Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre backstroke
The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 26 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.Results
Heats
Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 5 | Brad Bridgewater | | 1:59.04 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | Tripp Schwenk | | 1:59.58 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 2 | Mirko Mazzari | | 1:59.95 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | Emanuele Merisi | | 2:00.01 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | Hajime Itoi | | 2:00.43 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 6 | Martín López-Zubero | | 2:00.77 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 2 | Bartosz Sikora | | 2:00.99 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 3 | Rodolfo Falcón | | 2:01.20 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 4 | Vladimir Selkov | | 2:01.32 | q, |
| 10 | 4 | 3 | Adam Ruckwood | | 2:01.35 | q |
| 11 | 5 | 7 | Ji Sang-jun | | 2:01.39 | q |
| 12 | 6 | 5 | Ralf Braun | | 2:01.50 | q, |
| 13 | 4 | 1 | Olivér Ágh | | 2:01.84 | q |
| 14 | 3 | 6 | Marko Strahija | | 2:01.95 | q, NR |
| 15 | 6 | 6 | Ryuji Horii | | 2:02.33 | q |
| 16 | 5 | 6 | Chris Renaud | | 2:02.48 | q |
| 17 | 3 | 4 | Rogério Romero | | 2:03.49 | q |
| 18 | 4 | 7 | Sergey Ostapchuk | | 2:03.50 | q |
| 19 | 3 | 1 | Miroslav Machovič | | 2:04.15 | NR |
| 20 | 5 | 1 | Neisser Bent | | 2:04.23 | |
| 21 | 3 | 2 | Derya Büyükuncu | | 2:04.28 | |
| 22 | 2 | 4 | Arūnas Savickas | | 2:04.38 | |
| 23 | 6 | 1 | Steven Dewick | | 2:04.46 | |
| 24 | 3 | 3 | Rastislav Bizub | | 2:04.55 | |
| 25 | 3 | 7 | Raymond Papa | | 2:05.09 | |
| 26 | 2 | 7 | Dulyarit Phuangthong | | 2:05.26 | |
| 27 | 2 | 8 | Nicolás Rajcevich | | 2:05.79 | NR |
| 28 | 1 | 4 | Nicholas Neckles | | 2:05.88 | |
| 29 | 3 | 8 | Nuno Laurentino | | 2:05.95 | |
| 30 | 2 | 5 | Carlos Arena | | 2:05.96 | |
| 31 | 1 | 5 | Alex Lim | | 2:06.17 | |
| 32 | 6 | 8 | Martin Harris | | 2:07.75 | |
| 33 | 2 | 1 | Artur Elezarov | | 2:07.86 | |
| 34 | 6 | 3 | Nicolae Butacu | | 2:08.59 | |
| 35 | 2 | 3 | Adrian O'Connor | | 2:08.90 | |
| 36 | 1 | 3 | Gerald Koh | | 2:09.86 | |
| 37 | 2 | 6 | Panagiotis Adamidis | | 2:10.22 | |
| 38 | 1 | 6 | Trương Ngọc Tuấn | | 2:12.05 | |
| 39 | 4 | 8 | Zhao Yi | | 2:13.31 | |
| 2 | 2 | Fahad Al-Otaibi | | | |
| 3 | 5 | Volodymyr Nikolaychuk | | | |
| 4 | 5 | Tamás Deutsch | | | |
| 5 | 8 | Stev Theloke | | | |
| 6 | 2 | Jani Sievinen | | | |
Finals
Final B
Final A
