Darvis "Doc" Darell Patton is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in sprinting events. He is a two-time US Champion in the 200-meter dash and won the silver medal in the event at the 2003 World Championships. He is a three-time Olympian and a four-time participant at the World Athletics Championships.
The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first recorded event at the ancient Olympic Games. The 200 m places more emphasis on speed endurance than shorter sprint distances as athletes predominantly rely on anaerobic energy system during the 200 m sprint. Similarly to other sprint distances, the 200 m begins from the starting blocks. When the sprinters adopt the 'set' position in the blocks they are able to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles. This enables them to stride forwards more powerfully when the race begins and start faster.
Wallace Spearmon Jr. is a retired American sprint athlete, who specializes in the 200 meters. He is a two-time NCAA outdoor champion in the 200 m and won the silver medal in the event at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. He has a personal best of 19.65 seconds for the distance, making him the thirteenth fastest 200 meter runner of all time, and he formerly held the indoor American record.
Christian Sean Malcolm is a retired Welsh track and field athlete who specialised in the 200 metres. In 2020 he was appointed Head Coach of the British Athletics Olympic Programme.
Christopher Williams is a Jamaican track and field sprinter.
Daniel Bakka Everton Bailey is a sprinter from Antigua and Barbuda who specializes in the 100m.
Jaysuma Saidy Ndure is a Gambian-Norwegian sprinter. He is of Serer heritage of the noble Ndure family. In 2002, he went to Oslo, aged 18 and settled with his father who has lived in Norway since the 1970s. Having changed nationality from Gambia to Norway in 2006, he holds Norwegian records in the 100 and holds both the Gambian and Norwegian records in the 200 metres, and is the seventh and fourth fastest European of all times on the two distances. He has a bronze medal from the African Championships and several top-three placings in IAAF Golden League meets and the IAAF World Athletics Final.
Churandy Thomas Martina is a Dutch sprinter. He originally placed second in the 200 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but was later disqualified due to a lane violation. Martina secured four and two individual top-five finishes at the Summer Olympics and World Athletics Championships respectively. He was the 100 metres 2007 Pan American Games champion representing the Netherlands Antilles and claimed three individual titles at the Central American and Caribbean Games. He won gold medals in the 200 m and 100 m at the 2012 and 2016 European Athletics Championships respectively.
Kristof Beyens is a Belgian sprint athlete, who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres. His personal best time over 200 metres is 20.44 s, achieved in Osaka during the World Championships.
Kenneth “Ken” Harnden is a Zimbabwean track and field coach and former hurdler who specialized in the 400 metres hurdles.
Walter Dix is a retired American sprinter who specialized in the 100 meters and 200 meters. He is the sixth-fastest 200-meter runner ever with a best of 19.53 seconds, and has broken the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, with a best of 9.88 (9.80w) seconds. He was the only track athlete from USA to win 2 individual Olympic medals in Beijing.
Yohan Blake is a Jamaican sprinter specialising in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprint races. He won gold at the 100m at the 2011 World Athletics Championships as the youngest 100m world champion ever, and a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the 100m and 200m races for the Jamaican team behind Usain Bolt. His times of 9.75 in 100m and 19.44 in 200m are the fastest 100m and 200m Olympic sprints in history to not win the gold medal.
Ngonidzashe Makusha is a Zimbabwean sprinter and long jumper. He is the national record holder over 100 m and Long Jump for Zimbabwe with 9.89 s (+1.3 m/s) and 8.40 m (0.0 m/s) respectively. Both performances achieved during the 2011 NCAA Division I Championships in Des Moines, Iowa where he completed the 100 m long jump double. Following the 2 gold medals victory, Makusha became one of the only four, now five, athletes to win the double at the NCAA championships. The four others are DeHart Hubbard (1925), Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis (1981), and Jarrion Lawson (2016).
Isaac Makwala is a Botswana sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres.
Warren Weir is a retired Jamaican sprinter, who specialized in the 200 metres. He was the bronze medallist in the event at the 2012 London Olympics, helping Jamaica sweep the medals. In 2013 at the Moscow World Championships, Warren Weir won the silver medal equalling his personal best. He finished behind Usain Bolt who set a World Leading time. His personal best is 19.79 seconds set at the National Stadium in his home country Kingston, Jamaica. He has since equalled his personal best in Moscow, in the World Championship final. He trained with the Glen Mills-coached Racers Track Club, alongside Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.
Xie Zhenye is a Chinese sprinter. He is the current Asian record holder of the 200 metres with a time of 19.88 seconds. In 2018, Xie ran a personal best of 9.97 seconds in the 100 metres, making him the second Chinese sprinter to record a time below the 10-second barrier, after his compatriot Su Bingtian. Xie represented China at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Olympics where he became the first Chinese athlete to have ever qualified for a semi-final of men's 200 metres at any Summer Olympic Games. In 2023, in the absence of his injured compatriot Su Bingtian, Xie became the 2022 Asian Games champion in the 100 metres event, with a time of 9.97 seconds.
Gonezie Marie Josée Dominique Ta Lou-Smith is an Ivorian sprinter competing in the 100 metres and 200 m. She finished fourth in the 100 metres and 200 metres finals at the 2016 Olympic Games, missing out on a medal in the 100m by seven-thousandths of a second (0.007). She then won silver medals in the 100 metres and 200 metres at the 2017 World Championships, the latter in the national record time of 22.08 seconds. Her 100 metres best is 10.72 seconds (2022), thus making her the African record holder.
Saviour Kombe is a Zambian track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. His personal best for the distance is 45.27 seconds. He is a joint holder of the Zambian record in the 4×100 metres relay and 4×400 metres relay.
Ejowvokoghene Divine Oduduru is a Nigerian sprinter specializing in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash. He holds personal bests of 9.86 seconds for the 100 m and 19.73 seconds for the 200 m. The latter is a Nigerian national record.
The men's 200 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 16–18 August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange. There were 77 competitors from 48 nations. The event was won by Usain Bolt of Jamaica, his third consecutive gold medal in the event. Bolt earned his eighth overall gold, needing only the 4x100 metres relay the next day to complete the sprint triple-triple. It was Jamaica's fourth victory in the event, second-most among nations. Andre De Grasse earned Canada's first medal in the event since 1928 with his silver; Christophe Lemaitre's bronze was France's first since 1960. The United States missed the podium for only the fifth time in the history of the men's 200 metres; it was the first time that it had done so in consecutive Games.
