Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

Men's 200 metre freestyle; at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre
Dates	August 15, 2004 (heats &; semifinals); August 16, 2004 (final)
Competitors	59 from 55 nations
Winning time	1:44.71 OR
Medalists

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece. The event took place on 15 and 16 August.

In the lead-up to the final, the event was billed as The Race of the Century or the "greatest swimming race of all-time", due to its significance and high-class field. It featured four of the fastest swimmers in Olympic history: Ian Thorpe (Australia, world record holder in the event at the time), Pieter van den Hoogenband (Netherlands, defending Olympic champion), Grant Hackett (Australia, former world record holder in the event), and Michael Phelps (United States, later became the most decorated all-time Olympian, with a total of 28 medals).

Thorpe edged out Pieter van den Hoogenband in the final 50 metres to claim his second gold at the Games and fifth career medal, following his triumph in the 400 m freestyle two days earlier.[1] With only 50 metres to go, he powered past his arch-rival to touch the wall first in an Olympic record of 1:44.71, matching the third fastest swim over the distance. Van den Hoogenband, who led the field through the first three laps under a world record pace, won silver in 1:45.23.[2] Meanwhile, Phelps finished the race with a bronze in an American record of 1:45.32, ending his hopes of equalling Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven gold medals.[2][3][4]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World record	Ian Thorpe (AUS)	1:44.06	Fukuoka, Japan	25 July 2001
Olympic record	Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED)	1:45.35	Sydney, Australia	18 September 2000

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
16 August	Final	Ian Thorpe	Australia	1:44.71	OR

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	8	4	Ian Thorpe	Australia	1:47.22	Q
2	8	5	Pieter van den Hoogenband	Netherlands	1:47.32	Q
3	8	3	Emiliano Brembilla	Italy	1:47.95	Q
4	7	5	Klete Keller	United States	1:47.97	Q
5	6	4	Michael Phelps	United States	1:48.43	Q
6	8	6	Simon Burnett	Great Britain	1:48.68	Q
7	7	4	Grant Hackett	Australia	1:48.90	Q
8	7	6	Jens Schreiber	Germany	1:49.00	Q, WD
9	8	2	Květoslav Svoboda	Czech Republic	1:49.25	Q
10	6	5	Rick Say	Canada	1:49.32	Q
11	8	1	Dominik Meichtry	Switzerland	1:49.45	Q
12	7	7	George Bovell	Trinidad and Tobago	1:49.48	Q
13	7	2	Yoshihiro Okumura	Japan	1:49.54	Q
14	7	3	Brent Hayden	Canada	1:49.56	Q
15	7	8	Andreas Zisimos	Greece	1:49.60	Q
16	6	3	Andrey Kapralov	Russia	1:49.91	Q
17	6	7	Olaf Wildeboer	Spain	1:50.01	Q
18	5	3	Jacob Carstensen	Denmark	1:50.15
19	6	6	Stefan Herbst	Germany	1:50.23
20	6	1	Rodrigo Castro	Brazil	1:50.27
21	5	8	Saulius Binevičius	Lithuania	1:50.50
22	8	7	Peter Mankoč	Slovenia	1:50.72
23	5	4	Romāns Miloslavskis	Latvia	1:50.83
24	7	1	Maksim Kuznetsov	Russia	1:50.93
25	8	8	Nicolas Rostoucher	France	1:50.96
26	5	5	Dominik Koll	Austria	1:51.36
27	4	2	Dmytro Vereitinov	Ukraine	1:51.38
28	4	3	Joshua Ilika Brenner	Mexico	1:51.66
29	5	1	Luís Monteiro	Portugal	1:51.78
30	5	1	Łukasz Drzewiński	Poland	1:51.90
31	2	6	Mihail Alexandrov	Bulgaria	1:52.12
32	5	7	Tamás Szűcs	Hungary	1:52.26
33	5	6	Han Kyu-chul	South Korea	1:52.28
34	4	8	Damian Alleyne	Barbados	1:52.89
35	3	2	Aleksandar Malenko	Macedonia	1:53.00
35	4	7	Mahrez Mebarek	Algeria	1:53.00
37	4	5	Yahor Salabutau	Belarus	1:53.03
38	3	5	Albert Subirats	Venezuela	1:53.11
39	4	6	Giancarlo Zolezzi	Chile	1:53.18
40	3	7	Juan Martín Pereyra	Argentina	1:53.19
40	3	8	Shaune Fraser	Cayman Islands	1:53.19
42	4	1	Miguel Molina	Philippines	1:53.81
43	6	8	Zhang Lin	China	1:53.84
44	3	3	Alexandros Aresti	Cyprus	1:53.90
45	2	3	Martín Kutscher	Uruguay	1:53.91
46	6	2	Andrea Beccari	Italy	1:54.00
47	3	4	Chen Te-tung	Chinese Taipei	1:54.14
48	1	5	Igor Erhartić	Serbia and Montenegro	1:54.21
49	2	5	Ştefan Pinciuc	Moldova	1:54.56
50	2	1	Anouar Ben Naceur	Tunisia	1:54.69
51	2	2	Mark Chay	Singapore	1:54.70
52	4	4	Aytekin Mindan	Turkey	1:55.65
53	2	4	Adil Bellaz	Morocco	1:55.79
54	3	6	Mario Delač	Croatia	1:55.82
55	2	7	Vitaliy Khan	Kazakhstan	1:56.11
56	3	1	Diego Mularoni	San Marino	1:56.18
57	2	8	Petr Vasiliev	Uzbekistan	1:56.93
58	1	3	Zurab Khomasuridze	Georgia	1:58.02
59	1	4	Ruslan Ismailov	Kyrgyzstan	2:01.53

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Pieter van den Hoogenband	Netherlands	1:46.00	Q
2	5	Klete Keller	United States	1:47.28	Q
3	3	Simon Burnett	Great Britain	1:47.72	Q
4	6	Květoslav Svoboda	Czech Republic	1:49.27
5	7	Yoshihiro Okumura	Japan	1:49.49
6	1	Andreas Zisimos	Greece	1:49.76
7	2	Dominik Meichtry	Switzerland	1:50.02
8	8	Olaf Wildeboer	Spain	1:50.61

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Ian Thorpe	Australia	1:46.65	Q
2	3	Michael Phelps	United States	1:47.08	Q
3	6	Grant Hackett	Australia	1:47.61	Q
4	5	Emiliano Brembilla	Italy	1:47.93	Q
5	2	Rick Say	Canada	1:48.16	Q
6	7	George Bovell	Trinidad and Tobago	1:49.59
7	1	Brent Hayden	Canada	1:50.00
8	8	Andrey Kapralov	Russia	1:51.35

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	5	Ian Thorpe	Australia	1:44.71	OR
	4	Pieter van den Hoogenband	Netherlands	1:45.23
	3	Michael Phelps	United States	1:45.32	AM
4	6	Klete Keller	United States	1:46.13
5	2	Grant Hackett	Australia	1:46.56
6	8	Rick Say	Canada	1:47.55
7	7	Simon Burnett	Great Britain	1:48.02
8	1	Emiliano Brembilla	Italy	1:48.40

References

"Australia hails Athens hero Thorpe". CNN. 17 August 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
Thomas, Stephen (16 August 2004). "The Thorpedo Triumphs over Hoogie in the "Race of the Century", Phelps Takes the Bronze". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
"Thorpe torpedoes his world rivals". CNN. 17 August 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
Gordos, Phil (17 August 2004). "Thorpe steals Phelps' thunder". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

External links

Official Olympic Report

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[1] "Australia hails Athens hero Thorpe". CNN. 17 August 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

[200free-2] Thomas, Stephen (16 August 2004). "The Thorpedo Triumphs over Hoogie in the "Race of the Century", Phelps Takes the Bronze". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

[3] "Thorpe torpedoes his world rivals". CNN. 17 August 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

[4] Gordos, Phil (17 August 2004). "Thorpe steals Phelps' thunder". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 May 2013.

Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Freestyle
50 m	men	women
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m		women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Breaststroke
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Butterfly
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
Individual medley
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m	men	women
4×200 m	men	women
Medley relay
4×100 m	men	women

Olympic champions in men's 200 m freestyle
220 yards	1904: Charles Daniels (USA)
200 metres	1900: Frederick Lane (AUS) 1968: Michael Wenden (AUS) 1972: Mark Spitz (USA) 1976: Bruce Furniss (USA) 1980: Sergey Koplyakov (URS) 1984: Michael Gross (FRG) 1988: Duncan Armstrong (AUS) 1992: Yevgeny Sadovyi (EUN) 1996: Danyon Loader (NZL) 2000: Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED) 2004: Ian Thorpe (AUS) 2008: Michael Phelps (USA) 2012: Yannick Agnel (FRA) 2016: Sun Yang (CHN)