Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres

Men's 200 metres
at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Michael Johnson 1995.jpg
Michael Johnson (1995)
VenueCentennial Olympic Stadium
DatesJuly 31 – August 1
Competitors78 from 57 nations
Winning time19.32 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Michael Johnson
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Frank Fredericks
 Namibia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Ato Boldon
 Trinidad and Tobago
← 1992
2000 →

The men's 200 metres was an event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were 78 participating athletes from 57 nations, with eleven qualifying heats (78), five quarterfinal races (40), two semifinals (16) and a final (8). The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Michael Johnson of the United States, the nation's fourth consecutive and 16th overall victory in the event. Frankie Fredericks of Namibia won his second straight silver medal, the eighth man to win multiple medals in the 200 metres. Ato Boldon earned Trinidad and Tobago's first medal in the event with his bronze.

Background

This was the 22nd appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Olympics in 1896 but has been on the program ever since. Four of the eight finalists from the 1992 Games returned: gold medalist Michael Marsh of the United States, silver medalist Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, fourth-place finisher (and 1988 bronze medalist) Robson da Silva of Brazil, and sixth-place finisher John Regis of Great Britain; fifth-place finisher Olapade Adeniken of Nigeria was entered but did not start. Michael Johnson, favored to win in Barcelona before food poisoning resulted in a semifinal exit, also returned.

By the summer of 1996, Pietro Mennea's world record of 19.72 had stood for almost 17 years. Carl Lewis (19.75 in 1983), and Marsh (19.73 in 1992) had come tantalizingly close to it, but eased up. Finally at the Olympic Trials, Johnson knocked .06 off the record. In Atlanta, Johnson (the 1995 World Champion) was the clear favorite and was attempting an unprecedented men's 200/400 double. (Two women had done the double; Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984 and Marie-José Pérec just completed her double less than ten minutes before the men's 200 metres final). Johnson occupied the same lane 3 as Pérec had just run in. But, just as in 1992, Fredericks (the 1993 World Champion) had snapped a Johnson winning streak shortly before the Games and could not be disregarded as a challenger.

Aruba, Comoros, Gabon, Guam, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 21st appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Summary

From the gun, Johnson took the lead, quickly making up the stagger on Ivan Garcia to his outside halfway through the turn. Coming on to the straight, Johnson led by a metre from Frankie Fredericks and Ato Boldon, with Jeff Williams fourth. Johnson continued to pull away to the finish and won by over three metres from Fredericks, with Boldon a further metre back. Obadele Thompson closed with a strong straight to edge past Williams at the line another three metres behind Boldon. Three strides past the finish line, while others were still finishing, Johnson looked back to see the clock had stopped at 19.32 and began celebrating. His time was a Beamonesque .4 of a second faster than the world record had been just five weeks earlier, .34 faster than that performance. Far behind him, Fredericks had run 19.68, superior to the old record and Boldon had run 19.80. At that point in time, Fredericks was #2 and Boldon was #7 performer all time.

Competition format

The competition used the four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system introduced in 1960 was used in the heats and quarterfinals.

There were 11 heats of 7 or 8 runners each, with the top 3 men in each advancing to the quarterfinals along with the next 7 fastest overall. The quarterfinals consisted of 5 heats of 8 athletes each; the 3 fastest men in each heat and the next fastest overall advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals, each with 8 runners. The top 4 athletes in each semifinal advanced. The final had 8 runners. The races were run on a 400 metre track.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

World record  Michael Johnson (USA) 19.66 Atlanta, United States 23 June 1996
Olympic record  Michael Marsh (USA) 19.73 Barcelona, Spain 5 August 1992

In the final, Michael Johnson set a new world record with a time of 19.32.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

The competition returned to a two-day schedule after one Games with three days; now, however, there was no rest day between the two competition days.

Date Time Round
Wednesday, 31 July 1996 10:45
18:15
Heats
Quarterfinals
Thursday, 1 August 1996 19:10
21:00
Semifinals
Final

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Michael Marsh  United States 20.27 Q
2 Sergejs Inšakovs  Latvia 20.41 Q
3 Troy Douglas  Bermuda 20.41 Q
4 Steve Brimacombe  Australia 20.45 q
5 Alfred Visagie  South Africa 21.10
6 Mohamed Al-Houti  Oman 21.10
7 Takahiro Mazuka  Japan 21.13

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Ivan Garcia  Cuba 20.49 Q
2 Albert Agyemang  Ghana 20.69 Q
3 Elston Cawley  Jamaica 20.73 Q
4 Owusu Dako  Great Britain 20.83
5 Thomas Sbokos  Greece 20.88
6 Anton Ivanov  Bulgaria 21.20
7 David Wilson  Guam 21.85
8 Mohamed Ould Brahim  Mauritania 22.71

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Ato Boldon  Trinidad and Tobago 20.26 Q
2 Obadele Thompson  Barbados 20.42 Q
3 Anninos Markoullides  Cyprus 20.57 Q
4 Carlos Gats  Argentina 20.82 q
5 Joseph Gikonyo  Kenya 20.88
6 Chris Donaldson  New Zealand 20.96
7 Tao Wu-shiun  Chinese Taipei 21.25

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Michael Johnson  United States 20.55 Q
2 Erik Wymeersch  Belgium 20.68 Q
3 Percival Spencer  Jamaica 20.73 Q
4 Frank Waota  Ivory Coast 20.78 q
5 Benjamin Sirimou  Cameroon 21.00
6 Antoine Boussombo  Gabon 21.06
Venancio Jose  Spain DNS

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Francis Obikwelu  Nigeria 20.62 Q
2 Edson Ribeiro  Brazil 20.69 Q
3 John Regis  Great Britain 20.78 Q
4 Pierre Lisk  Sierra Leone 20.86
5 Lars Hedner  Sweden 20.97
6 Thomas Griesser  Austria 21.20
7 Pascal Dangbo  Benin 21.65
8 Hadhari Djaffar  Comoros 22.68

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Patrick Stevens  Belgium 20.60 Q
2 Jordi Mayoral  Spain 20.65 Q
3 Claudinei da Silva  Brazil 20.80 Q
4 Joseph Loua  Guinea 20.81 q
5 Boevi Lawson  Togo 20.99
6 Anderson Vilien  Haiti 21.62
7 Peter Ogilvie  Canada 22.00
8 Gustavo Envela  Equatorial Guinea 22.09

Heat 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Linford Christie  Great Britain 20.64 Q
2 Robert Maćkowiak  Poland 20.67 Q
3 George Panayiotopoulos  Greece 20.69 Q
4 Geir Moen  Norway 20.78 q
5 O'Brian Gibbons  Canada 20.79 q
6 Andrey Fedoriv  Russia 20.95
7 Brahim Abdoulaye  Chad 21.67

Heat 8

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Neil De Silva  Trinidad and Tobago 20.54 Q
2 Robson Da Silva  Brazil 20.61 Q
3 Oumar Loum  Senegal 20.69 Q
4 Dean Capobianco  Australia 20.76 q
5 Matthew Coad  New Zealand 21.25
6 Amos Ali  Papua New Guinea 21.37
7 Laurence Jack  Vanuatu 21.94
Olapade Adeniken  Nigeria DNS

Heat 9

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Jeff Williams  United States 20.37 Q
2 Vladyslav Dolohodin  Ukraine 20.57 Q
3 Francisco Navarro  Spain 20.87 Q
4 Alain Reimann  Switzerland 20.99
5 Ousmane Diarra  Mali 21.20
6 Mohamed Al-Aswad  United Arab Emirates 21.77
Ibrahim Ismail Muftah  Qatar DNS

Heat 10

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Koji Ito  Japan 20.56 Q
2 Torbjorn Eriksson  Sweden 20.77 Q
3 Emmanuel Tuffour  Ghana 20.85 Q
4 Mark Keddell  New Zealand 20.93
5 Justice Dipeba  Botswana 21.09
6 Carlton Chambers  Canada 21.32
7 Miguel Janssen  Aruba 21.72

Heat 11

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Frank Fredericks  Namibia 20.59 Q
2 Seun Ogunkoya  Nigeria 20.78 Q
3 Gary Ryan  Ireland 20.78 Q
4 Sebastian Keitel  Chile 20.96
5 Christoph Pöstinger  Austria 20.98
6 Sandro Floris  Italy 21.01
7 Chen Wenzhong  China 21.05

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Frank Fredericks  Namibia 20.38 Q
2 Jeff Williams  United States 20.47 Q
3 Obadele Thompson  Barbados 20.53 Q
4 Erik Wymeersch  Belgium 20.59
5 Percival Spencer  Jamaica 20.59
6 Troy Douglas  Bermuda 20.63
7 Francisco Navarro  Spain 21.06
O'Brian Gibbons  Canada DNS

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Michael Johnson  United States 20.37 Q
2 Geir Moen  Norway 20.48 Q
3 Neil De Silva  Trinidad and Tobago 20.62 Q
4 Robson Da Silva  Brazil 20.65
5 Jordi Mayoral  Spain 20.68
6 George Panayiotopoulos  Greece 20.86
7 Dean Capobianco  Australia 21.03
8 Oumar Loum  Senegal 21.31

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Ivan Garcia  Cuba 20.36 Q
2 Koji Ito  Japan 20.47 Q
3 Steve Brimacombe  Australia 20.53 Q
4 Robert Maćkowiak  Poland 20.61
5 Anninos Markoullides  Cyprus 20.63
6 Vladyslav Dolohodin  Ukraine 20.65
7 Elston Cawley  Jamaica 20.75
8 Frank Waota  Ivory Coast 21.14

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Michael Marsh  United States 20.39 Q
2 Patrick Stevens  Belgium 20.43 Q
3 John Regis  Great Britain 20.56 Q
4 Sergejs Inšakovs  Latvia 20.58 q
5 Albert Agyemang  Ghana 20.87
6 Seun Ogunkoya  Nigeria 21.00
7 Joseph Loua  Guinea 21.01
Claudinei da Silva  Brazil DNF

Quarterfinal 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Ato Boldon  Trinidad and Tobago 20.25 Q
2 Francis Obikwelu  Nigeria 20.49 Q
3 Emmanuel Tuffour  Ghana 20.49 Q
4 Linford Christie  Great Britain 20.59
5 Edson Ribeiro  Brazil 20.60
6 Torbjorn Eriksson  Sweden 20.83
7 Carlos Gats  Argentina 20.84
8 Gary Ryan  Ireland 20.89

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Michael Johnson  United States 20.27 Q
2 Ivan Garcia  Cuba 20.34 Q
3 Jeff Williams  United States 20.39 Q
4 Patrick Stevens  Belgium 20.46 Q
5 Francis Obikwelu  Nigeria 20.56
6 John Regis  Great Britain 20.58
7 Emmanuel Tuffour  Ghana 20.61
8 Neil De Silva  Trinidad and Tobago 21.26

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1 Frank Fredericks  Namibia 19.98 Q
2 Ato Boldon  Trinidad and Tobago 20.05 Q
3 Michael Marsh  United States 20.26 Q
4 Obadele Thompson  Barbados 20.32 Q
5 Steve Brimacombe  Australia 20.38
6 Koji Ito  Japan 20.45
7 Sergejs Inšakovs  Latvia 20.48
8 Geir Moen  Norway 20.96

Final

Held on August 1, 1996.

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Michael Johnson  United States 19.32 WR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Frank Fredericks  Namibia 19.68 AR
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Ato Boldon  Trinidad and Tobago 19.80
4 Obadele Thompson  Barbados 20.14
5 Jeff Williams  United States 20.17
6 Ivan Garcia  Cuba 20.21
7 Patrick Stevens  Belgium 20.27
8 Michael Marsh  United States 20.48

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