| | Event type

200 metres Breaststroke, Men

Date	5 – 7 August 1948
Status	Olympic
Location	Wembley Arena, Wembley, London
Participants	32 from 20 countries

Joe Verdeur entered the Games as an outstanding favourite for this event having broken the world record on six occasions in the preceding two years. Whilst his times in London were well down on his record breaking performances he led the United States to a clean sweep of the podium positions. The superiority of the butterfly technique in this event was evident in the fact that only one of the finalists used the traditional breaststroke and he, Bob Bonte of Holland, finished eighth and last. Out of 32 entrants, 20 used the butterfly stroke including twelve of the sixteen semi-finalists. Artem Nakache of France, a veteran of the Berlin Games, bowed out in the semi-finals but his achievement in returning to the Olympic arena was remarkable. A Jew, he had been deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and his wife and daughter both died there.

Pos	Swimmer	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	Joe Verdeur	USA	2:40.0 (1 h2)	2:40.7 (1 h2)	2:39.3 (1)	Gold
2	Keith Carter	USA	2:46.3 (1 h4)	2:43.0 (2 h2)	2:40.2 (2)	Silver
3	Bob Sohl	USA	2:44.9 (1 h1)	2:44.4 (3 h1)	2:43.9 (3)	Bronze
4	John Davies	AUS	2:48.3 (2 h4)	2:44.8 (4 h1)	2:43.7 (4)
5	Tone Cerer	YUG	2:46.3 (2 h5)	2:47.3 (4 h2)	2:46.1 (5)
6	Willy Otto Jordan	BRA	2:46.4 (1 h3)	2:43.9 (2 h1)	2:46.4 (6)
7	Ahmed Kandil	EGY	2:45.5 (1 h5)	2:43.7 (1 h1)	2:47.5 (7)
8	Bob Bonte	NED	2:48.7 (2 h2)	2:47.0 (3 h2)	2:47.6 (8)
5 h1 r2/3	Roy Romain	GBR	2:49.4 (3 h3)	2:49.6 (5 h1)	–
5 h2 r2/3	Sándor Németh	HUN	2:48.2 (2 h3)	2:48.1 (5 h2)	–
6 h1 r2/3	René Amabuyok	PHI	2:52.6 (4 h1)	2:51.8 (6 h1)	–
6 h2 r2/3	Walter Pavlicek	AUT	2:50.6 (3 h4)	2:50.1 (6 h2)	–
7 h1 r2/3	Sigurður Th. Jónsson	ISL	2:50.6 (4 h5)	2:52.4 (7 h1)	–
7 h2 r2/3	Maurice Lusien	FRA	2:49.5 (3 h5)	2:51.4 (7 h2)	–
8 h1 r2/3	Artem Nakache	FRA	2:50.4 (2 h1)	2:59.1 (8 h1)	–
8 h2 r2/3	Apolonio Castillo	MEX	2:50.7 (3 h1)	2:53.5 (8 h2)	–
3 h2 r1/3	Carlos Espejo	ARG	2:55.0 (3 h2)	–	–
4 h2 r1/3	Sigurður Jónsson	ISL	2:56.4 (4 h2)	–	–
4 h3 r1/3	Walter Kunz	SUI	2:57.6 (4 h3)	–	–
4 h4 r1/3	Nicolas Wildhaber	SUI	2:59.2 (4 h4)	–	–
5 h1 r1/3	John Service	GBR	3:00.4 (5 h1)	–	–
5 h2 r1/3	Hans Widmer	SUI	2:56.7 (5 h2)	–	–
5 h3 r1/3	César Benetti	ARG	3:00.6 (5 h3)	–	–
5 h5 r1/3	Jiří Linhart	TCH	2:53.8 (5 h5)	–	–
6 h2 r1/3	Goldup Davies	GBR	2:56.6 (6 h2)	–	–
6 h3 r1/3	Atli Steinarsson	ISL	3:02.3 (6 h3)	–	–
6 h5 r1/3	Jack Cayco	PHI	2:54.0 (6 h5)	–	–
7 h2 r1/3	Peter Salmon	CAN	3:01.5 (7 h2)	–	–
7 h3 r1/3	Des Cohen	RSA	3:03.3 (7 h3)	–	–
7 h5 r1/3	Kevin Hallett	AUS	3:02.0 (7 h5)	–	–
8 h3 r1/3	Iftikhar Ahmed Shah	PAK	3:28.1 (8 h3)	–	–
8 h5 r1/3	Prafulla Mullick	IND	3:14.9 (8 h5)	–	–
DNS	Peter Mingie	CAN	– (DNS h1)	–	–
DNS	Ahmed Fouad Nessim	EGY	– (DNS h4)	–	–
DNS	László Jeney	HUN	– (DNS h1)	–	–
DNS	Gusztáv Kettesi	HUN	– (DNS h2)	–	–
DNS	Jaffar Ali Shah	PAK	– (DNS h4)	–	–
DNS	Ľudovít Komadel	TCH	– (DNS h4)	–	–

Round One (5 August 1948 — 19:00)

Top two in each heat and the next six fastest advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	2	Bob Sohl	USA	– (–) –	2:44.9	Q
2	1	Artem Nakache	FRA	– (–) –	2:50.4	Q
3	6	Apolonio Castillo	MEX	– (–) –	2:50.7	q
4	7	René Amabuyok	PHI	– (–) –	2:52.6	q
5	4	John Service	GBR	– (–) –	3:00.4
DNS	5	Peter Mingie	CAN	– (–) –	–
DNS	3	László Jeney	HUN	– (–) –	–

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	7	Joe Verdeur	USA	– (–) –	2:40.0	QOR
2	8	Bob Bonte	NED	– (–) –	2:48.7	Q
3	3	Carlos Espejo	ARG	– (–) –	2:55.0
4	5	Sigurður Jónsson	ISL	– (–) –	2:56.4
5	2	Hans Widmer	SUI	– (–) –	2:56.7
6	4	Goldup Davies	GBR	– (–) –	2:56.6
7	1	Peter Salmon	CAN	– (–) –	3:01.5
DNS	6	Gusztáv Kettesi	HUN	– (–) –	–

Heat Three

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	5	Willy Otto Jordan	BRA	– (–) –	2:46.4	Q
2	2	Sándor Németh	HUN	– (–) –	2:48.2	Q
3	7	Roy Romain	GBR	– (–) –	2:49.4	q
4	3	Walter Kunz	SUI	– (–) –	2:57.6
5	8	César Benetti	ARG	– (–) –	3:00.6
6	1	Atli Steinarsson	ISL	– (–) –	3:02.3
7	6	Des Cohen	RSA	– (–) –	3:03.3
8	4	Iftikhar Ahmed Shah	PAK	– (–) –	3:28.1

Heat Four

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	1	Keith Carter	USA	– (–) –	2:46.3	Q
2	2	John Davies	AUS	– (–) –	2:48.3	Q
3	4	Walter Pavlicek	AUT	– (–) –	2:50.6	q
4	7	Nicolas Wildhaber	SUI	– (–) –	2:59.2
DNS	3	Ahmed Fouad Nessim	EGY	– (–) –	–
DNS	6	Jaffar Ali Shah	PAK	– (–) –	–
DNS	5	Ľudovít Komadel	TCH	– (–) –	–

Heat Five

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	3	Ahmed Kandil	EGY	– (–) –	2:45.5	Q
2	1	Tone Cerer	YUG	– (–) –	2:46.3	Q
3	6	Maurice Lusien	FRA	– (–) –	2:49.5	q
4	4	Sigurður Th. Jónsson	ISL	– (–) –	2:50.6	q
5	8	Jiří Linhart	TCH	– (–) –	2:53.8
6	2	Jack Cayco	PHI	– (–) –	2:54.0
7	5	Kevin Hallett	AUS	– (–) –	3:02.0
8	7	Prafulla Mullick	IND	– (–) –	3:14.9

Semi-Finals (6 August 1948 — 16:00)

Top three in each heat and the next two fastest advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	Ahmed Kandil	EGY	– (–) –	2:43.7	Q
2	6	Willy Otto Jordan	BRA	– (–) –	2:43.9	Q
3	5	Bob Sohl	USA	– (–) –	2:44.4	Q
4	3	John Davies	AUS	– (–) –	2:44.8	q
5	7	Roy Romain	GBR	– (–) –	2:49.6
6	1	René Amabuyok	PHI	– (–) –	2:51.8
7	8	Sigurður Th. Jónsson	ISL	– (–) –	2:52.4
8	2	Artem Nakache	FRA	– (–) –	2:59.1

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	5	Joe Verdeur	USA	– (–) –	2:40.7	Q
2	4	Keith Carter	USA	– (–) –	2:43.0	Q
3	7	Bob Bonte	NED	– (–) –	2:47.0	Q
4	6	Tone Cerer	YUG	– (–) –	2:47.3	q
5	3	Sándor Németh	HUN	– (–) –	2:48.1
6	8	Walter Pavlicek	AUT	– (–) –	2:50.1
7	2	Maurice Lusien	FRA	– (–) –	2:51.4
8	1	Apolonio Castillo	MEX	– (–) –	2:53.5

Final (7 August 1948 — 14:00)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	5	Joe Verdeur	USA	– (–) –	2:39.3	OR
2	4	Keith Carter	USA	– (–) –	2:40.2
3	7	Bob Sohl	USA	– (–) –	2:43.9
4	2	John Davies	AUS	– (–) –	2:43.7
5	1	Tone Cerer	YUG	– (–) –	2:46.1
6	3	Willy Otto Jordan	BRA	– (–) –	2:46.4
7	6	Ahmed Kandil	EGY	– (–) –	2:47.5
8	8	Bob Bonte	NED	– (–) –	2:47.6