The men's 200 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held in four rounds at the Stade de France in Paris, France, between 5 and 8 August 2024. This was the 29th time that the men's 200 metres was contested at the Summer Olympics. A total of 48 athletes were able to qualify for the event by entry standard or ranking.
The event is surprisingly stable, with the first six at the previous Olympics all returning. After winning three successive World Championships in a row, the 2020 bronze medalist, Noah Lyles was the favorite. The defending champion, Andre De Grasse, was the silver medalist in 2016 and at the 2019 World Championships. The returning silver medalist, Kenny Bednarek also finished second to Lyles in 2022 but was left off the podium in 2023, finishing fifth. Fourth place in 2021 was the youngster Erriyon Knighton, now 20 years old but experienced, having finished third in 2022 and second in 2023. Lyles' forte that has helped him win not only 200 metre races but more recently the 100 metres in 2023 and these Olympics is his closing top end speed. Fifth place in 2021 was Joseph Fahnbulleh with a notorious poor start, consistently has fast closing speed, picking off competitors down the home stretch year after year. And in 2023, bronze medalist Letsile Tebogo was actually gaining on Lyles toward the finish. Another wild card here is the sole appearance of these games by 400 metre world record holder and 2016 Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk.
The first semi-final saw Bednarek running a relaxed 20.00 but Alexander Ogando displaced De Grasse. The second saw Tebogo beat Lyles with a 19.96. Knighton and Fahnbulleh qualified out of semi 3 with van Niekerk tying for last place. Time qualifiers were both from Zimbabwe; Tapiwanashe Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba.[2]
In the final, Tebogo achieved the fastest start, with Lyles giving 0.1 seconds. Bednarek quickly moved out through the turn to take the lead by 0.05 seconds over Tebogo, who was starting to move. Bednarek and Tebogo entered the straightaway, side by side, with Lyles a small distance behind. From there Tebogo accelerated for a relaxed win. Lyles struggled to achieve a fast closing speed, as his form fell apart towards the end. He held his position ahead of Knighton to finish third. Second, third, and fourth places were identical to the previous Olympics, but with Tebogo taking first place.[3]
Tebogo became the 5th fastest performer in history, setting a new African record. Bednarek and Lyles also recorded sprints that ranked among the top ten fastest 200m times in Olympic history.[4]
After the race, Lyles collapsed on the track and was taken off in a wheelchair. It was later confirmed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 two days prior, which affected his performance.[5] He later stated he would not run in the 4x100m or 4x400m relay races.[6]
The 2024 edition of the event introduced a significant change to the competition format, in the addition of a repechage round. For the first round to semifinals advancement, instead of the "fastest losers" method used previously (and still used for the repechage to semifinals and the semifinals to final advancements), all of the runners who did not qualify on place received a second chance to run in the repechage round. This increased the number of rounds from three to four, and guaranteed that all runners could run at least twice.[10]
In the first round, the top 3 in each of the 6 heats advanced to the semifinals, with all remaining runners relegated to the repechage. The repechage had 4 heats, with the top 1 runner in each heat plus the next 2 fastest overall advancing to the semifinals. For the semifinals, the top 2 in each of the 3 heats advanced along with the next 2 fastest overall.
For the men's 200 metres event, the qualification period was between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024.[11] 48 athletes were able to qualify for the event, with a maximum of three athletes per nation, by running the entry standard of 20.16 seconds or faster or by their World Athletics Ranking for this event.[11]
Usain Bolt (JAM)
Noah Lyles (USA)
Letsile Tebogo (BOT)
Xie Zhenye (CHN)
Pietro Mennea (ITA)
Peter Norman (AUS)
Alonso Edward (PAN)
Liberia
Italy
South Africa
France
Switzerland
Ivory Coast
Australia
Poland
Uganda
Bahamas
Brazil
Jamaica
Nigeria
Paraguay
Czech Republic
Dominican Republic
Botswana
Zimbabwe
Canada
Japan
United States
Germany
Great Britain
Sweden
Israel
Chinese Taipei
