Tom Dean Takes Down British 200 Free Record En Route To Historic Olympic Gold

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
  • Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
• Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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The highly anticipated final in the men’s 200 freestyle lived up to the hype during Day 3 finals in Tokyo, as Tom Dean snared gold in a roller-coaster race with a new British National Record of 1:44.22.

Dean, 21, took the race out aggressively, just like he did at the British Olympic Trials in April, but not quite as fast as South Korean teenage standout Hwang Sunwoo. Hwang, the fastest swimmer in the prelims at 1:44.62, blasted out to the early lead, flipping in 49.78 at the 100-meter wall.

Dean sat third in 50.46, maintaining that place through the 150 before the race changed drastically coming home. Hwang began to fade, and Dean’s teammate Duncan Scott, who set a British Record of 1:44.47 earlier this year, started to make up ground on the field.

With Hwang falling back, Dean inched into the lead, and narrowly held off Scott to win gold in 1:44.22, taking down Scott’s British Record by a quarter of a second.

Scott took second in 1:44.26, resetting his best time, while Dean’s swim improved on his PB of 1:44.58, which was set racing head-to-head with Scott at those British Trials.

Split Comparison

Dean and Scott also become Great Britain’s first-ever Olympic medalists in the men’s 200 freestyle, and they move into sixth and seventh all-time in the event, respectively.

All-Time Performers, Men’s 200 Freestyle (LCM)

1. Paul Biedermann (GER), 1:42.00 – 2009
2. Michael Phelps (USA), 1:42.96 – 2008
3. Yannick Agnel (FRA), 1:43.14 – 2012
4. Danila Izotov (RUS), 1:43.90 – 2009
5. Ian Thorpe (AUS), 1:44.06 – 2002
6. Tom Dean (GBR), 1:44.22 – 2021
7. Duncan Scott (GBR), 1:44.26 – 2021
8. Danas Rapsys (LTU), 1:44.38 – 2019
9. Sun Yang (CHN), 1:44.39 – 2017
10. Ryan Lochte (USA), 1:44.44 – 2011

Two more men cracked 1:45 in the fight for bronze, with Brazil’s Fernando Scheffer (1:44.66) resetting his South American Record to oust 16-year-old Romanian David Popovici (1:44.68), who broke the European Junior Record.

Hwang ultimately faded to seventh in 1:45.26.