200 metres Breaststroke, Men

The defending champion was Kazakhstan’s Dmitry Balandin, who also won the 2019 World Championships, but he was no longer considered much of a threat and would not make the final. The favorite seemed to be world record holder Anton Chupkov of the Russian Olympic Committee team, who had won bronze at the 2019 Worlds. Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands had won silver at Tokyo in the 100 breaststroke and was also highly considered.

Chupkov and Kamminga both qualified for the final but the heats and semi-finals were led by Australian Zac Stubblety-Cook, who led the world list coming into Tokyo with his 2:06.28 at the Australian Olympic Trials (Stubblety-Cook and Kamminga actually co-led the preliminary round in 2:07.37).

Kamminga took the final out fast, leading at the 50, 100, and 150 metre marks, as Stubblety-Cook lingered back in sixth and fifth place, and Chupkov was eighth and last for much of the early going. However, Kamminga died on the final lap, recording the slowest split of the finalists and barely hung on for the silver medal. Stubblety-Cook recorded the fastest final 50 split in the final by over 7/10ths of a second and came on for gold, as Chupkov was touched out for bronze by little known Matti Mattsson of Finland.