Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres

This was the 12th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Olympics in 1896 but has been on the program ever since. Two of the six finalists from the 1952 Games returned: gold medalist Andy Stanfield and silver medalist Thane Baker, both of the United States. The third member of the 1952 American sweep, James Gathers, had been replaced by Bobby Morrow. Morrow and Dave Sime had been favorites early in the year, but Sime was injured and did not make the Olympic team.[2]

The Bahamas, Ethiopia, Guyana, Liberia, Malaya, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and Uganda each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its 12th appearance, the only nation to have competed at each edition of the 200 metres to date.

The competition used the four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. There were 12 heats of between 2 and 7 runners each, with the top 2 men in each advancing to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals consisted of 4 heats of 6 athletes each; the 3 fastest men in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals, each with 6 runners. In that round, the top 3 athletes advanced. The final had 6 runners. The races were run on a 400 metre track.[2]

Prior to the competition, the existing world (curved track) and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Andy Stanfield (USA)	20.6	Los Angeles, United States	28 June 1952
Olympic record	Jesse Owens (USA)	20.7	Berlin, Germany	5 August 1936

Bobby Morrow's hand-timed final run of 20.6 seconds was equal to the world record and set a new Olympic record.

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

• Official Report
• Results