Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres

This will be the 28th time the event is held; it was not held at the first Olympics in 1896 but has been on the program ever since. Of the finalists from the 2016 Games:

• Three-time gold medalist Usain Bolt has retired and will not return.
• Silver medalist Andre De Grasse is one of two qualified Canadians so far.
• Bronze medalist Christophe Lemaitre has not yet qualified.
• Fourth-place finisher Adam Gemili is one of three qualified runners from Great Britain so far.
• Fifth-place finisher Churandy Martina of the Netherlands has not yet qualified.
• The United States has more than three qualified athletes, so sixth-place finisher LaShawn Merritt would have to be selected through the U.S. trials.
• Seventh-place finisher Alonso Edward of Panama has not yet qualified.
• Eight-place finisher Ramil Guliyev is the only qualified athlete from Turkey so far.

Guliyev was the 2017 World Champion. Noah Lyles of the United States was the 2019 World Champion.

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's 200 metres event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 20.24 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 56 is reached.[2][3]

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June, 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Only outdoor meets were eligible for the sprints and short hurdles, including the 200 metres. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.[2][4]

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 200 metres.[2]

The event will continue to use the three rounds format introduced in 2012.[5]

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records are as follows.

World record	Usain Bolt (JAM)	19.19	Berlin, Germany	20 August 2009
Olympic record	Usain Bolt (JAM)	19.30	Beijing, China	20 August 2008

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)