| | Event type

200 metres Breaststroke, Men

Date	31 July – 2 August 1952
Status	Olympic
Location	Helsingin Uimastadion, Helsinki
Participants	40 from 27 countries

For the first and last time in Olympic breaststroke history every finalist used the butterfly stroke as by the next Olympic Games the butterfly would be contested as a separate event. Although the German world record holder Herbert Klein was in the field there was no clear favourite for this race and the evenly matched performances of some of the main contenders in the heats and semi-finals did not help to resolve the issue of favouritism. Klein led the final at the halfway stage but was passed by Australia’s John Davies and Bowen Stassforth of the USA over the second half of the race. Although Davies had finished fourth in this event in 1948 in London, his victory in Helsinki was unexpected.

Pos	Swimmer	NOC	R1	SF	Final
1	John Davies	AUS	2:39.7 (1 h2)	2:36.8 (1 h1)	2:34.4 (1)	Gold
2	Bo Stassforth	USA	2:39.3 (1 h4)	2:38.7 (3 h2)	2:34.7 (2)	Silver
3	Herbert Klein	GER	2:37.0 (1 h6)	2:37.0 (1 h2)	2:35.9 (3)	Bronze
4	Nobuyasu Hirayama	JPN	2:41.5 (3 h5)	2:39.1 (3 h1)	2:37.4 (4)
5	Takayoshi Kajikawa	JPN	2:39.6 (3 h3)	2:37.3 (2 h2)	2:38.6 (5)
6	Jiro Nagasawa	JPN	2:40.4 (2 h2)	2:39.0 (4 h2)	2:39.1 (6)
7	Maurice Lusien	FRA	2:40.9 (2 h5)	2:39.1 (5 h2)	2:39.8 (7)
8	Ľudovít Komadel	TCH	2:38.9 (1 h3)	2:38.8 (2 h1)	2:40.1 (8)
9	Jerry Holan	USA	2:36.8 (1 h5)	2:39.2 (4 h1)	–
10	David Hawkins	AUS	2:41.2 (2 h4)	2:39.8 (6 h2)	–
11	Monte Nitzkowski	USA	2:40.6 (1 h1)	2:41.4 (5 h1)	–
12	Nikola Trojanović	YUG	2:42.4 (3 h2)	2:41.8 (7 h2)	–
13	Daan Buijze	NED	2:41.9 (2 h6)	2:42.6 (6 h1)	–
14	Orlando Cossani	ARG	2:39.6 (2 h3)	2:43.1 (7 h1)	–
15	Leo Portelance	CAN	2:42.5 (3 h4)	2:43.8 (8 h1)	–
16	Vladimir Borisenko	URS	2:43.2 (3 h6)	2:46.2 (8 h2)	–
17	Pierre Joly	FRA	2:43.4 (2 h1)	–	–
18	Aulis Kähkönen	FIN	2:43.8 (4 h6)	–	–
19	Marek Petrusewicz	POL	2:44.0 (3 h1)	–	–
20	Manuel Sanguily	CUB	2:44.5 (5 h6)	–	–
21	Walter Ocampo	MEX	2:44.8 (4 h3)	–	–
22	Bengt Rask	SWE	2:45.3 (4 h2)	–	–
23	Otávio Mobiglia	BRA	2:46.1 (5 h3)	–	–
24	Juha Tikka	FIN	2:46.3 (4 h1)	–	–
25	Ludovicus Schoenmaekers	BEL	2:46.5 (5 h2)	–	–
=26	Yury Kurchashov	URS	2:47.3 (6 h2)	–	–
=26	Pyotr Skripchenkov	URS	2:47.3 (4 h4)	–	–
=26	Blago Barbieri	YUG	2:47.3 (5 h4)	–	–
29	Adhemar Grijó Filho	BRA	2:47.6 (4 h5)	–	–
30	Vlastimil Linhart	TCH	2:48.0 (6 h6)	–	–
31	Brian Barnes	GBR	2:48.6 (5 h1)	–	–
32	Awad Moukhtar Halloudah	EGY	2:50.5 (7 h6)	–	–
33	Habib Suharko	INA	2:51.3 (5 h5)	–	–
34	Knud Gleie	DEN	2:51.4 (6 h4)	–	–
35	Vladimír Skovajsa	TCH	2:53.3 (7 h4)	–	–
36	Alfons Oehy	SUI	2:54.8 (7 h2)	–	–
37	René Kohn	LUX	2:59.3 (6 h1)	–	–
38	Muhammad Bashir	PAK	3:01.3 (8 h2)	–	–
39	Eduardo Barbeiro	POR	3:04.6 (8 h6)	–	–
DQ	Giorgio Grilz	ITA	– (DQ h3)	–	–
DNS	Károly Szittya	HUN	– (DNS h3)	–	–
DNS	Adi Bharucha	IND	– (DNS h4)	–	–
DNS	Óscar Cendejas	MEX	– (DNS h5)	–	–
DNS	Alejandro Fierro	MEX	– (DNS h1)	–	–
DNS	Jehangir Naigamwalla	IND	– (DNS h5)	–	–

Round One (31 July 1952 — 17:00)

Fastest 16 advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	7	Monte Nitzkowski	USA	– (–) –	2:40.6	Q
2	5	Pierre Joly	FRA	– (–) –	2:43.4
3	6	Marek Petrusewicz	POL	– (–) –	2:44.0
4	3	Juha Tikka	FIN	– (–) –	2:46.3
5	2	Brian Barnes	GBR	– (–) –	2:48.6
6	4	René Kohn	LUX	– (–) –	2:59.3
DNS	1	Alejandro Fierro	MEX	– (–) –	–

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	7	John Davies	AUS	– (–) –	2:39.7	Q
2	4	Jiro Nagasawa	JPN	– (–) –	2:40.4	Q
3	8	Nikola Trojanović	YUG	– (–) –	2:42.4	Q
4	6	Bengt Rask	SWE	– (–) –	2:45.3
5	2	Ludovicus Schoenmaekers	BEL	– (–) –	2:46.5
6	1	Yury Kurchashov	URS	– (–) –	2:47.3
7	3	Alfons Oehy	SUI	– (–) –	2:54.8
8	5	Muhammad Bashir	PAK	– (–) –	3:01.3

Heat Three

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	Ľudovít Komadel	TCH	– (–) –	2:38.9	QOR
2	1	Orlando Cossani	ARG	– (–) –	2:39.6	Q
3	2	Takayoshi Kajikawa	JPN	– (–) –	2:39.6	Q
4	6	Walter Ocampo	MEX	– (–) –	2:44.8
5	3	Otávio Mobiglia	BRA	– (–) –	2:46.1
DQ	5	Giorgio Grilz	ITA	– (–) –	–
DNS	7	Károly Szittya	HUN	– (–) –	–

Heat Four

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	Bo Stassforth	USA	– (–) –	2:39.3	Q
2	5	David Hawkins	AUS	– (–) –	2:41.2	Q
3	8	Leo Portelance	CAN	– (–) –	2:42.5	Q
4	2	Pyotr Skripchenkov	URS	– (–) –	2:47.3
5	7	Blago Barbieri	YUG	– (–) –	2:47.3
6	6	Knud Gleie	DEN	– (–) –	2:51.4
7	1	Vladimír Skovajsa	TCH	– (–) –	2:53.3
DNS	3	Adi Bharucha	IND	– (–) –	–

Heat Five

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	Jerry Holan	USA	– (–) –	2:36.8	QOR
2	7	Maurice Lusien	FRA	– (–) –	2:40.9	Q
3	6	Nobuyasu Hirayama	JPN	– (–) –	2:41.5	Q
4	3	Adhemar Grijó Filho	BRA	– (–) –	2:47.6
5	5	Habib Suharko	INA	– (–) –	2:51.3
DNS	1	Jehangir Naigamwalla	IND	– (–) –	–
DNS	2	Óscar Cendejas	MEX	– (–) –	–

Heat Six

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	1	Herbert Klein	GER	– (–) –	2:37.0	Q
2	6	Daan Buijze	NED	– (–) –	2:41.9	Q
3	4	Vladimir Borisenko	URS	– (–) –	2:43.2	Q
4	5	Aulis Kähkönen	FIN	– (–) –	2:43.8
5	7	Manuel Sanguily	CUB	– (–) –	2:44.5
6	2	Vlastimil Linhart	TCH	– (–) –	2:48.0
7	3	Awad Moukhtar Halloudah	EGY	– (–) –	2:50.5
8	8	Eduardo Barbeiro	POR	– (–) –	3:04.6

Semi-Finals (31 July 1952 — 17:00)

Fastest eight advanced to the final.

Heat One

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	–	John Davies	AUS	– (–) –	2:36.8	Q=OR
2	–	Ľudovít Komadel	TCH	– (–) –	2:38.8	Q
3	–	Nobuyasu Hirayama	JPN	– (–) –	2:39.1	Q
4	–	Jerry Holan	USA	– (–) –	2:39.2
5	–	Monte Nitzkowski	USA	– (–) –	2:41.4
6	–	Daan Buijze	NED	– (–) –	2:42.6
7	–	Orlando Cossani	ARG	– (–) –	2:43.1
8	–	Leo Portelance	CAN	– (–) –	2:43.8

Heat Two

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	–	Herbert Klein	GER	– (–) –	2:37.0	Q
2	–	Takayoshi Kajikawa	JPN	– (–) –	2:37.3	Q
3	–	Bo Stassforth	USA	– (–) –	2:38.7	Q
4	–	Jiro Nagasawa	JPN	– (–) –	2:39.0	Q
5	–	Maurice Lusien	FRA	– (–) –	2:39.1	Q
6	–	David Hawkins	AUS	– (–) –	2:39.8
7	–	Nikola Trojanović	YUG	– (–) –	2:41.8
8	–	Vladimir Borisenko	URS	– (–) –	2:46.2

Final (2 August 1952 — 17:00)

Pos	Lane	Swimmer	NOC	Time
1	4	John Davies	AUS	– (–) –	2:34.4	OR
2	6	Bo Stassforth	USA	– (–) –	2:34.7
3	5	Herbert Klein	GER	– (–) –	2:35.9
4	1	Nobuyasu Hirayama	JPN	– (–) –	2:37.4
5	3	Takayoshi Kajikawa	JPN	– (–) –	2:38.6
6	7	Jiro Nagasawa	JPN	– (–) –	2:39.1
7	8	Maurice Lusien	FRA	– (–) –	2:39.8
8	2	Ľudovít Komadel	TCH	– (–) –	2:40.1