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

The Men's 200 Freestyle event at the 10th FINA World Aquatics Championships swam on 21–22 July 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. Preliminary and Semifinal heats were on 21 July, while the Final swam on 22 July.
Prior to the start of the event, the existing World (WR) and Championship (CR) records were both:

## Results
### Final

| Place | Swimmer | Nation | Time |
| 1 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 1:45.14 |
| 2 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 1:46.43 |
| 3 | Grant Hackett | Australia | 1:46.85 |
| 4 | Květoslav Svoboda | Czech Republic | 1:48.73 |
| 5 | Andrei Kapralov | Russia | 1:48.76 |
| 6 | Federico Cappellazzo | Italy | 1:48.79 |
| 7 | Peter Mankoč | Slovenia | 1:48.96 |
| 8 | Nate Dusing | United States | 1:49.35 |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat + Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | S2 L4 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 1:46.32 | q |
| 2 | S1 L4 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 1:47.20 | q |
| 3 | S2 L6 | Grant Hackett | Australia | 1:47.72 | q |
| 4 | S2 L3 | Nate Dusing | USA | 1:48.66 | q |
| 5 | S2 L8 | Andrei Kapralov | Russia | 1:48.84 | q |
| 6 | S1 L8 | Peter Mankoč | Slovenia | 1:48.92 | q |
| 7 | S2 L5 | Květoslav Svoboda | Czech Republic | 1:49.23 | q |
| 8 | S1 L7 | Federico Cappellazzo | Italy | 1:49.23 | q |
| 9 | S1 L6 | Rick Say | Canada | 1:49.52 | |
| 10 | S1 L3 | George Bovell | Trinidad and Tobago | 1:49.64 | |
| 11 | S1 L5 | Stefan Herbst | Germany | 1:49.76 | |
| 12 | S2 L7 | Olaf Wildeboer | Spain | 1:49.85 | |
| 13 | S1 L1 | Maxim Kuznetsov | Russia | 1:49.98 | |
| 14 | S2 L1 | Dominik Meichtry | Switzerland | 1:50.59 | |
| 15 | S1 L2 | Romāns Miloslavskis | Latvia | 1:50.66 | |
| 16 | S2 L2 | Klete Keller | USA | 1:51.69 | |

### Preliminaries

| Rank | Heat+Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | H12 L4 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 1:47.21 | q |
| 2 | H13 L4 | Ian Thorpe | Australia | 1:47.99 | q |
| 3 | H12 L3 | Květoslav Svoboda | Czech Republic | 1:49.30 | q |
| 4 | H12 L6 | Stefan Herbst | Germany | 1:49.47 | q |
| 5 | H12 L5 | Nate Dusing | United States | 1:49.49 | q |
| 6 | H08 L4 | George Bovell | Trinidad and Tobago | 1:49.51 | q |
| 7 | H11 L4 | Grant Hackett | Australia | 1:49.66 | q |
| 8 | H13 L3 | Rick Say | Canada | 1:49.75 | q |
| 9 | H11 L5 | Klete Keller | United States | 1:49.77 | q |
| 10 | H10 L5 | Romāns Miloslavskis | Latvia | 1:50.05 | q |
| 11 | H13 L2 | Olaf Wildeboer | Spain | 1:50.06 | q |
| 12 | H11 L3 | Federico Cappellazzo | Italy | 1:50.19 | q |
| 13 | H10 L8 | Dominik Meichtry | Switzerland | 1:50.29 | q |
| 14 | H12 L7 | Maxim Kuznetsov | Russia | 1:50.48 | q |
| 15 | H11 L7 | Andrei Kapralov | Russia | 1:50.53 | q |
| 15 | H11 L8 | Peter Mankoč | Slovenia | 1:50.53 | q |
| 17 | H12 L8 | Kyu Chul Han | South Korea | 1:50.54 | |
| 18 | H10 L4 | Nikolaos Xylouris | Greece | 1:50.61 | |
| 18 | H11 L1 | Rodrigo Castro | Brazil | 1:50.61 | |
| 20 | H11 L2 | Zuo Chen | China | 1:50.62 | |
| 21 | H12 L2 | Yu Liu | China | 1:50.74 | |
| 22 | H13 L6 | Mark Johnston | Canada | 1:50.77 | |
| 23 | H13 L8 | Dragoș Coman | Romania | 1:50.90 | |
| 24 | H09 L3 | Sergiy Fesenko | Ukraine | 1:51.00 | |
| 25 | H13 L7 | Lars Conrad | Germany | 1:51.02 | |
| 26 | H09 L6 | Saulius Binevičius | Lithuania | 1:51.12 | |
| 27 | H10 L1 | Shunichi Fujita | Japan | 1:51.36 | |
| 28 | H09 L5 | Shai Livnat | Israel | 1:51.44 | |
| 29 | H12 L1 | Daisuke Hosokawa | Japan | 1:51.52 | |
| 30 | H11 L6 | Athanasios Oikonomou | Greece | 1:51.55 | |
| 31 | H13 L1 | Tamás Kerékjártó | Hungary | 1:51.63 | |
| 32 | H09 L4 | Cezar Bădiță | Romania | 1:52.37 | |
| 33 | H10 L7 | Rafael Mósca | Brazil | 1:52.93 | |
| 34 | H09 L8 | Gian Carlo Zolezzi | Chile | 1:53.26 | |
| 35 | H09 L1 | Miguel Molina | Philippines | 1:53.76 | |
| 36 | H08 L5 | Victor Rogut | Moldova | 1:53.78 | |
| 37 | H08 L6 | Alexandros Aresti | Cyprus | 1:54.09 | |
| 38 | H10 L3 | Aytekin Mindan | Turkey | 1:54.28 | |
| 39 | H07 L1 | Danil Haustov | Estonia | 1:54.61 | |
| 40 | H10 L6 | Luis Monteiro | Portugal | 1:54.70 | |
| 41 | H07 L6 | Mihail Alexandrov | Bulgaria | 1:54.75 | |
| 42 | H07 L7 | Adil Bellaz | Morocco | 1:54.88 | |
| 43 | H08 L2 | Petr Vasilev | Uzbekistan | 1:54.94 | |
| 44 | H05 L1 | Ken Tomson | Estonia | 1:55.06 | |
| 45 | H07 L5 | Igor Erhartic | FR Yugoslavia | 1:55.07 | |
| 46 | H06 L6 | Vyacheslav Titarenko | Kazakhstan | 1:55.34 | |
| 46 | H08 L1 | Erwin Maldonado | Venezuela | 1:55.34 | |
| 48 | H08 L8 | Max Schnettler | Chile | 1:55.51 | |
| 49 | H06 L3 | Albert Subirats | Venezuela | 1:55.56 | |
| 50 | H06 L4 | Ronald Cowen | Bermuda | 1:55.57 | |
| 51 | H09 L7 | Shilo Ayalon | Israel | 1:55.61 | |
| 52 | H06 L1 | Igor Čerenšek | Croatia | 1:55.66 | |
| 53 | H05 L4 | Tuck Kar Wong | Malaysia | 1:56.10 | |
| 54 | H05 L7 | Carl Probert | Fiji | 1:56.37 | |
| 55 | H06 L5 | Jonas Tilly | Sweden | 1:56.97 | |
| 56 | H07 L2 | Ivan Grougnet | Andorra | 1:57.42 | |
| 57 | H08 L7 | Anovar Bennaceur | Tunisia | 1:57.53 | |
| 58 | H07 L3 | Andrei Zaharov | Moldova | 1:57.73 | |
| 59 | H05 L2 | Zurab Khomasuridze | Georgia | 1:57.78 | |
| 60 | H06 L8 | Emanuele Nicolini | San Marino | 1:57.87 | |
| 61 | H05 L3 | Sergey Tsoy | Uzbekistan | 1:58.05 | |
| 62 | H07 L4 | Cem Pasaoglu | Turkey | 1:58.17 | |
| 63 | H07 L8 | William Muriel | Ecuador | 1:58.21 | |
| 64 | H05 L8 | David Cartin | Costa Rica | 1:58.38 | |
| 65 | H05 L5 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 1:58.58 | |
| 66 | H05 L6 | Carlos Melendez | El Salvador | 1:58.68 | |
| 67 | H04 L1 | Youssef Hafdi | Morocco | 1:58.94 | |
| 68 | H06 L7 | Mohammad Naeem Masri | Syria | 1:59.18 | |
| 69 | H04 L3 | Kunakorn Yimsomruay | Thailand | 1:59.25 | |
| 70 | H06 L2 | Mikayel Koloyan | Armenia | 2:00.64 | |
| 71 | H03 L5 | Babak Farhoudi | Iran | 2:01.25 | |
| 72 | H02 L5 | Sean Dehere | Barbados | 2:02.07 | |
| 73 | H03 L3 | Davy Bisslik | Aruba | 2:02.23 | |
| 74 | H04 L2 | Kenny Roberts | Seychelles | 2:02.70 | |
| 75 | H04 L4 | Obied Ahmed Al Jassimi | United Arab Emirates | 2:03.15 | |
| 76 | H04 L8 | Benjamin Wells | Papua New Guinea | 2:03.23 | |
| 77 | H03 L8 | Bradford Worrell | Saint Lucia | 2:03.55 | |
| 78 | H03 L6 | Fernando Medrano | Nicaragua | 2:03.84 | |
| 79 | H03 L2 | Yann Lausan | Tahiti | 2:04.92 | |
| 80 | H03 L7 | Dean Palacios | Northern Mariana Islands | 2:05.04 | |
| 81 | H04 L5 | Maher Al-Moatar | Saudi Arabia | 2:05.73 | |
| 82 | H03 L1 | Mumtaz Ahmed | Pakistan | 2:06.01 | |
| 83 | H03 L4 | Sergey Dyachkov | Azerbaijan | 2:06.42 | |
| 84 | H04 L7 | Vasilii Danilov | Kyrgyzstan | 2:06.47 | |
| 85 | H04 L6 | Barnsley Albert | Seychelles | 2:06.82 | |
| 86 | H09 L2 | Serhiy Advena | Ukraine | 2:07.61 | |
| 87 | H02 L4 | Neil Agius | Malta | 2:07.68 | |
| 88 | H02 L3 | Patrick Boustany | Lebanon | 2:08.23 | |
| 89 | H02 L1 | Connor Keith | Guam | 2:10.62 | |
| 90 | H02 L7 | Kin-Vincent Duenas | Guam | 2:10.92 | |
| 91 | H02 L2 | Clark Randrianandraina | Madagascar | 2:12.14 | |
| 92 | H01 L5 | Peter James Linch | Zambia | 2:14.84 | |
| 93 | H01 L3 | Chisela Kanchela | Zambia | 2:16.43 | |
| 94 | H01 L4 | Kreshnik Gjata | Albania | 2:16.76 | |
| - | - | Loren Lindborg | Marshall Islands | DQ | |
| - | - | Aldi Gugushka | Albania | DQ | |
| - | - | Emiliano Brembilla | Italy | DNS | |
| - | - | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | DNS | |