sergey Koplyakov of the Soviet Union, with his countryman Andrey Krylov finishing second. The medals were the first for the Soviet Union in the men's 200 metre freestyle. Graeme Brewer of Australia won that nation's first medal in the event since 1968 with his bronze.

Men's 200 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
The pool at Olimpiysky Sports Complex
VenueSwimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex
Date21 July
Competitors42 from 24 nations
Winning time1:49.81 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Sergey Koplyakov  Soviet Union
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Andrey Krylov  Soviet Union
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Graeme Brewer  Australia
← 1976
1984 →

Background

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This was the sixth 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]

One of the 8 finalists from the 1976 Games returned: fourth-place finisher Andrey Krylov of the Soviet Union. The American-led boycott severely impacted swimming in 1980; the United States had swept this event in 1976. The 1978 World Aquatics Championships winner and runner-up were Americans; neither Bill Forrester nor Rowdy Gaines (who also held the world record) could compete. World bronze medalist Sergey Koplyakov of the Soviet Union was the favourite in their absence.[2]

Algeria, Angola, Czechoslovakia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event. Australia made its sixth appearance, the only nation to have competed in all prior editions of the event other than the absent United States.

Competition format

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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. 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

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

World record   Rowdy Gaines (USA) 1:49.16 Austin, United States 11 April 1980
Olympic record   Bruce Furniss (USA) 1:50.29 Montreal, Canada 19 July 1976

The following records were established during the competition:

Date Event Swimmer Nation Time Record
21 July Final Sergey Koplyakov   Soviet Union 1:49.81 OR

Schedule

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All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

Date Time Round
Monday, 21 July 1980 10:00
20:00
Heats
Final

Results

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Heats

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Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 6 Sergey Koplyakov   Soviet Union 1:51.04 Q
2 5 Andrey Krylov   Soviet Union 1:51.21 Q
3 6 Graeme Brewer   Australia 1:51.92 Q
4 4 Jörg Woithe   East Germany 1:52.33 Q
5 1 Paolo Revelli   Italy 1:52.56 Q
6 2 Fabrizio Rampazzo   Italy 1:52.62 Q
7 4 Ron McKeon   Australia 1:52.66 Q
8 4 Thomas Lejdström   Sweden 1:53.04 Q
9 3 David López-Zubero   Spain 1:53.22
10 2 Fabien Noël   France 1:53.25
11 5 Detlev Grabs   East Germany 1:53.38
12 3 Ivar Stukolkin   Soviet Union 1:53.44
13 1 Per Wikström   Sweden 1:53.59
14 6 Frank Kühne   East Germany 1:53.63
15 4 Martin Smith   Great Britain 1:54.17
16 3 Jorge Fernandes   Brazil 1:54.32
17 5 Marcus Mattioli   Brazil 1:54.39
18 6 Petar Kochanov   Bulgaria 1:54.45
19 4 Cyro Delgado   Brazil 1:54.59
20 6 Jean-Marie François   Venezuela 1:54.76
21 1 Paulo Frischknecht   Portugal 1:55.06
22 6 Radek Havel   Czechoslovakia 1:55.07
23 1 Rui Abreu   Portugal 1:55.25
24 2 Peter Drost   Netherlands 1:55.41
25 2 Per-Ola Quist   Sweden 1:55.38
26 2 Kevin Lee   Great Britain 1:55.63
27 3 Alberto Mestre   Venezuela 1:55.69
28 5 Petr Adamec   Czechoslovakia 1:55.84
29 6 Tsvetan Golomeev   Bulgaria 1:55.88
30 1 Dominique Petit   France 1:56.01
31 4 Cees Jan Winkel   Netherlands 1:56.48
32 2 Borut Petrič   Yugoslavia 1:56.51
33 1 Guy Goosen   Zimbabwe 1:56.58
34 3 Ramón Lavín   Spain 1:56.99
35 3 Kevin Williamson   Ireland 1:57.37
36 5 Stéfan Voléry   Switzerland 1:57.69
37 2 Reda Yadi   Algeria 2:06.26
38 4 Adham Hemdan   Kuwait 2:07.51
39 3 Tô Văn Vệ   Vietnam 2:11.51
40 2 Jorge Lima   Angola 2:14.37
41 1 Bilall Yamouth   Lebanon 2:27.94
42 4 Ntewane Machel   Mozambique 2:35.45
1 Mohamed Bendahmane   Algeria DNS
3 Mark Lazzaro   France
5 Mark Tonelli   Australia
5 Rafael Vidal   Venezuela
5 Mohamed Halimi   Algeria
6 David Cummins   Ireland

Final

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Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes
  Sergey Koplyakov   Soviet Union 1:49.81 OR
  Andrey Krylov   Soviet Union 1:50.76
  Graeme Brewer   Australia 1:51.60
4 Jörg Woithe   East Germany 1:51.86
5 Ron McKeon   Australia 1:52.60
6 Paolo Revelli   Italy 1:52.76
7 Thomas Lejdström   Sweden 1:52.94
8 Fabrizio Rampazzo   Italy 1:53.25

References

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  1. ^ "Games of the XXII Olympiad Moscow 1980 – Volume 3: Participants and Results". Fizkultura i sport. pp. 451, 460. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "200 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 19 June 2021.