The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July and 1 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom. Hungary's Dániel Gyurta blasted the field with a stunning world record to become the country's third gold medalist in the event since József Szabó topped the podium in 1988 and Norbert Rózsa in 1996. Turning second at the halfway mark, he threw down a remarkable time of 2:07.28 on the final stretch to shave 0.03 seconds off the record set by Australia's Christian Sprenger in a since-banned high tech bodysuit from the 2009 World Championships. With the delight of a raucous home crowd, Great Britain's Michael Jamieson enjoyed the race of his life to snatch the silver in 2:07.43, moving him up to fourth in the event's all time rankings.