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

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 18 and 19.
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps blasted his own Olympic record of 1:57.14 to claim his fourth career gold medal in swimming. Coming from fifth place in the final turn, Phelps' teammate Ryan Lochte powered home with a silver in 1:58.78. Meanwhile, George Bovell held off Hungary's László Cseh by four hundredths of a second (0.04) to give Trinidad and Tobago its first ever swimming medal, in a Commonwealth record of 1:58.80.
Earlier in the semifinals, Phelps posted a new Olympic record of 1:58.52, previously set by Italian swimmer and defending Olympic champion Massimiliano Rosolino in Sydney four years earlier. Rosolino, along with his teammate Alessio Boggiatto, failed to reach the top 8 final with a tenth and eleventh-place effort. Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli, who placed fifth in the 400 m individual medley, also missed the cut, but set an African record of 2:01.11.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:55.94 | College Park, United States | 9 August 2003 |
| Olympic record | Massimiliano Rosolino (ITA) | 1:58.98 | Sydney, Australia | 21 September 2000 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 18 | Semifinal 1 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:58.52 | OR |
| August 19 | Final | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:57.14 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | 3 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:59.50 | Q |
| 2 | 7 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 2:00.01 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 4 | George Bovell | Trinidad and Tobago | 2:00.65 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | 3 | Jiro Miki | Japan | 2:00.93 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | 5 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 2:01.12 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | 6 | Alessio Boggiatto | Italy | 2:01.30 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 8 | Dean Kent | New Zealand | 2:01.31 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 7 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 2:01.32 | Q |
| 9 | 7 | 6 | Takahiro Mori | Japan | 2:01.33 | Q |
| 10 | 6 | 4 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 2:01.41 | Q |
| 11 | 6 | 5 | Massimiliano Rosolino | Italy | 2:01.56 | Q |
| 12 | 7 | 2 | Robin Francis | Great Britain | 2:01.57 | Q |
| 13 | 6 | 2 | Adrian Turner | Great Britain | 2:01.73 | Q |
| 14 | 7 | 7 | Tamás Kerékjártó | Hungary | 2:01.75 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 2 | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | 2:01.94 | Q, AF |
| 16 | 4 | 4 | Ioannis Kokkodis | Greece | 2:02.11 | Q |
| 17 | 7 | 1 | Adam Lucas | Australia | 2:02.12 | |
| 18 | 4 | 3 | Mihail Alexandrov | Bulgaria | 2:02.39 | |
| 19 | 6 | 1 | Zhao Tao | China | 2:02.41 | |
| 20 | 5 | 5 | Jani Sievinen | Finland | 2:02.79 | |
| 21 | 5 | 7 | Christian Keller | Germany | 2:02.93 | |
| 22 | 4 | 5 | Sergiy Sergeyev | Ukraine | 2:03.26 | |
| 23 | 4 | 8 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 2:03.29 | |
| 24 | 5 | 8 | Wu Peng | China | 2:03.60 | |
| 25 | 4 | 7 | Guntars Deičmans | Latvia | 2:03.68 | |
| 26 | 5 | 1 | Diogo Yabe | Brazil | 2:03.86 | |
| 27 | 5 | 3 | Justin Norris | Australia | 2:03.87 | |
| 28 | 5 | 6 | Brian Johns | Canada | 2:03.95 | |
| 29 | 7 | 8 | Alexei Zatsepine | Russia | 2:04.11 | |
| 30 | 4 | 6 | Jeremy Knowles | Bahamas | 2:04.22 | |
| 31 | 3 | 6 | Jacob Carstensen | Denmark | 2:04.80 | |
| 32 | 3 | 3 | Kim Bang-hyun | South Korea | 2:05.06 | |
| 33 | 3 | 2 | Miguel Molina | Philippines | 2:05.28 | |
| 34 | 3 | 4 | Krešimir Čač | Croatia | 2:05.33 | |
| 35 | 2 | 4 | Raouf Benabid | Algeria | 2:06.34 | |
| 36 | 2 | 6 | Hocine Haciane | Andorra | 2:06.48 | |
| 37 | 4 | 1 | Darian Townsend | South Africa | 2:07.04 | |
| 38 | 2 | 3 | Aleksandar Miladinovski | Macedonia | 2:07.39 | |
| 39 | 3 | 5 | Andrei Zaharov | Moldova | 2:07.40 | |
| 40 | 3 | 1 | Albert Christiadi Sutanto | Indonesia | 2:07.55 | |
| 41 | 2 | 1 | Andrew Mackay | Cayman Islands | 2:07.65 | |
| 42 | 2 | 2 | Oleg Pukhnatiy | Uzbekistan | 2:08.24 | |
| 43 | 3 | 7 | Gary Tan | Singapore | 2:08.44 | |
| 44 | 2 | 7 | Wu Nien-pin | Chinese Taipei | 2:08.72 | |
| 45 | 1 | 4 | Jorge Oliver | Puerto Rico | 2:08.84 | |
| 45 | 2 | 5 | Orel Oral | Turkey | 2:08.84 | |
| 47 | 3 | 8 | Malick Fall | Senegal | 2:12.13 | |
| 48 | 1 | 3 | Georgios Dimitriadis | Cyprus | 2:12.27 | |
| | 1 | 5 | Yevgeniy Ryzhkov | Kazakhstan | DSQ | |
| | 4 | 2 | Peter Mankoč | Slovenia | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:58.52 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 2 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:59.58 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 2:00.57 | Q, NR |
| 4 | 5 | Jiro Miki | Japan | 2:01.09 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Alessio Boggiatto | Italy | 2:01.27 | |
| 6 | 8 | Ioannis Kokkodis | Greece | 2:01.57 | |
| 7 | 1 | Tamás Kerékjártó | Hungary | 2:01.89 | |
| 8 | 7 | Robin Francis | Great Britain | 2:03.85 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:59.65 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 2:00.07 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | George Bovell | Trinidad and Tobago | 2:00.31 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Takahiro Mori | Japan | 2:00.57 | Q |
| 5 | 8 | Oussama Mellouli | Tunisia | 2:01.11 | AF |
| 6 | 7 | Massimiliano Rosolino | Italy | 2:01.29 | |
| 7 | 6 | Dean Kent | New Zealand | 2:01.94 | |
| 8 | 1 | Adrian Turner | Great Britain | 2:02.86 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:57.14 | OR |
| | 5 | Ryan Lochte | United States | 1:58.78 | |
| | 2 | George Bovell | Trinidad and Tobago | 1:58.80 | NR |
| 4 | 3 | László Cseh | Hungary | 1:58.84 | |
| 5 | 6 | Thiago Pereira | Brazil | 2:00.11 | |
| 6 | 1 | Takahiro Mori | Japan | 2:00.60 | |
| 7 | 7 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 2:01.28 | |
| 8 | 8 | Jiro Miki | Japan | 2:02.16 | |