Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre backstroke


The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 20–21 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Soviet-born American Lenny Krayzelburg became the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to strike a backstroke double, since Roland Matthes did so in 1968 and 1972, John Naber in 1976, and Rick Carey in 1984. He powered past his nearest rivals Aaron Peirsol and Australia's overwhelming favorite Matt Welsh to hit the wall first in a new Olympic record of 1:56.76. At only 17 years of age, Peirsol trailed behind by almost half a second to take a silver in 1:57.35, handing an entire medal haul for the U.S. team with a one–two finish. Meanwhile, Welsh settled only for the bronze in an Oceanian record of 1:57.59.
Iceland's Örn Arnarson came up with a spectacular swim to earn a fourth spot in 1:59.00, holding off Italy's Emanuele Merisi, bronze medalist in Atlanta four years earlier, by a hundredth of a second. Romania's Răzvan Florea finished sixth with a time of 1:59.05, while Brazil's Rogério Romero, competing at his fourth Olympics, and Croatia's Gordan Kožulj closed out the field. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went under a two-minute barrier.
Earlier, Krayzelburg established a new Olympic standard of 1:58.40 on the morning prelims to cut off Martin López-Zubero's eight-year record by seven hundredths of a second. Followed by an evening session, he eventually lowered it to 1:57.27 in the semifinals.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
20 SeptemberHeat 6Lenny Krayzelburg1:58.40
20 SeptemberSemifinal 2Lenny Krayzelburg1:57.27
21 SeptemberFinalLenny Krayzelburg1:56.76

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
164Lenny Krayzelburg1:58.40Q,
254Aaron Peirsol1:59.10Q
366Cameron Delaney1:59.61Q
465Matt Welsh1:59.76Q
541Răzvan Florea1:59.79Q
648Örn Arnarson1:59.80Q, NR
756Emanuele Merisi1:59.92Q
862Sergey Ostapchuk2:00.17Q
944Gordan Kožulj2:00.19Q
1055Rogério Romero2:00.48Q
1146Chris Renaud2:00.51Q
1257Marko Strahija2:00.72Q
1352Yoav Gath2:00.80Q
1432Klaas-Erik Zwering2:00.94Q, NR
1543Volodymyr Nikolaychuk2:01.07Q, NR
1645Leonardo Costa2:01.08Q
1753Simon Dufour2:01.09
1867Adam Ruckwood2:01.11
1961Simon Militis2:01.20
2068Dustin Hersee2:01.34
2163Ralf Braun2:01.35
2235Scott Talbot-Cameron2:01.53
2337Blaž Medvešek2:01.67
2422Neisser Bent2:02.05
2551Mirko Mazzari2:02.13
2647Fu Yong2:02.70
2734Markus Rogan2:02.84
2833Alejandro Bermúdez2:03.43
2958Guillermo Mediano2:03.45
3024Mario Carvalho2:03.82
3136Miroslav Machovič2:04.73
3238Arūnas Savickas2:05.06
3313Alex Fong2:05.47NR
3426Eduardo Germán Otero2:05.51
3527Torwai Sethsothorn2:05.52
3623Ahmed Hussein2:06.10
3728Gary Tan2:06.32
3814Andrei Mihailov2:06.67
3921Lee Jong-min2:07.14
4015Ivan Angelov2:07.30
4117Guillermo Cabrera2:08.22
4231Alex Lim2:08.23
4316Miloš Cerović2:09.07
4412Aleksandr Yegorov2:13.85
42Viktor Bodrogi
25Simon Thirsk

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final