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

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 10–11 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.

Summary
As the most decorated Olympian of all-time, Michael Phelps continued to etch his name into the history records with a first Olympic four-peat in the same individual swimming event. Hanging with some of his career rivals at the final turn, Phelps established a body-length lead over the rest of the field on the freestyle leg to claim his 22nd gold medal and 26th overall in 1:54.66. Trailing almost two seconds behind Phelps, Japan's Kosuke Hagino produced a late surge to snatch the silver with a 1:56.61. Meanwhile, China's Wang Shun took home the bronze in 1:57.05, joining Hagino as the first Asian men to stand on the podium in this event.

Hagino's teammate Hiromasa Fujimori missed out of the medals with a fourth-place time in 1:57.21. Phelps' longtime rival and twelve-time medalist Ryan Lochte seized a brief lead into the halfway point with a signature backstroke swim, but faded down the home stretch to fifth, and missed out on his fourth straight medal in this event with a 1:57.47, a hundredth of a second ahead of Germany's Philip Heintz (1:57.48). Backed by the raucous home crowd, Brazilian medal favorite Thiago Pereira, who got off to an early lead with a powerful butterfly effort, slipped to seventh with a 1:58.02. Great Britain's Daniel Wallace posted an eighth-place finish of 1:58.54 to round out the field.

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

Competition format
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.