Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

Men's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the V Olympiad
Venue	Djurgårdsbrunnsviken
Dates	July 7–12
Competitors	24 from 11 nations
Medalists
Walter Bathe  Germany Wilhelm Lützow  Germany Paul Malisch  Germany

Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m		men		women
400 m		men
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men
Breaststroke
200 m		men
400 m		men
Freestyle relay
4×100 m				women
4×200 m		men

The men's 200 metre breaststroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the second appearance of the event, which had been introduced in 1908. Germany swept the medals in the event. The competition was held from Sunday July 7, 1912 to Friday July 12, 1912.

Twenty-four swimmers from eleven nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

World Record	3:00.8	Félicien Courbet	Schaerbeek (BEL)	October 2, 1910
Olympic Record	3:09.2	Frederick Holman	London (GBR)	July 18, 1908

The Germans also took the Olympic record, with Lützow breaking it in the first heat and Bathe then proceeding to set it even higher each of the three times he raced. His gold medal winning time in the final, 3:01.8, stood as the Olympic record at the end.

Results

Quarterfinals

The top two in each heat advanced along with the fastest loser overall.

Quarterfinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Wilhelm Lützow (GER)	3:07.4	QS OR
2	Thor Henning (SWE)	3:14.0	QS
3	Lennart Lindroos (FIN)	3:16.6	qs
4	Frank Schryver (ANZ)	3:24.0

Quarterfinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Paul Malisch (GER)	3:08.8	QS
2	Arvo Aaltonen (FIN)	3:13.0	QS
3	Nils Andersson (SWE)	3:20.6
4	Josef Wastl (AUT)	3:25.6
5	22x20px Georgy Baimakov (RUS)	3:29.0

Quarterfinal 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Carlyle Atkinson (GBR)	3:12.0	QS

Quarterfinal 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Walter Bathe (GER)	3:03.4	QS OR
2	Percy Courtman (GBR)	3:09.8	QS
3	Fredrik Löwenadler (SWE)	3:22.2
—	Mike McDermott (USA)	DSQ

Quarterfinal 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Félicien Courbet (BEL)	3:12.6	QS
2	Pontus Hanson (SWE)	3:14.2	QS
—	George Innocent (GBR)	DSQ
	Audun Rusten (NOR)	DSQ

Quarterfinal 6

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Oszkár Demján (HUN)	3:07.8	QS
2	Harald Julin (SWE)	3:12.8	QS
3	Herman Cederberg (FIN)	3:18.6
4	Vilhelm Lindgrén (FIN)	3:21.2
5	Sven Hanson (SWE)	3:24.4
6	Oscar Hamrén (SWE)

Semifinals

The top two from each heat and the faster of the two third place swimmers advanced.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Paul Malisch (GER)	3:09.6	QF
2	Thor Henning (SWE)	3:10.4	QF
3	Harald Julin (SWE)	3:10.6
4	Lennart Lindroos (FIN)	3:11.6
5	Carlyle Atkinson (GBR)	3:15.2
6	Arvo Aaltonen (FIN)	3:17.0

Semifinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Walter Bathe (GER)	3:02.2	QF OR
2	Wilhelm Lützow (GER)	3:04.4	QF
3	Percy Courtman (GBR)	3:09.4	qf
4	Oszkár Demján (HUN)	3:11.2
5	Félicien Courbet (BEL)	3:11.6
—	Pontus Hanson (SWE)	DNF

Final

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Walter Bathe (GER)	3:01.8 OR
2	Wilhelm Lützow (GER)	3:05.0
3	Paul Malisch (GER)	3:08.0
4	Percy Courtman (GBR)	3:08.8
—	Thor Henning (SWE)	DNF