Swimming at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between August 26 and August 30. This swimming event used the breaststroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Medalists

Gold	Bill Mulliken  United States
Silver	Yoshihiko Osaki  Japan
Bronze	Wieger Mensonides  Netherlands

Results

Heats

Six heats were held; the swimmers with the sixteen fastest times advanced to the Semifinals. Because there were three swimmers with a time of 2:42.4, a swim-off was held to determine the two that would advance.

Key

Advanced to Semifinal

See Swim-Off

Did Not Advance

Heat One

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Bill Mulliken	United States	2:38.0
2	Georgy Prokopenko	Soviet Union	2:39.2
3	Gerard Rowlinson	Great Britain	2:45.0
4	Engin Ünal	Turkey	2:49.0
5	Antonio Saloso	Philippines	2:53.3
-	László Felkai	Hungary	DQ
-	Gerald Brauner	Austria	DQ

Heat Two

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Arkadiy Holovchenko	Soviet Union	2:41.0
2	Đorđe Perišić	Yugoslavia	2:41.1
3	Christopher Walkden	Great Britain	2:41.5
4	Mihai Mitrofan	Romania	2:41.8
5	Farid Zablith Filho	Brazil	2:48.6
6	Roland Boullanger	France	2:54.4
7	Nicolas Wildhaber	Switzerland	2:58.7

Heat Three

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Wieger Mensonides	Netherlands	2:39.0
2	Roberto Lazzari	Italy	2:41.2
3	Konrad Enke	Germany	2:44.6
4	Richard Audoly	France	2:46.5
5	Pierpaolo Spangaro	Italy	2:53.8
6	Tony Williams	Sri Lanka	2:59.8

Heat Four

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Isao Masuda	Japan	2:41.2
2	Terry Gathercole	Australia	2:41.7
3	Pekka Lairola	Finland	2:43.3
4	Bernt Nilsson	Sweden	2:45.7
5	Steve Rabinovitch	Canada	2:47.2
6	Laurel Lee	Chinese Taipei	2:52.8
7	Werner Risi	Switzerland	2:56.6

Heat Five

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Paul Hait	United States	2:40.8
2	Andrzej Kłopotowski	Poland	2:41.4
3	György Kunsági	Hungary	2:42.2
4	Egon Henninger	Germany	2:42.4
5	Vítězslav Svozil	Czechoslovakia	2:42.4
6	Emilio Díaz	Spain	2:52.9
7	Trương Ke Nhon	South Vietnam	2:53.0
-	Erny Schweitzer	Luxembourg	DQ

Heat Six

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Yoshihiko Osaki	Japan	2:39.1
2	Gilbert Desmit	Belgium	2:42.4
3	Tommie Lindström	Sweden	2:42.8
4	William Burton	Australia	2:43.9
5	Guillermo Alsina	Spain	2:51.4
6	Gershon Shefa	Israel	2:51.7
7	Nikolaos Zakharopoulos	Greece	2:56.4

Swim-Off

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Egon Henninger	Germany	2:39.5
2	Gilbert Desmit	Belgium	2:41.1
3	Vítězslav Svozil	Czechoslovakia	2:41.7

Semifinals

Two heats were held; the fastest eight swimmers advanced to the Finals. Those that advanced are highlighted.

Semifinal One

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Bill Mulliken	United States	2:37.2
2	Yoshihiko Osaki	Japan	2:38.2
3	Egon Henninger	Germany	2:38.5
4	Roberto Lazzari	Italy	2:40.3
5	Arkady Golovchenko	Soviet Union	2:40.9
6	Mihai Mitrofan	Romania	2:41.6
7	Christopher Walkden	Great Britain	2:41.7
8	Đorđe Perišić	Yugoslavia	2:44.2

Semifinal Two

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Terry Gathercole	Australia	2:39.1
2	Wieger Mensonides	Netherlands	2:39.3
3	Paul Hait	United States	2:39.6
4	Andrzej Kłopotowski	Poland	2:40.8
5	Georgy Prokopenko	Soviet Union	2:41.0
6	Gilbert Desmit	Belgium	2:41.8
7	Isao Masuda	Japan	2:42.3
8	György Kunsági	Hungary	2:42.4

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Bill Mulliken	United States	2:37.4
	Yoshihiko Osaki	Japan	2:38.0
	Wieger Mensonides	Netherlands	2:39.7
4	Egon Henninger	United Team of Germany	2:40.1
5	Roberto Lazzari	Italy	2:40.1
6	Terry Gathercole	Australia	2:40.2
7	Andrzej Kłopotowski	Poland	2:41.2
8	Paul Hait	United States	2:41.4