Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1968 Olympic Games took place 24 October. It was the third time the event was held, returning for the first time since 1904.
Competition format
The competition used a two-round format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 9 heats of between 5 and 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated. Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.
Results
Heats
Nelson set a new Olympic record in the first heat; it was short-lived, as Wenden broke it in the second.| Rank | Heat | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Note |
| 1 | 2 | Mike Wenden | 1:59.3 | , | |
| 2 | 1 | John Nelson | 1:59.5 | , | |
| 3 | 8 | Ralph Hutton | 2:00.0 | ||
| 3 | 4 | Don Schollander | 2:00.0 | ||
| 5 | 6 | Alain Mosconi | 2:00.1 | ||
| 6 | 5 | Steve Rerych | 2:00.6 | ||
| 7 | 2 | Bob Windle | 2:01.0 | ||
| 8 | 5 | Semyon Belits-Geyman | 2:01.2 | ||
| 9 | 7 | Juan Carlos Bello | 2:01.3 | ||
| 9 | 6 | Leonid Ilyichov | 2:01.3 | ||
| 11 | 9 | Michel Rousseau | 2:01.5 | ||
| 12 | 8 | Olaf, Baron von Schilling | 2:01.7 | ||
| 13 | 4 | Luis Nicolao | 2:01.8 | ||
| 13 | 3 | Sandy Gilchrist | 2:01.8 | ||
| 15 | 3 | Lester Eriksson | 2:02.1 | ||
| 15 | 9 | Kunihiro Iwasaki | 2:02.1 | ||
| 15 | 1 | Wolfgang Kremer | 2:02.1 | ||
| 18 | 1 | Mark Anderson | 2:02.2 | ||
| 19 | 3 | Gilles Moreau | 2:02.7 | ||
| 20 | 7 | Julio Arango | 2:03.1 | ||
| 21 | 6 | George Smith | 2:03.2 | ||
| 22 | 1 | Noboru Waseda | 2:03.4 | ||
| 23 | 4 | Johan Schans | 2:04.1 | ||
| 24 | 6 | Roosevelt Abdulgafur | 2:04.8 | ||
| 25 | 5 | Pano Capéronis | 2:04.9 | ||
| 25 | 4 | Gunnar Larsson | 2:04.9 | ||
| 27 | 5 | Ørjan Madsen | 2:05.4 | ||
| 28 | 3 | Satoru Nakano | 2:05.5 | ||
| 29 | 4 | Elt Drenth | 2:05.6 | ||
| 30 | 5 | Ricardo González | 2:05.8 | ||
| 31 | 2 | Władysław Wojtakajtis | 2:06.0 | ||
| 32 | 8 | Tony Asamali | 2:06.2 | ||
| 33 | 7 | Zbigniew Pacelt | 2:06.3 | ||
| 34 | 2 | Mátyás Borlói | 2:06.5 | ||
| 35 | 1 | Gary Goodner | 2:06.6 | ||
| 35 | 9 | Aad Oudt | 2:06.6 | ||
| 37 | 6 | Fernando González | 2:07.3 | ||
| 38 | 6 | Werner Krammel | 2:07.9 | ||
| 39 | 4 | Georgijs Kuļikovs | 2:08.3 | ||
| 40 | 7 | Jorge González | 2:09.1 | ||
| 41 | 2 | Amnon Krauz | 2:09.3 | ||
| 41 | 5 | Tony Jarvis | 2:09.3 | ||
| 43 | 7 | Csaba Csatlós | 2:10.0 | ||
| 43 | 8 | Ingvar Eriksson | 2:10.0 | ||
| 45 | 2 | Gregorio Fiallo | 2:10.5 | ||
| 46 | 3 | Federico Sicard | 2:11.1 | ||
| 47 | 6 | Ramiro Benavides | 2:11.7 | ||
| 48 | 9 | Luis Ayesa | 2:12.2 | ||
| 49 | 7 | Gábor Kucsera | 2:12.8 | ||
| 50 | 1 | Salvador Vilanova | 2:14.6 | ||
| 51 | 4 | Ronnie Wong | 2:15.0 | ||
| 52 | 8 | Andrew Loh | 2:15.8 | ||
| 53 | 3 | José Martínez | 2:16.1 | ||
| 54 | 5 | Bob Loh | 2:16.2 | ||
| 55 | 4 | Angus Edghill | 2:19.1 | ||
| 56 | 6 | José Alvarado | 2:20.2 | ||
| 57 | 9 | Ernesto Durón | 2:24.1 |
Final
| Rank | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| Mike Wenden | 1:55.2 | |||
| Don Schollander | 1:55.8 | |||
| John Nelson | 1:58.1 | |||
| 4 | Ralph Hutton | 1:58.6 | ||
| 5 | Alain Mosconi | 1:59.1 | ||
| 6 | Bob Windle | 2:00.9 | ||
| 7 | Semyon Belits-Geiman | 2:01.5 |