Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Dates 14 – 21 August 2004
Medal Events 32

The Olympic Aquatic Centre in Athens was opened in time to host the 1991 Mediterranean Games. A roof was planned to be built as part of the refurbishments for the Olympic Games but a series of delays meant that this idea had to be abandoned.

Like the 2000 Olympic Games the swimming events were dominated by the United States and Australia who won 19 of the 32 Olympic titles. Their combined efforts yielded 43 medals in all.

The men’s competition itself turned into a cross-generational clash between the stars of the 2000 Olympics such as Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband and those who were on the way to establishing themselves as the leaders of the next generation such as Kosuke Kitajima, Aaron Peirsol and especially Michael Phelps. Phelps was the most successful swimmer of the Games although his feat of winning 6 golds would seem tame in comparison to his performance at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The spoils in the women’s events were more evenly divided than the men’s races and only medley specialist Yana Klochkova of Ukraine won more than one individual gold medal.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
50 metres Freestyle, Men Olympic 19 – 20 August 2004 83 74
100 metres Freestyle, Men Olympic 17 – 18 August 2004 69 62
200 metres Freestyle, Men Olympic 15 – 16 August 2004 59 53
400 metres Freestyle, Men Olympic 14 August 2004 47 39
1,500 metres Freestyle, Men Olympic 20 – 21 August 2004 34 28
4 x 100 metres Freestyle Relay, Men Olympic 15 August 2004 75 16
4 x 200 metres Freestyle Relay, Men Olympic 17 August 2004 75 16
100 metres Backstroke, Men Olympic 15 – 16 August 2004 44 38
200 metres Backstroke, Men Olympic 18 – 19 August 2004 36 30
100 metres Breaststroke, Men Olympic 14 – 15 August 2004 60 55
200 metres Breaststroke, Men Olympic 17 – 18 August 2004 46 38
100 metres Butterfly, Men Olympic 19 – 20 August 2004 59 51
200 metres Butterfly, Men Olympic 16 – 17 August 2004 39 34
200 metres Individual Medley, Men Olympic 18 – 19 August 2004 49 41
400 metres Individual Medley, Men Olympic 14 August 2004 36 26
4 x 100 metres Medley Relay, Men Olympic 20 – 21 August 2004 73 16
50 metres Freestyle, Women Olympic 20 – 21 August 2004 73 66
100 metres Freestyle, Women Olympic 18 – 19 August 2004 50 44
200 metres Freestyle, Women Olympic 16 – 17 August 2004 41 36
400 metres Freestyle, Women Olympic 15 August 2004 38 31
800 metres Freestyle, Women Olympic 19 – 20 August 2004 29 24
4 x 100 metres Freestyle Relay, Women Olympic 14 August 2004 72 16
4 x 200 metres Freestyle Relay, Women Olympic 18 August 2004 74 16
100 metres Backstroke, Women Olympic 15 – 16 August 2004 42 35
200 metres Backstroke, Women Olympic 19 – 20 August 2004 34 27
100 metres Breaststroke, Women Olympic 15 – 16 August 2004 48 43
200 metres Breaststroke, Women Olympic 18 – 19 August 2004 31 28
100 metres Butterfly, Women Olympic 14 – 15 August 2004 38 30
200 metres Butterfly, Women Olympic 17 – 18 August 2004 32 26
200 metres Individual Medley, Women Olympic 16 – 17 August 2004 30 27
400 metres Individual Medley, Women Olympic 14 August 2004 25 21
4 x 100 metres Medley Relay, Women Olympic 20 – 21 August 2004 77 16
937 (544/393) 152 (144/115)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
50 metres Freestyle, Men Gary Hall, Jr.USA Duje DraganjaCRO Roland SchoemanRSA
100 metres Freestyle, Men Pieter van den HoogenbandNED Roland SchoemanRSA Ian ThorpeAUS
200 metres Freestyle, Men Ian ThorpeAUS Pieter van den HoogenbandNED Michael PhelpsUSA
400 metres Freestyle, Men Ian ThorpeAUS Grant HackettAUS Klete KellerUSA
1,500 metres Freestyle, Men Grant HackettAUS Larsen JensenUSA Dave DaviesGBR
4 × 100 metres Freestyle Relay, Men South AfricaRSA NetherlandsNED United StatesUSA
4 × 200 metres Freestyle Relay, Men United StatesUSA AustraliaAUS ItalyITA
100 metres Backstroke, Men Aaron PeirsolUSA Markus RoganAUT Tomomi MoritaJPN
200 metres Backstroke, Men Aaron PeirsolUSA Markus RoganAUT Răzvan FloreaROU
100 metres Breaststroke, Men Kosuke KitajimaJPN Brendan HansenUSA Hugues DuboscqFRA
200 metres Breaststroke, Men Kosuke KitajimaJPN Dániel GyurtaHUN Brendan HansenUSA
100 metres Butterfly, Men Michael PhelpsUSA Ian CrockerUSA Andriy SerdinovUKR
200 metres Butterfly, Men Michael PhelpsUSA Takashi YamamotoJPN Steve ParryGBR
200 metres Individual Medley, Men Michael PhelpsUSA Ryan LochteUSA George BovellTTO
400 metres Individual Medley, Men Michael PhelpsUSA Erik VendtUSA László Cseh, Jr.HUN
4 × 100 metres Medley Relay, Men United StatesUSA GermanyGER JapanJPN
50 metres Freestyle, Women Inge de BruijnNED Malia MetellaFRA Libby LentonAUS
100 metres Freestyle, Women Jodie HenryAUS Inge de BruijnNED Natalie CoughlinUSA
200 metres Freestyle, Women Camelia PotecROU Federica PellegriniITA Solenne FiguèsFRA
400 metres Freestyle, Women Laure ManaudouFRA Otylia JędrzejczakPOL Kaitlin SandenoUSA
800 metres Freestyle, Women Ai ShibataJPN Laure ManaudouFRA Diana MunzUSA
4 × 100 metres Freestyle Relay, Women AustraliaAUS United StatesUSA NetherlandsNED
4 × 200 metres Freestyle Relay, Women United StatesUSA People's Republic of ChinaCHN GermanyGER
100 metres Backstroke, Women Natalie CoughlinUSA Kirsty CoventryZIM Laure ManaudouFRA
200 metres Backstroke, Women Kirsty CoventryZIM Stanislava KomarovaRUS Antje Buschschulte
Reiko Nakamura
GER
JPN
100 metres Breaststroke, Women Luo XuejuanCHN Brooke HansonAUS Leisel JonesAUS
200 metres Breaststroke, Women Amanda BeardUSA Leisel JonesAUS Anne PoleskaGER
100 metres Butterfly, Women Petria ThomasAUS Otylia JędrzejczakPOL Inge de BruijnNED
200 metres Butterfly, Women Otylia JędrzejczakPOL Petria ThomasAUS Yuko NakanishiJPN
200 metres Individual Medley, Women Yana KlochkovaUKR Amanda BeardUSA Kirsty CoventryZIM
400 metres Individual Medley, Women Yana KlochkovaUKR Kaitlin SandenoUSA Georgina BardachARG
4 × 100 metres Medley Relay, Women AustraliaAUS United StatesUSA GermanyGER

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States USA 12 9 7 28
Australia AUS 7 5 3 15
Japan JPN 3 1 4 8
Netherlands NED 2 3 2 7
Ukraine UKR 2 0 1 3
France FRA 1 2 3 6
Poland POL 1 2 0 3
South Africa RSA 1 1 1 3
Zimbabwe ZIM 1 1 1 3
People's Republic of China CHN 1 1 0 2
Romania ROU 1 0 1 2
Austria AUT 0 2 0 2
Germany GER 0 1 4 5
Hungary HUN 0 1 1 2
Italy ITA 0 1 1 2
Croatia CRO 0 1 0 1
Russian Federation RUS 0 1 0 1
Great Britain GBR 0 0 2 2
Argentina ARG 0 0 1 1
Trinidad and Tobago TTO 0 0 1 1