Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Olympic Games took place July 19. 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.Medalists
Results
Heats
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Sergey Koplyakov | | 1:53.44 | |
| 2 | René van der Kuil | | 1:55.59 | |
| 3 | Bengt Gingsjö | | 1:56.31 | |
| 4 | Fritz Warncke | | 1:57.59 | |
| 5 | Tsuyoshi Yanagidate | | 1:58.04 | |
| 6 | Luis Goicoechea | | 1:59.68 | |
| 7 | Kris Sumono | | 2:01.12 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Andrey Bogdanov | | 1:52.71 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Brian Brinkley | | 1:53.07 | |
| 3 | David López-Zubero | | 1:54.88 | |
| 4 | Georgios Karpouzis | | 1:59.25 | |
| 5 | Eduardo Pérez | | 1:59.53 | |
| 6 | Tomas Becerra | | 2:00.72 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Klaus Steinbach | | 1:51.41 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Marcello Guarducci | | 1:53.72 | |
| 3 | Roberto Pangaro | | 1:55.30 | |
| 4 | Werner Lampe | | 1:56.01 | |
| 5 | Kevin Williamson | | 2:00.08 | |
| 6 | Nikolay Ganev | | 2:00.54 | |
| 7 | Frank Richardson | | 2:12.33 | |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Andrey Krylov | | 1:51.42 | Q |
| 2 | Graham Windeatt | | 1:54.35 | |
| 3 | James Hett | | 1:55.58 | |
| 4 | Ali Gharbi | | 1:55.82 | |
| 5 | Steven Newkirk | | 1:59.95 | |
| 6 | José Pereira | | 2:03.03 | |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Peter Nocke | | 1:52.16 | Q |
| 2 | Gordon Downie | | 1:52.47 | Q |
| 3 | Steve Badger | | 1:53.86 | |
| 4 | Andre in het Veld | | 1:57.60 | |
| 5 | John McConnochie | | 1:57.77 | |
| 6 | Mark Crocker | | 2:00.81 | |
| 7 | Paulo Frischknecht | | 2:02.65 | |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Jim Montgomery | | 1:51.77 | Q |
| 2 | Bill Sawchuk | | 1:54.07 | |
| 3 | Rainer Strohbach | | 1:55.25 | |
| 4 | Paolo Revelli | | 1:57.25 | |
| 5 | Andy Knowles | | 2:00.18 | |
| 6 | Lutz Löscher | | 2:01.00 | |
| 7 | Gianni Versari | | 2:02.25 | |
Heat 7
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | John Naber | | 1:52.78 | Q |
| 2 | Jorge Delgado, Jr. | | 1:54.23 | |
| 3 | Frank Pfütze | | 1:55.57 | |
| 4 | Alan McClatchey | | 1:55.84 | |
| 5 | Anders Bellbring | | 1:57.20 | |
| 6 | Francisco Cañales | | 1:59.62 | |
| 7 | Petar Georgiev | | 2:00.70 | |
| 8 | Patrick Novaretti | | 2:04.29 | |
Heat 8
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Bruce Furniss | | 1:50.93 | Q, OR |
| 2 | Mark Kerry | | 1:54.86 | |
| 3 | Peter Dawson | | 1:55.16 | |
| 4 | Peter Pettersson | | 1:56.51 | |
| 5 | Guillermo García | | 1:58.20 | |
| 6 | Sigurður Ólafsson | | 2:01.18 | |
| 7 | Gerardo Rosario | | 2:02.81 | |
Final
Key: WR = World record
