Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle

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Men's 200 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Thorpe Plaque in Olympic Parc Sydney.JPG
Plaque commemorating Ian Thorpe's Olympic performances, including a gold medal in this event
Venue Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre
DatesAugust 15, 2004 (heats &
semifinals)
August 16, 2004 (final)
Competitors59 from 53 nations
Winning time1:44.71 OR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Ian Thorpe
Flag of Australia.svg  Australia
Silver medal icon.svg Pieter van den Hoogenband
Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands
Bronze medal icon.svg Michael Phelps
Flag of the United States.svg  United States
  2000
2008  

The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece. The event took place on 15 and 16 August. There were 59 competitors from 53 nations, with each nation having up to two swimmers (a limit in place since 1984). [1]

In the lead-up to the final, the event was billed as The Race of the Century or the "greatest swimming race of all-time", due to its significance and high-class field. It featured four of the fastest swimmers in Olympic history: Ian Thorpe (Australia, world record holder in the event at the time), Pieter van den Hoogenband (Netherlands, defending Olympic champion), Grant Hackett (Australia, former world record holder in the event), and Michael Phelps (United States, later became the most decorated all-time Olympian, with a total of 28 medals). The eight finalists combined for 34 Olympic and 58 World Championship titles over their careers. [1]

Thorpe edged out Pieter van den Hoogenband in the final 50 metres to claim his second gold at the Games and fifth career medal, following his triumph in the 400 m freestyle two days earlier. [2] With only 50 metres to go, he powered past his arch-rival to touch the wall first in an Olympic record of 1:44.71, matching the third fastest swim over the distance. Van den Hoogenband, who led the field through the first three laps under a world record pace, won silver in 1:45.23. [3] Meanwhile, Phelps finished the race with a bronze in an American record of 1:45.32, ending his hopes of equalling Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven gold medals. [3] [4] [5] (Phelps would pass that record in 2008.)

Thorpe and van den Hoogenband were the second and third men to win multiple medals in the 200 metre freestyle. Phelps would become the fourth in 2008.

Background

This was the 12th appearance of the 200 metre freestyle event. It was first contested in 1900. It would be contested a second time, though at 220 yards, in 1904. After that, the event did not return until 1968; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games. [1]

Four of the 8 finalists from the 2000 Games returned: gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands, silver medalist Ian Thorpe of Australia, seventh-place finisher Rick Say of Canada, and eighth-place finisher Grant Hackett of Australia. Thorpe and van den Hoogenband had finished first and second, respectively, at both the 2001 and 2003 World Championships. American Klete Keller had taken third in 2001, with Hackett earning bronze in 2003. Added to this already strong field was Michael Phelps—an individual medley specialist who had set an American record in the 200 metre freestyle as the lead leg at the 2003 World Championships (not swimming the individual event there) and beaten Keller by six-tenths of a second at the U.S. trials. [1]

The Cayman Islands, Chile, Georgia, Latvia, Macedonia, Morocco, and Serbia and Montenegro each made their debut in the event. Australia made its 12th appearance, the only nation to have competed in all prior editions of the event.

Competition format

The competition followed the format established in 2000, with three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. The top 16 swimmers from the heats advanced to the semifinals. The top 8 semifinalists advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World recordFlag of Australia (converted).svg  Ian Thorpe  (AUS)1:44.06 Fukuoka, Japan 25 July 2001
Olympic recordFlag of the Netherlands.svg  Pieter van den Hoogenband  (NED)1:45.35 Sydney, Australia 18 September 2000

The following records were established during the competition:

DateEventSwimmerNationTimeRecord
16 AugustFinal Ian Thorpe Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:44.71 OR

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

DateTimeRound
Sunday, 15 August 200410:19
19:44
Heats
Semifinals
Monday, 16 August 200419:45Final

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
184 Ian Thorpe Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:47.22Q
285 Pieter van den Hoogenband Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1:47.32Q
383 Emiliano Brembilla Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:47.95Q
475 Klete Keller Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:47.97Q
564 Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:48.43Q
686 Simon Burnett Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:48.68Q
774 Grant Hackett Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:48.90Q
876 Jens Schreiber Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:49.00Q, WD
982 Květoslav Svoboda Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 1:49.25Q
1065 Rick Say Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:49.32Q
1181 Dominik Meichtry Civil Ensign of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 1:49.45Q
1277 George Bovell Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago 1:49.48Q
1372 Yoshihiro Okumura Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:49.54Q
1473 Brent Hayden Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:49.56Q
1578 Andreas Zisimos Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 1:49.60Q
1663 Andrey Kapralov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:49.91Q
1767 Olaf Wildeboer Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 1:50.01Q
1853 Jacob Carstensen Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 1:50.15
1966 Stefan Herbst Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:50.23
2061 Rodrigo Castro Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1:50.27
2158 Saulius Binevičius Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 1:50.50
2287 Peter Mankoč Civil Ensign of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 1:50.72
2354 Romāns Miloslavskis Flag of Latvia (3-2).svg  Latvia 1:50.83
2471 Maksim Kuznetsov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:50.93
2588 Nicolas Rostoucher Flag of France.svg  France 1:50.96
2655 Dominik Koll Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 1:51.36
2742 Dmytro Vereitinov Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 1:51.38
2843 Joshua Ilika Brenner Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico 1:51.66
2951 Luís Monteiro Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal 1:51.78
3051 Łukasz Drzewiński Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 1:51.90
3126 Mihail Alexandrov Flag of Bulgaria.svg  Bulgaria 1:52.12
3257 Tamás Szűcs Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 1:52.26
3356 Han Kyu-chul Flag of South Korea (1997-2011).svg  South Korea 1:52.28
3448 Damian Alleyne Flag of Barbados.svg  Barbados 1:52.89
3532 Aleksandar Malenko Flag of Macedonia.svg  Macedonia 1:53.00
47 Mahrez Mebarek Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 1:53.00
3745 Yahor Salabutau Flag of Belarus (1995-2012).svg  Belarus 1:53.03
3835 Albert Subirats Flag of Venezuela (1954-2006).png  Venezuela 1:53.11
3946 Giancarlo Zolezzi Flag of Chile.svg  Chile 1:53.18
4037 Juan Martín Pereyra Flag of Argentina (1861-2010).svg  Argentina 1:53.19
38 Shaune Fraser Flag of the Cayman Islands (pre-1999).svg  Cayman Islands 1:53.19
4241 Miguel Molina Flag of the Philippines.svg  Philippines 1:53.81
4368 Zhang Lin Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:53.84
4433 Alexandros Aresti Flag of Cyprus (1960-2006).svg  Cyprus 1:53.90
4523 Martín Kutscher Flag of Uruguay.svg  Uruguay 1:53.91
4662 Andrea Beccari Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:54.00
4734 Chen Te-tung Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg  Chinese Taipei 1:54.14
4815 Igor Erhartić Flag of Serbia and Montenegro.svg  Serbia and Montenegro 1:54.21
4925 Ştefan Pinciuc Flag of Moldova (3-2).svg  Moldova 1:54.56
5021 Anouar Ben Naceur Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 1:54.69
5122 Mark Chay Flag of Singapore.svg  Singapore 1:54.70
5244 Aytekin Mindan Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 1:55.65
5324 Adil Bellaz Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco 1:55.79
5436 Mario Delač Civil ensign of Croatia.svg  Croatia 1:55.82
5527 Vitaliy Khan Flag of Kazakhstan (3-2).svg  Kazakhstan 1:56.11
5631 Diego Mularoni Flag of San Marino (before 2011).svg  San Marino 1:56.18
5728 Petr Vasiliev Flag of Uzbekistan (3-2).svg  Uzbekistan 1:56.93
5813 Zurab Khomasuridze Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia 1:58.02
5914 Ruslan Ismailov Flag of Kyrgyzstan (1992-2023).svg  Kyrgyzstan 2:01.53

Semifinals

RankHeatLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
114 Pieter van den Hoogenband Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1:46.00Q
224 Ian Thorpe Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:46.65Q
323 Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:47.08Q
415 Klete Keller Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:47.28Q
526 Grant Hackett Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:47.61Q
613 Simon Burnett Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:47.72Q
725 Emiliano Brembilla Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:47.93Q
822 Rick Say Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:48.16Q
916 Květoslav Svoboda Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 1:49.27
1017 Yoshihiro Okumura Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:49.49
1127 George Bovell Flag of Trinidad and Tobago.svg  Trinidad and Tobago 1:49.59
1211 Andreas Zisimos Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 1:49.76
1321 Brent Hayden Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:50.00
1412 Dominik Meichtry Civil Ensign of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 1:50.02
1518 Olaf Wildeboer Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 1:50.61
1628 Andrey Kapralov Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:51.35

Final

RankLaneSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Gold medal icon.svg5 Ian Thorpe Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:44.71 OR
Silver medal icon.svg4 Pieter van den Hoogenband Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 1:45.23
Bronze medal icon.svg3 Michael Phelps Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:45.32 AM
46 Klete Keller Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:46.13
52 Grant Hackett Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:46.56
68 Rick Say Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 1:47.55
77 Simon Burnett Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 1:48.02
81 Emiliano Brembilla Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:48.40

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "200 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  2. "Australia hails Athens hero Thorpe". CNN. 17 August 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  3. 1 2 Thomas, Stephen (16 August 2004). "The Thorpedo Triumphs over Hoogie in the "Race of the Century", Phelps Takes the Bronze". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  4. "Thorpe torpedoes his world rivals". CNN. 17 August 2004. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  5. Gordos, Phil (17 August 2004). "Thorpe steals Phelps' thunder". BBC Sport . Retrieved 13 May 2013.