# Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre backstroke

The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 20–21 September at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia. There were 45 competitors from 38 nations. Each nation had been limited to two swimmers in the event since 1984. The event was won by Lenny Krayzelburg of the United States, with his countryman Aaron Peirsol taking silver. It was the second consecutive Games that Americans had finished one-two in the event (Brad Bridgewater and Tripp Schwenk had done so in 1996). Bronze went to Matt Welsh of Australia, the nation's first medal in the event since 1980.
Soviet-born American Krayzelburg became the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to strike a backstroke double, since Roland Matthes did so in 1968 and 1972, John Naber in 1976, and Rick Carey in 1984. He powered past his nearest rivals Peirsol and Australia's overwhelming favorite Welsh to hit the wall first in a new Olympic record of 1:56.76. At only 17 years of age, Peirsol trailed behind by over half a second (0.59) to take a silver in 1:57.35. Meanwhile, Welsh settled only for the bronze in an Oceanian record of 1:57.59.
Iceland's Örn Arnarson came up with a spectacular swim to earn a fourth spot in 1:59.00, holding off Italy's Emanuele Merisi (1:59.01), bronze medalist in Atlanta four years earlier, by a hundredth of a second (0.01). Romania's Răzvan Florea finished sixth with a time of 1:59.05, while Brazil's Rogério Romero (1:59.27), competing at his fourth Olympics, and Croatia's Gordan Kožulj (1:59.38) closed out the field. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went under a two-minute barrier.
Earlier, Krayzelburg established a new Olympic standard of 1:58.40 on the morning prelims to cut off Martin López-Zubero's eight-year record by seven hundredths of a second (0.07). He lowered it to 1:57.27 in the semifinals.

## Background

This was the 11th appearance of the 200 metre backstroke event. It was first held in 1900. The event did not return until 1964; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games. From 1904 to 1960, a men's 100 metre backstroke was held instead. In 1964, only the 200 metres was held. Beginning in 1968 and ever since, both the 100 and 200 metre versions have been held.
Two of the 8 finalists from the 1996 Games returned: bronze medalist Emanuele Merisi of Italy and seventh-place finisher Mirko Mazzari of Italy. The medalists at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships had been Lenny Krayzelburg of the United States, Ralf Braun of Germany, and Mark Versfeld of Canada. Krazyelburg and Braun were competing in Sydney; Versfeld was not.
The Dominican Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia, and Ukraine each made their debut in the event. Australia and Great Britain each made their 10th appearance, tied for most among nations to that point.

## Competition format

The competition altered the format that had been used since 1984. The tournament expanded to 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. Instead of having the top 16 swimmers divided into a Final A for the top 8 and Final B for 9th through 16th, as was done in from 1984 to 1996, the 2000 competition added semifinals. The top 16 swimmers from the heats competed in the new semifinals. The top 8 semifinalists advanced to the final (there was no longer a classification final for 9th through 16th). Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.
This swimming event used backstroke. 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 record | Lenny Krayzelburg (USA) | 1:55.87 | Sydney, Australia | 27 August 1999 |
| Olympic record | Martin López-Zubero (ESP) | 1:58.47 | Barcelona, Spain | 28 July 1992 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition, with Krayzelburg setting a new Olympic record each time he swam. All three medalists swam faster than the old Olympic record.
| Date | Event | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Record |
| 20 September | Heat 6 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 1:58.40 | OR |
| 20 September | Semifinal 2 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 1:57.27 | OR |
| 21 September | Final | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 1:56.76 | OR |

## Schedule

The expansion of the event to three rounds also resulted in the event now taking place over two days instead of a single day.
All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Wednesday, 20 September 2000 | 10:29 19:31 | Heats Semifinals |
| Thursday, 21 September 2000 | 19:21 | Final |

## Results
### Heats

Krayzelburg had the fastest time in the heats, setting a new Olympic record.
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | 4 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 1:58.40 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 5 | 4 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 1:59.10 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 6 | Cameron Delaney | Australia | 1:59.61 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 5 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 1:59.76 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 1:59.79 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 8 | Örn Arnarson | Iceland | 1:59.80 | Q, NR |
| 7 | 5 | 6 | Emanuele Merisi | Italy | 1:59.92 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 2 | Sergey Ostapchuk | Russia | 2:00.17 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | 4 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 2:00.19 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 5 | Rogério Romero | Brazil | 2:00.48 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 6 | Chris Renaud | Canada | 2:00.51 | Q |
| 12 | 5 | 7 | Marko Strahija | Croatia | 2:00.72 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 2 | Yoav Gath | Israel | 2:00.80 | Q |
| 14 | 3 | 2 | Klaas-Erik Zwering | Netherlands | 2:00.94 | Q, NR |
| 15 | 4 | 3 | Volodymyr Nikolaychuk | Ukraine | 2:01.07 | Q, NR |
| 16 | 4 | 5 | Leonardo Costa | Brazil | 2:01.08 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | 3 | Simon Dufour | France | 2:01.09 | |
| 18 | 6 | 7 | Adam Ruckwood | Great Britain | 2:01.11 | |
| 19 | 6 | 1 | Simon Militis | Great Britain | 2:01.20 | |
| 20 | 6 | 8 | Dustin Hersee | Canada | 2:01.34 | |
| 21 | 6 | 3 | Ralf Braun | Germany | 2:01.35 | |
| 22 | 3 | 5 | Scott Talbot-Cameron | New Zealand | 2:01.53 | |
| 23 | 3 | 7 | Blaž Medvešek | Slovenia | 2:01.67 | |
| 24 | 2 | 2 | Neisser Bent | Cuba | 2:02.05 | |
| 25 | 5 | 1 | Mirko Mazzari | Italy | 2:02.13 | |
| 26 | 4 | 7 | Fu Yong | China | 2:02.70 | |
| 27 | 3 | 4 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 2:02.84 | |
| 28 | 3 | 3 | Alejandro Bermúdez | Colombia | 2:03.43 | |
| 29 | 5 | 8 | Guillermo Mediano | Spain | 2:03.45 | |
| 30 | 2 | 4 | Mario Carvalho | Portugal | 2:03.82 | |
| 31 | 3 | 6 | Miroslav Machovič | Slovakia | 2:04.73 | |
| 32 | 3 | 8 | Arūnas Savickas | Lithuania | 2:05.06 | |
| 33 | 1 | 3 | Alex Fong | Hong Kong | 2:05.47 | NR |
| 34 | 2 | 6 | Eduardo Germán Otero | Argentina | 2:05.51 | |
| 35 | 2 | 7 | Torwai Sethsothorn | Thailand | 2:05.52 | |
| 36 | 2 | 3 | Ahmed Hussein | Egypt | 2:06.10 | |
| 37 | 2 | 8 | Gary Tan | Singapore | 2:06.32 | |
| 38 | 1 | 4 | Andrei Mihailov | Moldova | 2:06.67 | |
| 39 | 2 | 1 | Lee Jong-min | South Korea | 2:07.14 | |
| 40 | 1 | 5 | Ivan Angelov | Bulgaria | 2:07.30 | |
| 41 | 1 | 7 | Guillermo Cabrera | Dominican Republic | 2:08.22 | |
| 42 | 3 | 1 | Alex Lim | Malaysia | 2:08.23 | |
| 43 | 1 | 6 | Miloš Cerović | FR Yugoslavia | 2:09.07 | |
| 44 | 1 | 2 | Aleksandr Yegorov | Kyrgyzstan | 2:13.85 | |
| — | 4 | 2 | Viktor Bodrogi | Hungary | DSQ | |
| — | 2 | 5 | Simon Thirsk | South Africa | DNS | |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 1:57.27 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 1 | 4 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 1:58.44 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 1:58.57 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | 3 | Örn Arnarson | Iceland | 1:58.99 | Q, NR |
| 5 | 2 | 3 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 1:59.44 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 2 | 2 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 1:59.56 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | 2 | Rogério Romero | Brazil | 1:59.69 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 6 | Emanuele Merisi | Italy | 1:59.78 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | 7 | Marko Strahija | Croatia | 1:59.85 | |
| 10 | 1 | 1 | Klaas-Erik Zwering | Netherlands | 2:00.06 | NR |
| 11 | 2 | 5 | Cameron Delaney | Australia | 2:00.39 | |
| 12 | 1 | 6 | Sergey Ostapchuk | Russia | 2:00.47 | |
| 13 | 2 | 7 | Chris Renaud | Canada | 2:01.19 | |
| 14 | 1 | 8 | Leonardo Costa | Brazil | 2:02.26 | |
| 15 | 2 | 8 | Volodymyr Nikolaychuk | Ukraine | 2:02.27 | |
| 16 | 2 | 1 | Yoav Gath | Israel | 2:03.80 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 1:56.76 | OR |
| | 5 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 1:57.35 | |
| | 3 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 1:57.59 | OC |
| 4 | 6 | Örn Arnarson | Iceland | 1:59.00 | |
| 5 | 8 | Emanuele Merisi | Italy | 1:59.01 | |
| 6 | 2 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 1:59.05 | NR |
| 7 | 1 | Rogério Romero | Brazil | 1:59.27 | |
| 8 | 7 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 1:59.38 | |