Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay

Men's 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Medalists
Michael Phelps Ryan Lochte Ricky Berens Peter Vanderkaay David Walters* Erik Vendt* Klete Keller*   United States   Nikita Lobintsev Evgeny Lagunov Danila Izotov Alexander Sukhorukov Mikhail Polischuk*   Russia   Patrick Murphy Grant Hackett Grant Brits Nick Ffrost Kirk Palmer* Leith Brodie*   Australia
«2004	2012»

Swimming events at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men		women
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women
Marathon
10 km		men		women

The men's 4×200 metre freestyle relay event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place August 12 — 13, at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre. The relay featured teams of four swimmers each swimming four lengths of the 50 m pool freestyle.

There were 16 nations competing at this event. These 16 nations consisted of the 12 best-placed teams at the 2007 World Aquatics Championships plus the four best times after the qualifying period.

Two qualifying heats of eight teams were held on August 12, with the eight fastest-timed teams overall qualifying for the finals. The eight qualifiers swam one final race on August 13. Teams were allowed to enter different swimmers in the final than had swum in the heats.

* Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	United States (USA) Michael Phelps (1:45.36) Ryan Lochte (1:45.86) Klete Keller (1:46.31) Peter Vanderkaay (1:45.71)	7:03.24	Melbourne, Australia	30 March 2007
Olympic record	Australia (AUS) Ian Thorpe (1:46.03) Michael Klim (1:46.40) Todd Pearson (1:47.36) Bill Kirby (1:47.26)	7:07.05	Sydney, Australia	19 September 2000	-

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	OR	WR
August 12	Heat 2	David Walters Ricky Berens Erik Vendt Klete Keller	United States	7:04.66	OR
August 13	Final	Michael Phelps Ryan Lochte Ricky Berens Peter Vanderkaay	United States	6:58.56	OR	WR

Qualification summary

Pos	NOC	Qualification
1	United States	FINA World Championships
2	Australia
3	Canada
4	Italy
5	Japan
6	Russia
7	Great Britain
8	Poland
9	Germany
10	Brazil
11	Greece
12	France
13	Austria	7:13.99	4 best remaining teams
14	South Africa	7:15.21
15	China	7:16.16
16	Hungary	7:18.96

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	NOC	Names	Time	Notes
1	2	4	United States	David Walters 1:46.57 Ricky Berens 1:45.47 Erik Vendt 1:47.11 Klete Keller 1:45.51	7:04.66	Q, OR
2	1	4	Italy	Nicola Cassio 1:48.76 Marco Belotti 1:45.82 Emiliano Brembilla 1:46.46 Massimiliano Rosolino 1:46.80	7:07.84	Q, ER
3	1	6	Russia	Mikhail Polishcuk 1:48.54 Danila Izotov 1:47.24 Nikita Lobintsev 1:46.84 Alexander Sukhorukov 1:45.24	7:07.86	Q
4	2	3	Great Britain	David Carry 1:46.47 NR Andrew Hunter 1:46.88 Ross Davenport 1:47.15 Robbie Renwick 1:47.39	7:07.89	Q, NR
5	1	5	Canada	Brian Johns 1:47.44 Rick Say 1:47.24 Adam Sioui 1:47.05 Andrew Hurd 1:46.31	7:08.04	Q
6	2	5	Australia	Nick Ffrost 1:47.47 Grant Brits 1:46.84 Kirk Palmer 1:47.02 Leith Brodie 1:47.08	7:08.41	Q
7	1	7	Japan	Yoshihiro Okumura 1:47.19 Sho Uchida 1:46.59 Yasunori Mononobe 1:47.29 Hisato Matsumoto 1:48.05	7:09.12	Q, AS
8	2	2	South Africa	Jean Basson 1:45.99 Darian Townsend 1:46.14 Jan Venter 1:48.32 Sebastien Rousseau 1:50.46	7:10.91	Q, AF
9	2	6	Austria	Dominik Koll 1:47.72 NR David Brandl 1:46.45 Florian Janistyn 1:50.48 Markus Rogan 1:46.80	7:11.45
10	1	2	China	Lin Zhang 1:46.13 Enjian Zhang 1:49.31 Yang Sun 1:48.73 Haoran Shi 1:49.40	7:13.57
10	1	8	France	Clement Lefert 1:48.34 Sebastien Bodet 1:49.47 Matthieu Madelaine 1:49.87 Amaury Leveaux 1:45.89	7:13.57
12	1	1	Germany	Paul Biedermann 1:47.48 Benjamin Starke 1:48.51 Christian Kubusch 1:49.28 Stefan Herbst 1:48.65	7:13.92
13	2	1	Hungary	Gergő Kis 1:47.39 Tamas Kerekjarto 1:49.09 Dominik Kozma 1:49.26 Norbert Kovacs 1:48.40	7:14.14
14	2	7	Poland	Łukasz Gąsior 1:49.43 Łukasz Wójt 1:48.54 Michał Rolicki 1:51.14 Przemysław Stańczyk 1:48.98	7:18.09
15	2	8	Greece	Andreas Zisimos 1:49.05 Nikolaos Xylouris 1:49.53 Ioannis Giannoulis 1:48.96 Vasileios Demetis 1:50.72	7:18.26
16	1	3	Brazil	Nicolas Oliveira 1:49.49 Rodrigo Castro 1:48.31 Phillip Morrison1:49.35 Lucas Salatta 1:52.39	7:19.54

Final

Rank	Lane	NOC	Names	Time	Notes
	4	United States	Michael Phelps 1:43.31 Ryan Lochte 1:44.28 Ricky Berens 1:46.29 Peter Vanderkaay 1:44.68	6:58.56	WR
	3	Russia	Nikita Lobintsev 1:46.64 Evgeny Lagunov 1:46.56 Danila Izotov 1:45.86 Alexander Sukhorukov 1:44.65	7:03.70	ER
	7	Australia	Patrick Murphy 1:45.95 Grant Hackett 1:45.87 Grant Brits 1:47.13 Nic Ffrost 1:46.03	7:04.98
4	5	Italy	Marco Belotti 1:47.37 Emiliano Brembilla 1:47.33 Massimiliano Rosolino 1:46.53 Filippo Magnini 1:44.12	7:05.35	NR
5	2	Canada	Colin Russell 1:46.89 Brian Johns 1:47.61 Brent Hayden 1:44.42 Andrew Hurd 1:46.85	7:05.77	NR
6	6	Great Britain	David Carry 1:46.78 Andrew Hunter 1:46.73 Robert Renwick 1:46.16 Ross Davenport 1:46.25	7:05.92	NR
7	1	Japan	Yoshihiro Okumura 1:46.61 Sho Uchida 1:47.36 Yasunori Mononobe 1:47.72 Hisato Matsumoto 1:48.62	7:10.31
8	8	South Africa	Jean Basson 1:46.67 Darian Townsend 1:47.24 Jan Venter 1:49.56 Sebastien Rousseau 1:49.55	7:13.02