The men's 200 metre butterfly

Butterfly stroke

The butterfly is a swimming stroke swum on the breast, with both arms moving simultaneously. The butterfly kick was developed separately, and is also known as the "dolphin kick"...

event at the 1988 Olympic Games took place September 24. This swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

 event used the butterfly stroke

Butterfly stroke

The butterfly is a swimming stroke swum on the breast, with both arms moving simultaneously. The butterfly kick was developed separately, and is also known as the "dolphin kick"...

. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Records

The existing World and Olympic records at the time of the competition were:
The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	WR	OR
24 September 1988	Final	Michael Groß	West Germany West Germany West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....	1:56.94		OR

Medalists

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Michael Groß		1:56.94	OR
	Benny Nielsen Benny Nielsen Benny Leo Nielsen is a former butterfly swimmer from Denmark, who won the silver medal in the 200 m butterfly at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.-External links:* *...		1:58.24
	Anthony Mosse Anthony Mosse Anthony Mosse was the standard bearer for New Zealand competitive swimming through the 1980s. He swam at his first Commonwealth Games, in Brisbane, Australia in 1982, when he was 17...		1:58.28
4	Tom Ponting Tom Ponting Thomas Harold Ponting is a former international butterfly swimmer from Canada, who competed in three consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1984 in Los Angeles, California...		1:58.91
5	Melvin Stewart Melvin Stewart Melvin Monroe Stewart is a retired American swimmer who won two gold medals and one bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Stewart graduated from Mercersburg Academy and the University of Tennessee.-Biography:Stewart was a prominent 200m butterfly swimmer of his era...		1:59.19
6	David Wilson		1:59.20
7	Jon Kelly Jon Kelly (swimmer) Jon Kelly is a former international butterfly swimmer from Canada, who competed for his native country at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. There he finished in 7th position in the 200m Butterfly finals, and in twelfth place with the 400m Individual Medley...		1:59.48
8	Anthony Nesty Anthony Nesty Anthony Conrad Nesty is a former Surinamese international swimmer who was an Olympic gold medalist in the 100-metre butterfly event in 1988.- Early years :...		2:00.80

Key: OR = Olympic record