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

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 17 and 18.
After missing out the semifinals in Sydney four years earlier, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima shattered one of the longest-standing Olympic swimming records when he clocked 2:09.44, erasing a 0.77-second mark by American swimmer Mike Barrowman in 1992. This achievement secured a breaststroke double for the second consecutive time. In a surprise turn of events, 15-year-old Dániel Gyurta of Hungary claimed the silver medal with a time of 2:10.80, narrowly edging out U.S. swimmer Brendan Hansen in a close race by 0.07 of a second. Hansen, who broke Kitajima's world record at the U.S. Olympic trials one month ago, finished third in 2:10.87.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Brendan Hansen (USA) | 2:09.04 | Long Beach, United States | 11 July 2004 |
| Olympic record | Mike Barrowman (USA) | 2:10.16 | Barcelona, Spain | 29 July 1992 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 18 | Final | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:09.44 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | 2 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 2:11.29 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:11.97 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 5 | Paolo Bossini | Italy | 2:12.09 | Q |
| 4 | 4 | 3 | Mike Brown | Canada | 2:12.69 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | 4 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 2:12.77 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 8 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 2:12.96 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 3 | Ian Edmond | Great Britain | 2:13.08 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 3 | Grigory Falko | Russia | 2:13.45 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 5 | Scott Usher | United States | 2:13.59 | Q |
| 10 | 6 | 5 | Jim Piper | Australia | 2:13.79 | Q |
| 11 | 5 | 6 | Genki Imamura | Japan | 2:14.10 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 1 | Terence Parkin | South Africa | 2:14.12 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 2 | Maxim Podoprigora | Austria | 2:14.31 | Q |
| 14 | 6 | 7 | Richárd Bodor | Hungary | 2:14.36 | Q |
| 15 | 2 | 4 | Lai Zhongjian | China | 2:14.61 | Q |
| 16 | 4 | 6 | Chris Cook | Great Britain | 2:14.68 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | 4 | Dmitry Komornikov | Russia | 2:14.92 | |
| 18 | 4 | 8 | Jens Kruppa | Germany | 2:15.29 | |
| 19 | 3 | 2 | Ratapong Sirisanont | Thailand | 2:15.39 | |
| 20 | 3 | 3 | Valeriy Dymo | Ukraine | 2:15.52 | |
| 21 | 3 | 4 | Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson | Iceland | 2:15.60 | |
| 22 | 6 | 8 | Michael Williamson | Ireland | 2:15.75 | |
| 23 | 4 | 2 | Regan Harrison | Australia | 2:15.86 | |
| 24 | 2 | 1 | Eduardo Fischer | Brazil | 2:16.04 | |
| 25 | 5 | 1 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 2:16.56 | |
| 26 | 5 | 7 | Thijs van Valkengoed | Netherlands | 2:16.80 | |
| 27 | 6 | 1 | Martin Gustavsson | Sweden | 2:17.12 | |
| 28 | 2 | 5 | Mihail Alexandrov | Bulgaria | 2:17.19 | |
| 29 | 6 | 6 | Morgan Knabe | Canada | 2:17.20 | |
| 30 | 3 | 6 | Daniel Málek | Czech Republic | 2:17.47 | |
| 31 | 2 | 6 | Sofiane Daid | Algeria | 2:17.78 | |
| 32 | 3 | 7 | Aleksander Baldin | Estonia | 2:17.90 | |
| 33 | 3 | 8 | Romanos Alyfantis | Greece | 2:18.18 | |
| 34 | 2 | 8 | Andrey Morkovin | Uzbekistan | 2:18.48 | |
| 35 | 1 | 3 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 2:18.64 | |
| 36 | 2 | 2 | Emil Tahirovič | Slovenia | 2:18.65 | |
| 37 | 3 | 1 | Vanja Rogulj | Croatia | 2:18.81 | |
| 38 | 1 | 1 | Miguel Molina | Philippines | 2:19.19 | |
| 39 | 2 | 3 | Ben Labowitch | New Zealand | 2:19.25 | |
| 40 | 4 | 7 | Loris Facci | Italy | 2:19.38 | |
| 41 | 2 | 7 | Tam Chi Kin | Hong Kong | 2:19.48 | |
| 42 | 1 | 4 | Wang Wei-wen | Chinese Taipei | 2:20.65 | |
| 43 | 1 | 5 | Malick Fall | Senegal | 2:22.31 | |
| 44 | 1 | 2 | Edvinas Dautartas | Lithuania | 2:23.12 | |
| 45 | 1 | 7 | Sergiu Postica | Moldova | 2:27.21 | |
| 46 | 1 | 6 | Anton Kramarenko | Kyrgyzstan | 2:28.59 | |
| | 3 | 5 | Jarno Pihlava | Finland | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:10.86 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Mike Brown | Canada | 2:12.14 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 2:12.19 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Jim Piper | Australia | 2:12.22 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | Grigory Falko | Russia | 2:12.42 | |
| 6 | 1 | Richárd Bodor | Hungary | 2:12.76 | |
| 7 | 7 | Terence Parkin | South Africa | 2:13.58 | |
| 8 | 8 | Chris Cook | Great Britain | 2:15.91 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 2:10.75 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 2:10.81 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Paolo Bossini | Italy | 2:11.76 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Scott Usher | United States | 2:12.00 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Genki Imamura | Japan | 2:12.86 | |
| 6 | 1 | Maxim Podoprigora | Austria | 2:14.66 | |
| 7 | 8 | Lai Zhongjian | China | 2:14.94 | |
| | 6 | Ian Edmond | Great Britain | DSQ | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 3 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 2:09.44 | OR |
| | 4 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 2:10.80 | |
| | 5 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 2:10.87 | |
| 4 | 6 | Paolo Bossini | Italy | 2:11.20 | |
| 5 | 1 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 2:11.76 | |
| 6 | 7 | Mike Brown | Canada | 2:11.94 | |
| 7 | 2 | Scott Usher | United States | 2:11.95 | |
| | 8 | Jim Piper | Australia | DSQ | |