Men's 200 metres world record progression

World record progression for the men's 200 m.

The following table shows the world record progression in the men's 200 metres, as ratified by the IAAF. The current record of 19.19 seconds was set by Usain Bolt at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.

The IAAF maintained separate records for 200 m over a straight track and over a curved track until 1976, when records for the former were discarded. The IAAF ratified the first record for 200 m on a curved track in 1951. "y" denotes times for 220 yards (201.17 m) which were also ratified for the event.

As of 2018, the IAAF has ratified 24 outdoor world records in the event. ^[1]

Indoor

Indoor records are run on a shorter 200 metres track. "y" indicates marks were set over the 220 yards (201.17 m) imperial distance, and an asterisk indicates a record was repeated. Only Marie-Rose, Christie, and Fredericks' records were ratified by the IAAF. ^[2]

Time	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
Manual timing
22.6y	Maxie Long	United States	Buffalo	January 19, 1901
22.6y*	Loren Murchison	United States	Brooklyn	April 28, 1919
22.4y	Loren Murchison	United States	New York	January 6, 1925
22.2y	Loren Murchison	United States	New York	January 6, 1925
22.2y*	Ted Ellison	United States	New York	March 1, 1935
21.7y	Thomas Robinson	Bahamas	Chicago	January 18, 1959
21.7y*	James Green	United States	Chicago	December 23, 1967
21.6*	Dieter Hübner	West Germany	Stuttgart	March 2, 1968
21.6	Bernd Jacob	West Germany	Stuttgart	March 2, 1968
21.2y [a]	John Carlos	United States	East Lansing	February 14, 1970
21.1y	Carl Lawson	Jamaica	Pocatello	March 2, 1974
21.1	Günter Arnold	East Germany	Berlin-Est	January 18, 1976
20.6y	Erwin Skamrahl	West Germany	Sindelfingen	February 11, 1983
Electronic timing
21.43	Manfred Ommer	West Germany	Stuttgart	February 26, 1972
21.40	Manfred Ommer	West Germany	Munich	February 23, 1974
21.16	Karl-Heinz Weisenseel	West Germany	Stuttgart	February 22, 1975
21.11	Karl-Heinz Weisenseel	West Germany	Sindelfingen	February 25, 1978
21.11*	Pietro Mennea	Italy	Milan	March 4, 1978
21.05	Mauro Zuliani	Italy	Genova	February 9, 1980
20.99	Erwin Skamrahl	West Germany	Dortmund	February 13, 1982
20.98	Ralf Lübke	West Germany	Sindelfingen	February 11, 1983
20.77	Ralf Lübke	West Germany	Sindelfingen	February 12, 1983
20.74	Pietro Mennea	Italy	Genova	February 13, 1983
20.67	Ralf Lübke	West Germany	Stuttgart	February 10, 1984
20.57	Ralf Lübke	West Germany	Stuttgart	February 11, 1984
20.52	Stefano Tilli	Italy	Turin	February 21, 1985
20.36	Bruno Marie-Rose	France	Liévin	February 22, 1987
20.25	Linford Christie	Great Britain	Liévin	February 19, 1995
19.92	Frank Fredericks	Namibia	Liévin	February 18, 1996

Outdoor

Records 1951–1976

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
20.6y			Andy Stanfield	United States	Philadelphia, United States	May 26, 1951 [4]
20.6			Andy Stanfield	United States	Los Angeles, United States	June 28, 1952 [4]
20.6	0.0		Thane Baker	United States	Bakersfield, United States	June 23, 1956 [4]
20.6		20.75	Bobby Morrow	United States	Melbourne, Australia	November 27, 1956 [4]
20.6			Manfred Germar	West Germany	Wuppertal, Germany	October 1, 1958 [4]
20.6y	−1.6		Ray Norton	United States	Berkeley, United States	March 19, 1960 [4]
20.6			Ray Norton	United States	Philadelphia, United States	April 30, 1960 [4]
20.5y			Peter Radford	United Kingdom	Wolverhampton, United Kingdom	May 28, 1960 [4]
20.5	0.0	20.75	Stone Johnson	United States	Stanford, United States	July 2, 1960 [4]
20.5	0.0		Ray Norton	United States	Stanford, United States	July 2, 1960 [4]
20.5		20.65	Livio Berruti	Italy	Rome, Italy	September 3, 1960 [4]
20.5	0.0	20.62	Livio Berruti	Italy	Rome, Italy	September 3, 1960 [4]
20.5y	−1.1	20.67	Paul Drayton	United States	Walnut, United States	June 23, 1962 [4]
20.3y	−0.1		Henry Carr	United States	Tempe, United States	March 23, 1963 [4]
20.2y	0.5		Henry Carr	United States	Tempe, United States	April 4, 1964 [4]
20.0y	0.0		Tommie Smith	United States	Sacramento, United States	June 11, 1966 [5] [4]
19.8 A	0.9	19.83 A	Tommie Smith	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 16, 1968 [4]
19.8 A	0.9	19.86 A	Don Quarrie	Jamaica	Cali, Colombia	August 3, 1971 [4]
19.8y	1.3		Don Quarrie	Jamaica	Eugene, United States	June 7, 1975 [4]

The "Time" column indicates the ratified mark; the "Wind" column indicates the wind assistance in metres per second, 2.0 m/s the current maximum allowable, a negative indicates the mark was set running into a wind; the "Auto" column indicates a fully automatic time that was also recorded in the event when hand-timed marks were used for official records, or which was the basis for the official mark, rounded to the 10th or 100th of a second, depending on the rules then in place.

John Carlos ran 19.7A seconds (19.92A auto) (1.9 ms wind), at altitude, at the 1968 US Olympic Trials in Echo Summit. The run was not ratified as a world record because Carlos was wearing shoes with 'brush' spikes which did not have sanction as official footwear.

Henry Carr's winning time at the 1964 Olympics (17 October) was a hand timed 20.3 seconds. The electronic time was 20.36 seconds, which was the fastest auto time to that date. Tommie Smith ran 20.26 for 220 yards at Provo in 1967. By deducting .12 seconds for the 200 metre equivalent, he is estimated to have run 20.14 for that distance. ^{[6] : 45}

Records post-1977

Beginning in 1975, the IAAF accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting on January 1, 1977, the IAAF required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events. ^[4]

Tommie Smith's 1968 Olympic gold medal victory was the fastest recorded fully electronic 200 metre sprint up to that time.

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
19.83 A	0.9		Tommie Smith	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 16, 1968 [4]
19.72 A	1.8		Pietro Mennea	Italy	Mexico City, Mexico	September 12, 1979 [4]
19.66	1.7		Michael Johnson	United States	Atlanta, United States	June 23, 1996 [4]
19.32	0.4	19.313	Michael Johnson	United States	Atlanta, United States	August 1, 1996 [4]
19.30	−0.9	19.296	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	Beijing, China	August 20, 2008 [4]
19.19	−0.3	19.190	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	Berlin, Germany	August 20, 2009 [1] [7] [8]

The record progressions for automatic times at low altitude (after Carr's 20.36 in 1964) were 20.30 seconds by Valeriy Borzov at Helsinki in 1971, then Larry Black 20.28, 1972 at Munich, 20.00 (Borzov, 1972 also at Munich), 19.96 (Mennea, 1980), 19.75 (Carl Lewis, 1983), 19.75 (Joe DeLoach, 1988) and 19.73 (Michael Marsh, 1992), before Michael Johnson ran 19.66 in 1996. ^{[6] : 46–47}

See also

• Women's 200 metres world record progression
• Men's 100 metres world record progression

Notes

1. Some considered Carlos' time invalid for records as it was run on a dirt track. ^[3]

References

1. "IAAF World Championships: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Daegu 2011" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2011. pp. Pages 595, 596. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
2. "Main > Records Progression - World Indoor Records Men, 200 m". trackfield.brinkster.net.
3. "2 World Marks Fall in Simplot Games". Idaho State Journal . 28 Feb 1971. p. 9. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
4. "12th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2009" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2009. pp. Pages 546, 547. Archived from the original (pdf) on June 29, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
5. original source has the correct year--1966, not 1968
6. Hymans, Richard; Matrahazi, Imre. "IAAF World Records Progression" (pdf) (2015 ed.). International Association of Athletics Federations . Retrieved March 11, 2019.
7. Clarey, Christopher (August 20, 2009). "Bolt Needs Little Urging to Crush His 200 World Record". New York Times .
8. "World records set at Berlin World Championships have been ratified". IAAF. 2009-09-20. Retrieved 2010-05-02.