Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's 200 metre freestyle

In the lead up to the Mens' 200 m Freestyle Final at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the race was billed as The Race of the Century due to its significance and high-class field.

The final contained the four fastest men in the event in history - Ian Thorpe (Australia, world record holder in the event at the time), Pieter van den Hoogenband (Netherlands, aiming to defend his title from Sydney), Grant Hackett (Australia, former world record holder in the event) and Michael Phelps (USA).

__NOTOC__

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

Medalists

Heats

Heat 1

# 1:54.21
# 1:58.02
# 2:01.53

Heat 2

# 1:52.12
# 1:53.91
# 1:54.56
# 1:54.69
# 1:54.70
# 1:55.79
# 1:56.11
# 1:56.93

Heat 3

# 1:53.00
# 1:53.11
# 1:53.19
# 1:53.19
# 1:53.90
# 1:54.14
# 1:55.82
# 1:56.18

Heat 4

# 1:51.38
# 1:51.66
# 1:52.89
# 1:53.00
# 1:53.03
# 1:53.18
# 1:53.81
# 1:55.65

Heat 5

# 1:50.15
# 1:50.50
# 1:50.83
# 1:51.36
# 1:51.78
# 1:51.90
# 1:52.26
# 1:52.28

Heat 6

# 1:48.43 -Q
# 1:49.32 -Q
# 1:49.91 -Q
# 1:50.01
# 1:50.23
# 1:50.27
# 1:53.84
# 1:54.00

Heat 7

# , United States 1:47.97 -Q
# 1:48.90 -Q
# , Germany 1:49.00 -Q
# 1:49.48 -Q
# 1:49.54 -Q
# , Canada 1:49.56 -Q
# 1:49.60 -Q
# , Russia 1:50.93

Heat 8

# , Australia 1:47.22 -Q
# 1:47.32 -Q
# , Italy 1:47.95 -Q
# 1:48.68 -Q
# 1:49.25 -Q
# 1:49.45 -Q
# 1:50.72
# 1:50.96

Heat Rankings

# Ian Thorpe, Australia 1:47.22 -Q
# Pieter van den Hoogenband, Netherlands 1:47.32 -Q
# Emiliano Brembilla, Italy 1:47.95 -Q
# Klete Keller, United States 1:47.97 -Q
# Michael Phelps, United States 1:48.43 -Q
# Simon Burnett, Great Britain 1:48.68 -Q
# Grant Hackett, Australia 1:48.90 -Q
# Jens Schreiber, Germany 1:49.00 -Q
# Kvetoslav Svoboda, Czech Republic 1:49.25 -Q
# Rick Say, Canada 1:49.32 -Q
# Dominik Meichtry, Switzerland 1:49.45 -Q
# George Bovell, Trinidad and Tobago 1:49.48 -Q
# Yoshihiro Okumura, Japan 1:49.54 -Q
# Brent Hayden, Canada 1:49.56 -Q
# Andreas Zisimos, Greece 1:49.60 -Q
# Andrey Kapralov, Russia 1:49.91 -Q
# Olaf Wildeboer, Spain 1:50.01
# Jacob Carstensen, Denmark 1:50.15
# Stefan Herbst, Germany 1:50.23
# Rodrigo Castro, Brazil 1:50.27
# Saulius Binevicius, Lithuania 1:50.50
# Peter Mankoc, Slovenia 1:50.72
# Romans Miloslavskis, Latvia 1:50.83
# Maxim Kuznetsov, Russia 1:50.93
# Nicolas Rostoucher, France 1:50.96
# Dominik Koll, Austria 1:51.36
# Dmytro Vereitinov, Ukraine 1:51.38
# Josh Ilika Brenner, Mexico 1:51.66
# Luis Monteiro, Portugal 1:51.78
# Łukasz Drzewiński, Poland 1:51.90
# Mihail Alexandrov, Bulgaria 1:52.12
# Tamas Szucs, Hungary 1:52.26
# Kyu-Chul Han, Korea 1:52.28
# Damian Alleyne, Barbados 1:52.89
# Aleksandar Malenko, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 1:53.00
# Mahrez Mebarek, Algeria 1:53.00
# Yahor Salabutau, Belarus 1:53.03
# Albert Subirats, Venezuela 1:53.11
# Giancarlo Zolezzi, Chile 1:53.18
# Juan Martín Pereyra, Argentina 1:53.19
# Shaune Fraser, Cayman Islands 1:53.19
# Miguel Molina, Philippines 1:53.81
# Lin Zhang, China 1:53.84
# Alexandros Aresti, Cyprus 1:53.90
# Martín Kutscher, Uruguay 1:53.91
# Andrea Beccari, Italy 1:54.00
# Te Tung Chen, Chinese Taipei 1:54.14
# Igor Erhartic, Serbia and Montenegro 1:54.21
# Stepan Pinciuc, Republic of Moldova 1:54.56
# Anouar Ben Naceur, Tunisia 1:54.69
# Mark Chay, Singapore 1:54.70
# Aytekin Mindan, Turkey 1:55.65
# Adil Bellaz, Morocco 1:55.79
# Mario Delac, Croatia 1:55.82
# Vitaliy Khan, Kazakhstan 1:56.11
# Diego Mularoni, San Marino 1:56.18
# Petr Vasilev, Uzbekistan 1:56.93
# Zurab Khomasuridze, Georgia 1:58.02
# Ruslan Ismailov, Kyrgyzstan 2:01.53

emi-finals

emi-final 1

# Pieter van den Hoogenband, Netherlands 1:46.00
# Klete Keller, United States 1:47.28
# Simon Burnett, Great Britain 1:47.72
# Kvetoslav Svoboda, Czech Republic 1:49.27
# Yoshihiro Okumura, Japan 1:49.49
# Andreas Zisimos, Greece 1:49.76
# Dominik Meichtry, Switzerland 1:50.02
# Olaf Wildeboer, Spain 1:50.61

emi-final 2

# Ian Thorpe, Australia 1:46.65
# Michael Phelps, United States 1:47.08
# Grant Hackett, Australia 1:47.61
# Emiliano Brembilla, Italy 1:47.93
# Rick Say, Canada 1:48.16
# George Bovell, Trinidad and Tobago 1:49.59
# Brent Hayden, Canada 1:50.00
# Andrey Kapralov, Russia 1:51.35

emi-final rankings

# Pieter van den Hoogenband, Netherlands 1:46.00 -Q
# Ian Thorpe, Australia 1:46.65 -Q
# Michael Phelps, United States 1:47.08 -Q
# Klete Keller, United States 1:47.28 -Q
# Grant Hackett, Australia 1:47.61 -Q
# Simon Burnett, Great Britain 1:47.72 -Q
# Emiliano Brembilla, Italy 1:47.93 -Q
# Rick Say, Canada 1:48.16 -Q
# Kvetoslav Svoboda, Czech Republic 1:49.27
# Yoshihiro Okumura, Japan 1:49.49
# George Bovell, Trinidad and Tobago 1:49.59
# Andreas Zisimos, Greece 1:49.76
# Brent Hayden, Canada 1:50.00
# Dominik Meichtry, Switzerland 1:50.02
# Olaf Wildeboer, Spain 1:50.61
# Andrey Kapralov, Russia 1:51.35

Final

# Ian Thorpe, Australia 1:44.71 Olympic Record
# Pieter van den Hoogenband, Netherlands 1:45.23
# Michael Phelps, United States 1:45.32 American Record
# Klete Keller, United States 1:46.13
# Grant Hackett, Australia 1:46.56
# Rick Say, Canada 1:47.55
# Simon Burnett, Great Britain 1:48.02
# Emiliano Brembilla, Italy 1:48.40