| | Event type

200 metres, Men

Date	31 July – 1 August 1996
Status	Olympic
Location	Centennial Olympic Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
Participants	78 from 57 countries

Michael Johnson had been favored to win in 1992 until a stomach virus weakened him and he lost in the semi-final. By 1996, he was a prohibitive favorite, not having lost since 1994 over 200 metres, and had won the 1995 World Championships. He was looking for a 200/400 double in Atlanta. At the US Olympic Trials, Johnson finally bettered Pietro Mennea’s world record from 1979, running 19.66 to make the US team. His challengers were felt to be Namibian Frankie Fredericks, the 1992 silver medalist, and Trinidad’s Ato Boldon. Only two weeks before the Olympics, Fredericks had beaten Johnson, snapping his win streak at the distance. By the night of the 200 final Johnson had already won his 400 gold medal. Coming off the curve, there was little to choose between the three favorites, Johnson having a slight lead. But then he found another gear, finishing in 19.32, a time that seemed almost like a mistake. Fredericks held on for his second consecutive silver medal with Boldon winning bronze. Boldon later said, )19.32. That’s not a time. It sounds like my dad’s birthday.)

Pos	Nr	Athlete	NOC	R1	QF	SF	Final
1	2370	Michael Johnson	USA	20.55 (1 h4)	20.37 (1 h2)	20.27 (1 h1)	19.32 (1)	Gold	WR
2	1962	Frankie Fredericks	NAM	20.59 (1 h11)	20.38 (1 h1)	19.98 (1 h2)	19.68 (2)	Silver
3	2288	Ato Boldon	TTO	20.26 (1 h3)	20.25 (1 h5)	20.05 (2 h2)	19.80 (3)	Bronze
4	1098	Obadele Thompson	BAR	20.42 (2 h3)	20.53 (3 h1)	20.32 (4 h2)	20.14 (4)
5	2405	Jeff Williams	USA	20.37 (1 h9)	20.47 (2 h1)	20.39 (3 h1)	20.17 (5)
6	1272	Iván García	CUB	20.49 (1 h2)	20.36 (1 h3)	20.34 (2 h1)	20.21 (6)
7	1113	Patrick Stevens	BEL	20.60 (1 h6)	20.43 (2 h4)	20.46 (4 h1)	20.27 (7)
8	2375	Mike Marsh	USA	20.27 (1 h1)	20.39 (1 h4)	20.26 (3 h2)	20.48 (8)
5 h1 r3/4	1993	Francis Obikwelu	NGR	20.62 (1 h5)	20.49 (2 h5)	20.56 (5 h1)	–
5 h2 r3/4	1034	Steve Brimacombe	AUS	20.45 (4 h1)	20.53 (3 h3)	20.38 (5 h2)	–
6 h1 r3/4	1504	John Regis	GBR	20.78 (3 h5)	20.56 (3 h4)	20.58 (6 h1)	–
6 h2 r3/4	1759	Koji Ito	JPN	20.56 (1 h10)	20.47 (2 h3)	20.45 (6 h2)	–
7 h1 r3/4	1597	Emmanuel Tuffour	GHA	20.85 (3 h10)	20.49 (3 h5)	20.61 (7 h1)	–
7 h2 r3/4	1860	Sergejs Inšakovs	LAT	20.41 (2 h1)	20.58 (4 h4)	20.48 (7 h2)	–
8 h1 r3/4	2289	Neil de Silva	TTO	20.54 (1 h8)	20.62 (3 h2)	21.26 (8 h1)	–
8 h2 r3/4	2006	Geir Moen	NOR	20.78 (4 h7)	20.48 (2 h2)	20.96 (8 h2)	–
4 h1 r2/4	1114	Erik Wijmeersch	BEL	20.68 (2 h4)	20.59 (4 h1)	–	–
4 h2 r2/4	1156	Robson da Silva	BRA	20.61 (2 h8)	20.65 (4 h2)	–	–
4 h3 r2/4	2052	Robert Maćkowiak	POL	20.67 (2 h7)	20.61 (4 h3)	–	–
4 h5 r2/4	1477	Linford Christie	GBR	20.64 (1 h7)	20.59 (4 h5)	–	–
5 h1 r2/4	1751	Percy Spencer	JAM	20.73 (3 h4)	20.59 (5 h1)	–	–
5 h2 r2/4	1357	Jordi Mayoral	ESP	20.65 (2 h6)	20.68 (5 h2)	–	–
5 h3 r2/4	1296	Anninos Markoullidis	CYP	20.57 (3 h3)	20.63 (5 h3)	–	–
5 h4 r2/4	1583	Albert Agyemang	GHA	20.69 (2 h2)	20.87 (5 h4)	–	–
5 h5 r2/4	1172	Édson Ribeiro	BRA	20.69 (2 h5)	20.60 (5 h5)	–	–
6 h1 r2/4	1119	Troy Douglas	BER	20.41 (3 h1)	20.63 (6 h1)	–	–
6 h2 r2/4	1604	Georgios Panagiotopoulos	GRE	20.69 (3 h7)	20.86 (6 h2)	–	–
6 h3 r2/4	2306	Vladyslav Dolohodin	UKR	20.57 (2 h9)	20.65 (6 h3)	–	–
6 h4 r2/4	1994	Seun Ogunkoya	NGR	20.78 (2 h11)	21.00 (6 h4)	–	–
6 h5 r2/4	2248	Torbjörn Eriksson	SWE	20.77 (2 h10)	20.83 (6 h5)	–	–
7 h1 r2/4	1362	Javier Navarro	ESP	20.87 (3 h9)	21.06 (7 h1)	–	–
7 h3 r2/4	1736	Elston Cawley	JAM	20.73 (3 h2)	20.75 (7 h3)	–	–
7 h4 r2/4	1626	Joseph Loua	GUI	20.81 (4 h6)	21.01 (7 h4)	–	–
7 h5 r2/4	1022	Carlos Gats	ARG	20.82 (4 h3)	20.84 (7 h5)	–	–
8 h2 r2/4	2180	Oumar Loum	SEN	20.69 (3 h8)	21.31 (7 h2)	–	–
8 h3 r2/4	1241	Franck Waota	CIV	20.78 (4 h4)	21.14 (8 h3)	–	–
8 h5 r2/4	1679	Gary Ryan	IRL	20.78 (3 h11)	20.89 (8 h5)	–	–
AC h4 r2/4	1155	Claudinei da Silva	BRA	20.80 (3 h6)	– (DNF h4)	–	–
4 h2 r1/4	1480	Owusu Dako	GBR	20.83 (4 h2)	–	–	–
4 h5 r1/4	2196	Pierre Lisk	SLE	20.86 (4 h5)	–	–	–
4 h9 r1/4	2226	Alain Reimann	SUI	20.99 (4 h9)	–	–	–
4 h10 r1/4	2019	Mark Keddell	NZL	20.93 (4 h10)	–	–	–
4 h11 r1/4	1221	Sebastián Keitel	CHI	20.96 (4 h11)	–	–	–
5 h1 r1/4	2125	Alfred Visagie	RSA	21.10 (5 h1)	–	–	–
5 h2 r1/4	1610	Thomas Sbokos	GRE	20.88 (5 h2)	–	–	–
5 h3 r1/4	1793	Joseph Gikonyo	KEN	20.88 (5 h3)	–	–	–
5 h4 r1/4	1246	Benjamin Sirimou	CMR	21.00 (5 h4)	–	–	–
5 h5 r1/4	2250	Lars Hedner	SWE	20.97 (5 h5)	–	–	–
5 h6 r1/4	2282	Boevi Lawson	TOG	20.99 (5 h6)	–	–	–
5 h7 r1/4	1200	O'Brian Gibbons	CAN	20.79 (5 h7)	– (DNS h1)	–	–
5 h8 r1/4	2015	Matthew Coad	NZL	21.25 (4 h8)	–	–	–
5 h9 r1/4	1941	Ousmane Diarra	MLI	21.20 (5 h9)	–	–	–
5 h10 r1/4	1141	Justice Dipeba	BOT	21.09 (5 h10)	–	–	–
5 h11 r1/4	1074	Christoph Pöstinger	AUT	20.98 (5 h11)	–	–	–
6 h1 r1/4	2026	Mohamed Al-Houti	OMA	21.10 (6 h1)	–	–	–
6 h2 r1/4	1181	Anton Ivanov	BUL	21.20 (6 h2)	–	–	–
6 h3 r1/4	2016	Chris Donaldson	NZL	20.96 (6 h3)	–	–	–
6 h4 r1/4	1452	Antoine Boussombo	GAB	21.06 (6 h4)	–	–	–
6 h5 r1/4	1069	Thomas Griesser	AUT	21.20 (6 h5)	–	–	–
6 h6 r1/4	1638	Anderson Vilien	HAI	21.62 (6 h6)	–	–	–
6 h7 r1/4	2131	Andrey Fedoriv	RUS	20.95 (6 h7)	–	–	–
6 h8 r1/4	2038	Amos Ali	PNG	21.37 (5 h8)	–	–	–
6 h9 r1/4	2298	Mohamed Al-Aswad	UAE	21.77 (6 h9)	–	–	–
6 h10 r1/4	1195	Carlton Chambers	CAN	21.32 (6 h10)	–	–	–
6 h11 r1/4	1706	Sandro Floris	ITA	21.01 (6 h11)	–	–	–
7 h1 r1/4	1765	Takahiro Mazuka	JPN	21.13 (7 h1)	–	–	–
7 h2 r1/4	2475	David Wilson	GUM	21.85 (7 h2)	–	–	–
7 h3 r1/4	2287	Tao Wu-Shiun	TPE	21.25 (7 h3)	–	–	–
7 h5 r1/4	1117	Pascal Dangbo	BEN	21.65 (7 h5)	–	–	–
7 h6 r1/4	1207	Peter Ogilvie	CAN	22.00 (7 h6)	–	–	–
7 h7 r1/4	1217	Brahim Abdoulaye	CHA	21.67 (7 h7)	–	–	–
7 h8 r1/4	2418	Laurence Jack	VAN	21.94 (6 h8)	–	–	–
7 h10 r1/4	1027	Miguel Janssen	ARU	21.72 (7 h10)	–	–	–
7 h11 r1/4	1224	Chen Wenzhong	CHN	21.05 (7 h11)	–	–	–
8 h2 r1/4	1958	Mohamed Ould Brahim	MTN	22.71 (8 h2)	–	–	–
8 h5 r1/4	1257	Hadhari Djaffar	COM	22.68 (8 h5)	–	–	–
8 h6 r1/4	1522	Gustavo Envela	GEQ	22.09 (8 h6)	–	–	–
DQ	1036	Dean Capobianco	AUS	[20.76] (DQ h8)	[21.03] (DQ h2)	–	–
DNS	1352	Venancio José	ESP	– (DNS h4)	–	–	–
DNS	1980	Olapade Adeniken	NGR	– (DNS h8)	–	–	–
DNS	2095	Ibrahim Ismail	QAT	– (DNS h9)	–	–	–

Round One (31 July 1996)

Top three in each heat and next seven fastest advanced to the quarter-finals.

Heat One (10:45)

Wind	1.3 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	5	Mike Marsh	USA	20.27	0.192	Q
2	8	Sergejs Inšakovs	LAT	20.41	0.170	Q
3	7	Troy Douglas	BER	20.41	0.238	Q
4	4	Steve Brimacombe	AUS	20.45	0.148	q
5	3	Alfred Visagie	RSA	21.10	0.162
6	6	Mohamed Al-Houti	OMA	21.10	0.248
7	2	Takahiro Mazuka	JPN	21.13	0.133

Heat Two (10:50)

Wind	1.4 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	3	Iván García	CUB	20.49	0.179	Q
2	8	Albert Agyemang	GHA	20.69	0.154	Q
3	4	Elston Cawley	JAM	20.73	0.203	Q
4	1	Owusu Dako	GBR	20.83	0.149
5	7	Thomas Sbokos	GRE	20.88	0.243		1
6	5	Anton Ivanov	BUL	21.20	0.191
7	6	David Wilson	GUM	21.85	0.242
8	2	Mohamed Ould Brahim	MTN	22.71	0.255

Heat Three (10:55)

Wind	0.7 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	8	Ato Boldon	TTO	20.26	0.182	Q
2	6	Obadele Thompson	BAR	20.42	0.174	Q
3	4	Anninos Markoullidis	CYP	20.57	0.223	Q
4	3	Carlos Gats	ARG	20.82	0.202	q
5	2	Joseph Gikonyo	KEN	20.88	0.167
6	5	Chris Donaldson	NZL	20.96	0.160
7	7	Tao Wu-Shiun	TPE	21.25	0.174

Heat Four (11:00)

Wind	-0.6 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	7	Michael Johnson	USA	20.55	0.261	Q
2	5	Erik Wijmeersch	BEL	20.68	0.183	Q
3	2	Percy Spencer	JAM	20.73	0.245	Q
4	4	Franck Waota	CIV	20.78	0.166	q
5	8	Benjamin Sirimou	CMR	21.00	0.320
6	6	Antoine Boussombo	GAB	21.06	0.235
DNS	3	Venancio José	ESP	–	–

Heat Five (11:05)

Wind	-0.5 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	2	Francis Obikwelu	NGR	20.62	0.204	Q
2	5	Édson Ribeiro	BRA	20.69	0.158	Q
3	4	John Regis	GBR	20.78	0.191	Q
4	7	Pierre Lisk	SLE	20.86	0.256
5	8	Lars Hedner	SWE	20.97	0.137
6	1	Thomas Griesser	AUT	21.20	0.193
7	3	Pascal Dangbo	BEN	21.65	0.155
8	6	Hadhari Djaffar	COM	22.68	0.254

Heat Six (11:10)

Wind	-0.2 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	4	Patrick Stevens	BEL	20.60	0.138	Q
2	5	Jordi Mayoral	ESP	20.65	0.128	Q
3	1	Claudinei da Silva	BRA	20.80	0.187	Q
4	3	Joseph Loua	GUI	20.81	0.171	q
5	6	Boevi Lawson	TOG	20.99	0.270
6	7	Anderson Vilien	HAI	21.62	0.275
7	8	Peter Ogilvie	CAN	22.00	0.128
8	2	Gustavo Envela	GEQ	22.09	0.182

Heat Seven (11:15)

Wind	-0.3 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	6	Linford Christie	GBR	20.64	0.151	Q
2	4	Robert Maćkowiak	POL	20.67	0.231	Q
3	7	Georgios Panagiotopoulos	GRE	20.69	0.202	Q
4	5	Geir Moen	NOR	20.78	0.170	q
5	3	O'Brian Gibbons	CAN	20.79	0.190	q
6	8	Andrey Fedoriv	RUS	20.95	0.163
7	2	Brahim Abdoulaye	CHA	21.67	0.178

Heat Eight (11:20)

Wind	0.8 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	5	Neil de Silva	TTO	20.54	0.177	Q
2	3	Robson da Silva	BRA	20.61	0.200	Q
3	7	Oumar Loum	SEN	20.69	0.233	Q
4	4	Matthew Coad	NZL	21.25	0.218
5	8	Amos Ali	PNG	21.37	0.183
6	6	Laurence Jack	VAN	21.94	0.206
DQ	2	Dean Capobianco	AUS	[20.76]	[0.183]	Q
DNS	1	Olapade Adeniken	NGR	–	–

Heat Nine (11:25)

Wind	-0.3 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	4	Jeff Williams	USA	20.37	0.203	Q
2	7	Vladyslav Dolohodin	UKR	20.57	0.171	Q
3	5	Javier Navarro	ESP	20.87	0.216	Q
4	6	Alain Reimann	SUI	20.99	0.234
5	2	Ousmane Diarra	MLI	21.20	0.173
6	8	Mohamed Al-Aswad	UAE	21.77	0.206
DNS	3	Ibrahim Ismail	QAT	–	–

Heat Ten (11:30)

Wind	-0.3 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	5	Koji Ito	JPN	20.56	0.247	Q
2	7	Torbjörn Eriksson	SWE	20.77	0.198	Q
3	4	Emmanuel Tuffour	GHA	20.85	0.221	Q
4	2	Mark Keddell	NZL	20.93	0.160
5	8	Justice Dipeba	BOT	21.09	0.287
6	6	Carlton Chambers	CAN	21.32	0.264
7	3	Miguel Janssen	ARU	21.72	0.195

Heat Eleven (11:35)

Wind	-0.4 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	7	Frankie Fredericks	NAM	20.59	0.240	Q
2	2	Seun Ogunkoya	NGR	20.78	0.161	Q
3	6	Gary Ryan	IRL	20.78	0.225	Q
4	4	Sebastián Keitel	CHI	20.96	0.195
5	5	Christoph Pöstinger	AUT	20.98	0.150
6	3	Sandro Floris	ITA	21.01	0.176
7	8	Chen Wenzhong	CHN	21.05	0.194

Quarter-Finals (31 July 1996)

Top three in each heat and next fastest advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat One (18:15)

Wind	0.7 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	4	Frankie Fredericks	NAM	20.38	0.154	Q
2	3	Jeff Williams	USA	20.47	0.196	Q
3	5	Obadele Thompson	BAR	20.53	0.207	Q
4	6	Erik Wijmeersch	BEL	20.59	0.229		2
5	8	Percy Spencer	JAM	20.59	0.329
6	7	Troy Douglas	BER	20.63	0.165
7	1	Javier Navarro	ESP	21.06	0.165
DNS	2	O'Brian Gibbons	CAN	–	–

Heat Two (18:20)

Wind	-0.7 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	6	Michael Johnson	USA	20.37	0.233	Q
2	8	Geir Moen	NOR	20.48	0.251	Q
3	3	Neil de Silva	TTO	20.62	0.187	Q
4	4	Robson da Silva	BRA	20.65	0.187
5	5	Jordi Mayoral	ESP	20.68	0.158
6	7	Georgios Panagiotopoulos	GRE	20.86	0.167
7	2	Oumar Loum	SEN	21.31	0.197
DQ	1	Dean Capobianco	AUS	[21.03]	[0.161]

Heat Three (18:25)

Wind	0.9 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	4	Iván García	CUB	20.36	0.220	Q
2	6	Koji Ito	JPN	20.47	0.233	Q
3	8	Steve Brimacombe	AUS	20.53	0.182	Q
4	5	Robert Maćkowiak	POL	20.61	0.221
5	1	Anninos Markoullidis	CYP	20.63	0.200
6	3	Vladyslav Dolohodin	UKR	20.65	0.180
7	7	Elston Cawley	JAM	20.75	0.210
8	2	Franck Waota	CIV	21.14	0.219

Heat Four (18:30)

Wind	0.3 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	6	Mike Marsh	USA	20.39	0.181	Q
2	5	Patrick Stevens	BEL	20.43	0.165	Q	3
3	8	John Regis	GBR	20.56	0.163	Q
4	4	Sergejs Inšakovs	LAT	20.58	0.145	q
5	3	Albert Agyemang	GHA	20.87	0.161
6	7	Seun Ogunkoya	NGR	21.00	0.184
7	2	Joseph Loua	GUI	21.01	0.171
DNF	1	Claudinei da Silva	BRA	–	0.232

Heat Five (18:35)

Wind	1.9 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	6	Ato Boldon	TTO	20.25	0.148	Q
2	5	Francis Obikwelu	NGR	20.49	0.198	Q
3	2	Emmanuel Tuffour	GHA	20.49	0.144	Q
4	3	Linford Christie	GBR	20.59	0.148
5	4	Édson Ribeiro	BRA	20.60	0.156
6	7	Torbjörn Eriksson	SWE	20.83	0.204
7	8	Carlos Gats	ARG	20.84	0.288
8	1	Gary Ryan	IRL	20.89	0.176

Semi-Finals (1 August 1996)

Top four in each heat advanced to the final.

Heat One (19:10)

Wind	0.3 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	4	Michael Johnson	USA	20.27	0.155	Q
2	6	Iván García	CUB	20.34	0.254	Q
3	3	Jeff Williams	USA	20.39	0.188	Q
4	5	Patrick Stevens	BEL	20.46	0.173	Q
5	7	Francis Obikwelu	NGR	20.56	0.252
6	8	John Regis	GBR	20.58	0.231
7	2	Emmanuel Tuffour	GHA	20.61	0.168
8	1	Neil de Silva	TTO	21.26	0.161

Heat Two (19:15)

Wind	0.1 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	5	Frankie Fredericks	NAM	19.98	0.153	Q
2	4	Ato Boldon	TTO	20.05	0.160	Q
3	3	Mike Marsh	USA	20.26	0.167	Q
4	2	Obadele Thompson	BAR	20.32	0.181	Q
5	7	Steve Brimacombe	AUS	20.38	0.161
6	6	Koji Ito	JPN	20.45	0.266
7	8	Sergejs Inšakovs	LAT	20.48	0.159
8	1	Geir Moen	NOR	20.96	0.146

Final (1 August 1996 — 21:00)

Wind	0.4 m/s

Pos	Lane	Athlete	NOC	Time (A)	Reaction Time
1	3	Michael Johnson	USA	19.32	0.161	WR
2	5	Frankie Fredericks	NAM	19.68	0.200
3	6	Ato Boldon	TTO	19.80	0.208
4	8	Obadele Thompson	BAR	20.14	0.202
5	2	Jeff Williams	USA	20.17	0.182
6	4	Iván García	CUB	20.21	0.229
7	7	Patrick Stevens	BEL	20.27	0.151
8	1	Mike Marsh	USA	20.48	0.167