Athletics at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres

The men's 200 metres sprint at the **1936 Olympic Games** was on August 4 and August 5. There were 44 athletes. These athletes were from 22 different nations. Each country could only have 3 athletes in this event. Jesse Owens won the event by 0.4 seconds. Mack Robinson(brother of baseball's Jackie Robinson) was in 2nd place. This was Owen's 3rd gold medal. He had also gotten a medal in the 100 metres and long jump. Later, he would also win the sprint relay. Tinus Osendarp of the Netherlands was in 3rd place. This was their first medal in this event.

## Background

This was the 200 metres in the Olympics. It was not in the 1896 Summer Olympics, but it was in every Olympics after that. None of the 6 athletes from the 1932 finals were also in this event. Jesse Owens was the favorite Olympian. He had already won both the 100 metres and the long jump in Berlin.

This was the first time that Liechtenstein ran in this event. This was the 9th time that the United States was in this event. They were the only country to have been at every 200 metres in the Olympics so far.

## Competition

The competition was the same since 1920. There were heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. There were 8 heats. Each heat had 4 to 6 runners. The 3 fastest runners in each heat went to the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals consisted of 4 heats. Each heat had 6 athletes each. The 3 fastest men in each quarterfinal went to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals. Each semifinal had 6 runners. The 3 fastest athletes in each semifinal went to the finals. The final had 6 runners. Before, some 200 metres races were on a straight trace. These races were run on the new standard 400-metre track.

## Records

Before this competition, these were the world and Olympic records.

<sup>*</sup>On straightaway. No world record existed for running on a curve.

Jesse Owens beat the Olympic record in the 3rd heat. He ran 21.1 seconds. He tied that time in the 3rd quarterfinal. Mack Robinson tied that time in the 1st semifinal. He also tied that time in the final. However, Owens had won with the time of 20.7 seconds. This beat the Olympic record. It also was the unofficial record for the 200 metres on a curved track.

## Schedule

|Date|Time|Round|
| --- | --- | --- |
|Tuesday, 4 August 1936|**10:30** **15:30** || **Heats** **Quarterfinals**||
|Wednesday, 5 August 1936|**15:00** **18:00** || **Semifinals** **Final**||

### Heats

The fastest 3 runners in each heat went to the quarterfinal.

#### Heat 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Wil van Beveren||21.4||
|2|Tomás Beswick||22.1||
|3|Mutsuo Taniguchi||22.2||
|4|Antonio Salcedo||Unknown||
|5|José de Almeida||Unknown||
|6|Aristidis Sakellariou||Unknown||

#### Heat 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Tinus Osendarp||21.7||
|2|Egon Schein||22.0||
|3|Alan Pennington||22.1||
|4|Masao Yazawa||22.4||
|5|Pierre Dondelinger||Unknown||
|6|Xaver Frick||Unknown||

#### Heat 3

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Jesse Owens||21.1|,|
|2|Lee Orr||21.6||
|3|Karl Neckermann||21.8||
|4|Arthur Sweeney||22.1||
|5|Nemesio de Guzman||22.9||
|6|Gunnar Christensen||23.1||

#### Heat 4

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Bruce Humber||22.1||
|2|Gyula Gyenes||22.1||
|3|Felix Rinner||22.4||
|4|Paul Bronner||22.6||
|5|Chen Kingkwan||Unknown||

#### Heat 5

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Paul Hänni||21.9||
|2|Renos Frangoudis||22.1||
|3|József Sir||22.2||
|4|Poh Kimseng||Unknown||
|5|Pat Dannaher||Unknown||

#### Heat 6

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Marthinus Theunissen||21.7||
|2|Howard McPhee||21.8||
|3|Börje Strandvall||22.6||
|4|George Fahoum||Unknown||
|5|Liu Changchun||Unknown||
|6|Antonio Fondevilla||Unknown||

#### Heat 7

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Bob Packard||21.2||
|2|Eric Grimbeek||21.8||
|3|Albert Steinmetz||21.9||
|4|Eric Whiteside||Unknown||

#### Heat 8

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Mack Robinson||21.6||
|2|Aki Tammisto||22.2||
|3|Carlos Hofmeister||22.3||
|4|Dieudonné Devrindt||Unknown||
|5|Mario Minai||Unknown||
|6|Alfred König||Unknown||

### Quarterfinals

The 3 fastest runners in each quarterfinal went to the semifinal.

#### Quarterfinal 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Lee Orr||21.2||
|2|Paul Hänni||21.3||
|3|Bob Packard||21.3||
|4|József Sir||21.6||
|5|Egon Schein||21.7||
|6|Tomás Beswick||Unknown||

#### Quarterfinal 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Wil van Beveren||21.7||
|2|Marthinus Theunissen||21.9||
|3|Bruce Humber||22.1||
|4|Renos Frangoudis||Unknown||
|5|Mutsuo Taniguchi||Unknown||
|6|Carlos Hofmeister||Unknown||

#### Quarterfinal 3

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Jesse Owens||21.1|,|
|2|Howard McPhee||21.8||
|3|Eric Grimbeek||21.9||
|4|Aki Tammisto||22.0||
|5|Felix Rinner||Unknown||
|—|Albert Steinmetz||||

#### Quarterfinal 4

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Mack Robinson||21.2||
|2|Tinus Osendarp||21.3||
|3|Karl Neckermann||21.6||
|4|Gyula Gyenes||Unknown||
|5|Börje Strandvall||Unknown||
|—|Alan Pennington||||

### Semifinals

The 3 fastest times in each semifinal went to the finals.

#### Semifinal 1

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Mack Robinson||21.1|,|
|2|Lee Orr||21.3||
|3|Wil van Beveren||21.5||
|4|Bob Packard||21.6||
|5|Karl Neckermann||21.8||
|6|Eric Grimbeek||22.2||

#### Semifinal 2

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1|Jesse Owens||21.3||
|2|Tinus Osendarp||21.5||
|3|Paul Hänni||21.6||
|4|Marthinus Theunissen||21.8||
|5|Bruce Humber||22.0||
|6|Howard McPhee||22.0||

### Final

|Rank|Athlete|Nation|Time|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Jesse Owens||20.7||
||Mack Robinson||21.1||
||Tinus Osendarp||21.3||
|4|Paul Hänni||21.6||
|5|Lee Orr||21.6||
|6|Wil van Beveren||21.9||

## Infobox (olympic event)

- **event**: Men's 200 metres
- **games**: 1936 Summer
- **image**: File:Jesse Owens 1936.jpg
- **caption**: Jesse Owens
- **venue**: Olympiastadion (Berlin), Olympiastadion: Berlin, Germany
- **dates**: August 4 (heats and quarterfinals)
August 5 (semifinals and final)
- **competitors**: 44
- **nations**: 23
- **longnames**: yes
- **win value**: 20.7
- **gold**: Jesse Owens
- **goldnoc**: USA
- **silver**: Mack Robinson (athlete), Mack Robinson
- **silvernoc**: USA
- **bronze**: Tinus Osendarp
- **bronzenoc**: NED
- **prev**: Athletics at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres, 1932
- **next**: Athletics at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres, 1948