The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 1956 Summer Olympics took place on 30 November and 1 December in the Olympic Park Swimming and Diving Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. This swimming event used the butterfly stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool. This was the first time that the butterfly stroke had appeared in the Olympic Games as a separate event, following its introduction as a superior variant of breaststroke in the 1936 Olympics Men's 200 metre Breaststroke and subsequent dominance in the 200 metre breaststroke events at the 1948 Summer Olympics and 1952 Summer Olympics.
The winning margin was 4.5 seconds which as of 2023 remains the only time this event for men has been won by more than three seconds at the Olympics.
Results
Heats
Three heats were held. The swimmers with the eight fastest times advanced to the Finals. The swimmers that advanced are highlighted.
Heat One Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Bill Yorzyk United States 2:18.6 2 John Marshall Australia 2:26.8 3 Alexandru Popescu Romania 2:29.9 4 René Pirolley France 2:30.1 5 Jenő Áts Hungary 2:31.1 6 Walter Ocampo Mexico 2:41.4
Heat Two Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Takashi Ishimoto Japan 2:24.2 2 Brian Wilkinson Australia 2:27.2 3 Eulalio Ríos Mexico 2:28.1 4 Jack Nelson United States 2:29.4 5 Palsons Naibula Philippines 3:03.2 6 Shamsher Khan India 3:06.3
Heat Three Rank Athlete Country Time 1 György Tumpek Hungary 2:23.3 2 Horst Weber Germany 2:34.4 3 Graham Symonds Great Britain 2:35.7 4 Agapito Lozada Philippines 2:43.5 5 George Park Canada 2:47.2 6 Shah Ghazi Pakistan 2:48.0 7 Fong Seow Hor Malaya 2:56.0
Final
Rank Athlete Country Time Notes William Yorzyk 2:19.3 Takashi Ishimoto 2:23.8 György Tumpek 2:23.9 4 Jack Nelson 2:26.6 5 John Marshall 2:27.2 6 Eulalio Ríos Alemán 2:27.3 7 Brian Wilkinson 2:29.7 8 Alexandru Popescu 2:31.0
References