# Swimming at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 200 metre backstroke

The Men's 200 Backstroke event at the 10th FINA World Aquatics Championships swam July 24–25, 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. Preliminary and Semifinal heats were on 24 July with the heats being held in the morning session and the semifinals being held in the evening session. The Final swam on 25 July.
At the start of the event, the existing World (WR) and Championship (CR) records were:
* WR: 1:55.15 swum by Aaron Peirsol (USA) on March 22, 2002 in Minneapolis, USA
* CR: 1:57.13 swum by Aaron Peirsol (USA) on July 27, 2001 in Fukuoka, Japan

## Results
### Final

| Place | Swimmer | Nation | Time |
| 1 | Aaron Peirsol | USA | 1:55.92 |
| 2 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 1:57.47 |
| 3 | Simon Dufour | France | 1:57.90 |
| 4 | Bryce Hunt | USA | 1:57.92 |
| 5 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 1:57.94 |
| 6 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 1:58.07 |
| 7 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 1:58.66 |
| 8 | Blaž Medvešek | Slovenia | 1:58.96 |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat + Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | S2 L4 | Aaron Peirsol | USA | 1:55.82 | q, CR |
| 2 | S2 L5 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 1:57.88 | q |
| 3 | S1 L5 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 1:57.94 | q |
| 4 | S1 L6 | Bryce Hunt | USA | 1:58.04 | q |
| 5 | S1 L4 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 1:58.34 | q |
| 6 | S1 L2 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 1:58.52 | q |
| 7 | S2 L6 | Simon Dufour | France | 1:58.81 | q |
| 8 | S1 L3 | Gregor Tait | Great Britain | 1:59.02 | swim off |
| 8 | S1 L7 | Blaž Medvešek | Slovenia | 1:59.02 | swim off, q |
| 10 | S2 L2 | Yoav Gath | Israel | 1:59.22 | |
| 11 | S2 L7 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 1:59.29 | |
| 12 | S2 L1 | Steffen Driesen | Germany | 1:59.40 | |
| 13 | S2 L3 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:59.45 | |
| 14 | S2 L8 | Keith Beavers | Canada | 1:59.86 | |
| 15 | S1 L1 | Jorge Sánchez | Spain | 2:00.19 | |
| 16 | S1 L8 | Helge Meeuw | Germany | 2:00.21 | |
Swim-off for 8th
* Blaz Medvesk (Slovenia) -- 1:58.61—q
* Gregor Tait (Great Britain) -- 1:58.80

### Preliminaries

| Rank | Heat+Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | H8 L4 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 1:57.28 | q |
| 2 | H6 L5 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 1:58.26 | q |
| 3 | H8 L1 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 1:59.18 | q |
| 4 | H7 L4 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 1:59.20 | q |
| 5 | H8 L6 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:59.49 | q |
| 6 | H8 L2 | Gregor Tait | Great Britain | 1:59.62 | q |
| 7 | H8 L3 | Simon Dufour | France | 1:59.68 | q |
| 8 | H7 L2 | Bryce Hunt | United States | 1:59.71 | q |
| 9 | H7 L8 | Yoav Gath | Israel | 1:59.82 | q |
| 10 | H8 L5 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 1:59.96 | q |
| 11 | H7 L5 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 2:00.04 | q |
| 12 | H6 L7 | Blaž Medvešek | Slovenia | 2:00.06 | q |
| 12 | H8 L7 | Steffen Driesen | Germany | 2:00.06 | q |
| 14 | H7 L6 | Jorge Sánchez | Spain | 2:00.27 | q |
| 15 | H7 L3 | Keith Beavers | Canada | 2:00.56 | q |
| 16 | H6 L8 | Helge Meeuw | Germany | 2:00.73 | q |
| 17 | H5 L1 | Anton Bugayov | Ukraine | 2:00.76 | |
| 18 | H6 L2 | Ray Hass | Australia | 2:00.77 | |
| 19 | H4 L3 | Tomomi Morita | Japan | 2:01.10 | |
| 20 | H5 L2 | Volodymyr Nikolaychuk | Ukraine | 2:01.35 | |
| 21 | H6 L6 | Evgueni Alechine | Russia | 2:01.42 | |
| 22 | H5 L7 | Alex Lim | Malaysia | 2:01.43 | |
| 23 | H6 L3 | Ouyang Kunpeng | China | 2:01.44 | |
| 24 | H7 L1 | Klaas Erik Zwering | Netherlands | 2:01.56 | |
| 25 | H6 L4 | James Goddard | Great Britain | 2:01.91 | |
| 26 | H5 L4 | Rogério Romero | Brazil | 2:02.06 | |
| 27 | H6 L1 | Cameron Gibson | New Zealand | 2:02.36 | |
| 28 | H5 L5 | Ahmed Hussein | Egypt | 2:02.45 | |
| 29 | H4 L4 | Pavel Suškov | Lithuania | 2:02.65 | |
| 30 | H8 L8 | Rui Yu | China | 2:02.80 | |
| 31 | H7 L7 | Viktor Bodrogi | Hungary | 2:03.22 | |
| 32 | H5 L6 | Min Sung | South Korea | 2:04.10 | |
| 33 | H5 L8 | Paulo Machado | Brazil | 2:04.21 | |
| 34 | H3 L6 | Květoslav Svoboda | Czech Republic | 2:04.96 | |
| 35 | H5 L3 | Sander Ganzevles | Netherlands | 2:05.05 | |
| 36 | H4 L2 | Martin Viilep | Estonia | 2:05.82 | |
| 37 | H4 L5 | Andrei Mihailov | Moldova | 2:08.30 | |
| 38 | H3 L2 | Jared Heine | Marshall Islands | 2:08.88 | |
| 39 | H3 L4 | Juan Carlo Antonio Piccio | Philippines | 2:10.18 | |
| 40 | H4 L8 | Ashby Brendan | Zimbabwe | 2:10.40 | |
| 41 | H3 L3 | Yau Sun Fai | Hong Kong | 2:10.55 | |
| 42 | H2 L5 | Kunakorn Yimsomruay | Thailand | 2:11.18 | |
| 43 | H3 L1 | Long Do Huy | Vietnam | 2:13.43 | |
| 44 | H4 L6 | Yury Zaharov | Kyrgyzstan | 2:13.81 | |
| 45 | H4 L1 | Guillermo Andres Ramirez Lemis | Colombia | 2:14.18 | |
| 46 | H4 L7 | Mauricio Prudencio | Bolivia | 2:14.30 | |
| 47 | H3 L5 | Mikhail Alekseyev | Uzbekistan | 2:14.55 | |
| 48 | H2 L4 | Oleg Deikrishvili | Georgia | 2:16.10 | |
| 49 | H2 L6 | Mohammad Nazeri | Iran | 2:18.09 | |
| 50 | H3 L8 | Rony Bakale | Republic of the Congo | 2:19.03 | |
| 51 | H2 L8 | Seung Gin Lee | Northern Mariana Islands | 2:19.89 | |
| 52 | H2 L3 | Omar Abu Faris | Jordan | 2:20.02 | |
| 53 | H2 L1 | Chi Lon Lei | Macau | 2:21.29 | |
| 54 | H1 L4 | Ammar Musaed Al Tamimi | United Arab Emirates | 2:22.56 | |
| 55 | H2 L2 | Nuno Rola | Angola | 2:25.33 | |
| 56 | H1 L5 | Kabir Walia | Kenya | 2:25.49 | |
| 57 | H1 L6 | Patrick Boustany | Lebanon | 2:27.31 | |
| 58 | H1 L3 | Clark Randrianandraina | Madagascar | 2:33.65 | |
| 59 | H1 L2 | Muzeya Muzyamba | Zambia | 2:34.69 | |
| - | - | Ryan Pini | Papua New Guinea | DNS | |