The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held on 21 July at the Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex.

[2] The event was won by Sergey Koplyakov of the Soviet Union, with his countryman Andrey Krylov finishing second.

The American-led boycott severely impacted swimming in 1980; the United States had swept this event in 1976.

[2] Algeria, Angola, Czechoslovakia, Lebanon, Mozambique, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event.

Australia made its sixth appearance, the only nation to have competed in all prior editions of the event other than the absent United States.