Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre butterfly

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Gary Hall, Sr.	United States	2:03.70	OR, Q
2	András Hargitay	Hungary	2:05.05	Q
3	Roger Pyttel	East Germany	2:08.72
4	Sean Maher	Great Britain	2:09.39
5	Jorge Jaramillo	Colombia	2:10.24
6	Walter Mack	West Germany	2:11.03
7	Vasil Dobrev	Bulgaria	2:11.28

Key: OR = Olympic record, Q = Qualified

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Robin Backhaus	United States	2:03.11	OR, Q
2	Folkert Meeuw	West Germany	2:06.13	Q
3	Yasuhiro Komazaki	Japan	2:08.72
4	Hugo Valencia	Mexico	2:09.56
5	Andrzej Chudziński	Poland	2:12.62
6	Geoffrey Ferreira	Trinidad and Tobago	2:19.76
	Angelo Tozzi	Italy	2:10.82	DQ

Key: DQ = Disqualified, OR = Olympic record, Q = Qualified

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Hans Fassnacht	West Germany	2:05.39	Q
2	Jorge Delgado, Jr.	Ecuador	2:05.61	Q
3	Viktor Sharygin	Soviet Union	2:06.76
4	James Findlay	Australia	2:08.36
5	Ron Jacks	Canada	2:09.04
6	Ricardo Marmolejo	Mexico	2:10.00
7	Jacques Leloup	Belgium	2:10.79
8	Roy Chan	Singapore	2:20.30

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Mark Spitz	United States	2:02.11	OR, Q
2	Hartmut Flöckner	East Germany	2:05.54	Q
3	John Mills	Great Britain	2:06.58
4	Brian Brinkley	Great Britain	2:06.82
5	Byron MacDonald	Canada	2:12.12
6	Gaetano Carboni	Italy	2:12.16
7	Hsu Tung-Hsiung	Chinese Taipei	2:16.35
8	Carlos Singson	Philippines	2:23.70

Key: OR = Olympic record, Q = Qualified

Left-right:Hall, Spitz, Backhaus

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Mark Spitz	United States	2:00.70	WR
	Gary Hall, Sr.	United States	2:02.86
	Robin Backhaus	United States	2:03.23
4	Jorge Delgado, Jr.	Ecuador	2:04.60
5	Hans Fassnacht	West Germany	2:04.69
6	András Hargitay	Hungary	2:04.69
7	Hartmut Flöckner	East Germany	2:05.34
8	Folkert Meeuw	West Germany	2:05.57

Key: WR = World record