Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay
The men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
The U.S. men's team smashed the seven-minute barrier in textile to defend the Olympic title in the event, and most importantly, to keep Michael Phelps' all-time record alive. The American foursome of Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer, Ricky Berens, and Phelps dominated the race from the start to put together a blazing fast finish in 6:59.70. As the Americans defended their Olympic title, Phelps also surpassed Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina to become the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time with a remarkable career tally of nineteen medals.
France's Amaury Leveaux, Grégory Mallet, Clément Lefert, and Yannick Agnel trailed behind their newest rivals in the pool by a couple of seconds to take home the silver in 7:02.77. Meanwhile, China's Hao Yun, Li Yunqi, and Jiang Haiqi struggled to keep their momentum throughout the race before Sun Yang dove into the pool at the final exchange. Sun then produced an astonishing anchor of 1:45.55 to deliver the Chinese team a historic relay bronze medal in 7:06.30, holding off the aggressive German foursome of Paul Biedermann, Dimitri Colupaev, Tim Wallburger, and Clemens Rapp by 29-hundredths of a second with a fourth-place finish.
Australia's Thomas Fraser-Holmes, Kenrick Monk, Ned McKendry, and Ryan Napoleon finished fifth in 7:07.00, while Great Britain, South Africa, and Hungary also vied for an Olympic medal to round out a historic finish.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.Results
Heats
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Nation | Swimmers | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | Charlie Houchin Matt McLean Davis Tarwater Conor Dwyer | 7:06.75 | Q | |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | Jérémy Stravius Grégory Mallet Amaury Leveaux Clément Lefert | 7:09.18 | Q | |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | Tim Wallburger Dimitri Colupaev Clemens Rapp Paul Biedermann | 7:09.23 | Q | |
| 4 | 2 | 3 | David McKeon Cameron McEvoy Ned McKendry Ryan Napoleon | 7:10.50 | Q | |
| 5 | 2 | 6 | David Carry Ross Davenport Rob Bale Robbie Renwick | 7:10.70 | Q | |
| 6 | 2 | 5 | Lü Zhiwu Li Yunqi Jiang Haiqi Dai Jun | 7:11.35 | Q | |
| 7 | 1 | 8 | Darian Townsend Jean Basson Sebastien Rousseau Chad le Clos | 7:11.51 | Q | |
| 8 | 1 | 2 | Dominik Kozma Péter Bernek László Cseh Gergő Kis | 7:11.64 | Q | |
| 9 | 1 | 3 | Yuki Kobori Sho Sotodate Chiaki Ishibashi Yuya Horihata | 7:11.74 | ||
| 10 | 2 | 1 | Artem Lobuzov Yevgeny Lagunov Mikhail Polishchuk Alexander Sukhorukov | 7:11.86 | ||
| 11 | 1 | 6 | Gianluca Maglia Alex di Giorgio Riccardo Maestri Marco Belotti | 7:12.69 | ||
| 12 | 2 | 8 | Dieter Dekoninck Glenn Surgeloose Louis Croenen Pieter Timmers | 7:14.44 | NR | |
| 13 | 1 | 1 | Daniel Skaaning Pál Joensen Anders Lie Mads Glæsner | 7:15.04 | NR | |
| 14 | 2 | 7 | Blake Worsley Colin Russell Tobias Oriwol Alec Page | 7:15.22 | ||
| 15 | 1 | 7 | Matthew Stanley Steven Kent Dylan Dunlop-Barrett Andrew McMillan | 7:17.18 | ||
| 16 | 2 | 2 | David Brandl Christian Scherübl Markus Rogan Florian Janistyn | 7:17.94 |
Final
| Rank | Lane | Nation | Swimmers | Time | Time behind | Notes |
| 4 | Ryan Lochte Conor Dwyer Ricky Berens Michael Phelps | 6:59.70 | ||||
| 5 | Amaury Leveaux Grégory Mallet Clément Lefert Yannick Agnel | 7:02.77 | 3.07 | NR | ||
| 7 | Hao Yun Li Yunqi Jiang Haiqi Sun Yang | 7:06.30 | 6.60 | |||
| 4 | 3 | Paul Biedermann Dimitri Colupaev Tim Wallburger Clemens Rapp | 7:06.59 | 6.89 | ||
| 5 | 6 | Thomas Fraser-Holmes Kenrick Monk Ned McKendry Ryan Napoleon | 7:07.00 | 7.30 | ||
| 6 | 2 | Robbie Renwick Ieuan Lloyd Rob Bale Ross Davenport | 7:09.33 | 9.63 | ||
| 7 | 1 | Darian Townsend Sebastien Rousseau Chad le Clos Jean Basson | 7:09.65 | 9.95 | ||
| 8 | 8 | Dominik Kozma László Cseh Péter Bernek Gergő Kis | 7:13.66 | 13.96 |