The 200-metre individual medley is a race in

competitive swimming Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

in which swimmers compete in all 4 strokes (

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

breaststroke Breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to the swimmer's head being out of the water a large portion of the time, and that it can be s ...

, and freestyle) in one race, with each leg being 50 metres in length. The stroke order is different to the team variant of this race.

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold me ...

is famous for his

four-peat In North American sports, a three-peat is winning three consecutive championships. The term, a portmanteau of the words ''three'' and ''repeat'', originated with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, during their unsucces ...

at the Olympics, winning the event at each Olympic Games from

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, the only swimmer to have ever won four successive gold medals at the same event.

Description

Swimmers start by diving off the block and swimming 50 metres of the butterfly stroke, and then touching the wall with both hands and turning into 50 metres of backstroke. There are two different ways you can turn on the wall in the backstroke-to-breaststroke transition. The most common is a one-handed touch to the wall and simply rotating your body to push off. The second possible turn is a cross overturn. This is when the swimmer touches the wall on their side and then flipping their legs over their head. After the turn, the swimmer completes 50 metres of breaststroke. They finish the race with 50 metres of freestyle.

Records

World Record (SCM) men:

Ryan Lochte Ryan Steven Lochte ( ; born August 3, 1984) is an American professional swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. Along with Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jenny Thompson, he is the second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured by to ...

(United States), 1:49.63
World Record (LCM) men:

(United States), 1:54.00
Order: 50 metres butterfly, 50 metres backstroke, 50 metres breaststroke, 50 metres freestyle
Number of lengths (SCM): 8
Number of lengths (LCM): 4

References

200 metre individual medley The 200-metre individual medley is a race in competitive swimming in which swimmers compete in all 4 strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle) in one race, with each leg being 50 metres in length. The stroke order is different ...

Medley swimming {{Swimming-stub

Description

Records

See also

References