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Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre backstroke

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Men's 200 metre backstroke
at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad
The pool at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre
VenueSydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre
DatesSeptember 20, 2000 (heats & semifinals)
September 21, 2000 (final)
Competitors45 from 38 nations
Winning time1:56.76 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Lenny Krayzelburg  United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Aaron Peirsol  United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Matt Welsh  Australia
← 1996
2004 →
Swimming at the
2000 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 mmenwomen
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
800 mwomen
1500 mmen
Backstroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Breaststroke
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Butterfly
100 mmenwomen
200 mmenwomen
Individual medley
200 mmenwomen
400 mmenwomen
Freestyle relay
4 × 100 mmenwomen
4 × 200 mmenwomen
Medley relay
4 × 100 mmenwomen

The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 20–21 September at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.[1] There were 45 competitors from 38 nations.[2] Each nation had been limited to two swimmers in the event since 1984. The event was won by Lenny Krayzelburg of the United States, with his countryman Aaron Peirsol taking silver. It was the second consecutive Games that Americans had finished one-two in the event (Brad Bridgewater and Tripp Schwenk had done so in 1996). Bronze went to Matt Welsh of Australia, the nation's first medal in the event since 1980.

Soviet-born American Krayzelburg became the fourth swimmer in Olympic history to strike a backstroke double, since Roland Matthes did so in 1968 and 1972, John Naber in 1976, and Rick Carey in 1984. He powered past his nearest rivals Peirsol and Australia's overwhelming favorite Welsh to hit the wall first in a new Olympic record of 1:56.76.[3][4] At only 17 years of age, Peirsol trailed behind by over half a second (0.59) to take a silver in 1:57.35. Meanwhile, Welsh settled only for the bronze in an Oceanian record of 1:57.59.[5][6]

Iceland's Örn Arnarson came up with a spectacular swim to earn a fourth spot in 1:59.00, holding off Italy's Emanuele Merisi (1:59.01), bronze medalist in Atlanta four years earlier, by a hundredth of a second (0.01). Romania's Răzvan Florea finished sixth with a time of 1:59.05, while Brazil's Rogério Romero (1:59.27), competing at his fourth Olympics, and Croatia's Gordan Kožulj (1:59.38) closed out the field. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went under a two-minute barrier.[6]

Earlier, Krayzelburg established a new Olympic standard of 1:58.40 on the morning prelims to cut off Martin López-Zubero's eight-year record by seven hundredths of a second (0.07). He lowered it to 1:57.27 in the semifinals.[7][8]

Background

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This was the 11th appearance of the 200 metre backstroke event. It was first held in 1900. The event did not return until 1964; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games. From 1904 to 1960, a men's 100 metre backstroke was held instead. In 1964, only the 200 metres was held. Beginning in 1968 and ever since, both the 100 and 200 metre versions have been held.[2]

Two of the 8 finalists from the 1996 Games returned: bronze medalist Emanuele Merisi of Italy and seventh-place finisher Mirko Mazzari of Italy. The medalists at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships had been Lenny Krayzelburg of the United States, Ralf Braun of Germany, and Mark Versfeld of Canada. Krazyelburg and Braun were competing in Sydney; Versfeld was not.[2]

The Dominican Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia, and Ukraine each made their debut in the event. Australia and Great Britain each made their 10th appearance, tied for most among nations to that point.

Competition format

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The competition altered the format that had been used since 1984. The tournament expanded to three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. Instead of having the top 16 swimmers divided into a Final A for the top 8 and Final B for 9th through 16th, as was done in from 1984 to 1996, the 2000 competition added semifinals. The top 16 swimmers from the heats competed in the new semifinals. The top 8 semifinalists advanced to the final (there was no longer a classification final for 9th through 16th). Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

This swimming event used backstroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.

Records

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

World record  Lenny Krayzelburg (USA) 1:55.87 Sydney, Australia 27 August 1999 [9]
Olympic record  Martin López-Zubero (ESP) 1:58.47 Barcelona, Spain 28 July 1992 [9]

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition, with Krayzelburg setting a new Olympic record each time he swam. All three medalists swam faster than the old Olympic record.

Date Event Swimmer Nation Time Record
20 September Heat 6 Lenny Krayzelburg  United States 1:58.40 OR
20 September Semifinal 2 Lenny Krayzelburg  United States 1:57.27 OR
21 September Final Lenny Krayzelburg  United States 1:56.76 OR

Schedule

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The expansion of the event to three rounds also resulted in the event now taking place over two days instead of a single day.

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Wednesday, 20 September 2000 10:29
19:31		 Heats
Semifinals
Thursday, 21 September 2000 19:21 Final

Results

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Heats

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Krayzelburg had the fastest time in the heats, setting a new Olympic record.[9]

Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 6 4 Lenny Krayzelburg  United States 1:58.40 Q, OR
2 5 4 Aaron Peirsol  United States 1:59.10 Q
3 6 6 Cameron Delaney  Australia 1:59.61 Q
4 6 5 Matt Welsh  Australia 1:59.76 Q
5 4 1 Răzvan Florea  Romania 1:59.79 Q
6 4 8 Örn Arnarson  Iceland 1:59.80 Q, NR
7 5 6 Emanuele Merisi  Italy 1:59.92 Q
8 6 2 Sergey Ostapchuk  Russia 2:00.17 Q
9 4 4 Gordan Kožulj  Croatia 2:00.19 Q
10 5 5 Rogério Romero  Brazil 2:00.48 Q
11 4 6 Chris Renaud  Canada 2:00.51 Q
12 5 7 Marko Strahija  Croatia 2:00.72 Q
13 5 2 Yoav Gath  Israel 2:00.80 Q
14 3 2 Klaas-Erik Zwering  Netherlands 2:00.94 Q, NR
15 4 3 Volodymyr Nikolaychuk  Ukraine 2:01.07 Q, NR
16 4 5 Leonardo Costa  Brazil 2:01.08 Q
17 5 3 Simon Dufour  France 2:01.09
18 6 7 Adam Ruckwood  Great Britain 2:01.11
19 6 1 Simon Militis  Great Britain 2:01.20
20 6 8 Dustin Hersee  Canada 2:01.34
21 6 3 Ralf Braun  Germany 2:01.35
22 3 5 Scott Talbot-Cameron  New Zealand 2:01.53
23 3 7 Blaž Medvešek  Slovenia 2:01.67
24 2 2 Neisser Bent  Cuba 2:02.05
25 5 1 Mirko Mazzari  Italy 2:02.13
26 4 7 Fu Yong  China 2:02.70
27 3 4 Markus Rogan  Austria 2:02.84
28 3 3 Alejandro Bermúdez  Colombia 2:03.43
29 5 8 Guillermo Mediano  Spain 2:03.45
30 2 4 Mario Carvalho  Portugal 2:03.82
31 3 6 Miroslav Machovič  Slovakia 2:04.73
32 3 8 Arūnas Savickas  Lithuania 2:05.06
33 1 3 Alex Fong  Hong Kong 2:05.47 NR
34 2 6 Eduardo Germán Otero  Argentina 2:05.51
35 2 7 Torwai Sethsothorn  Thailand 2:05.52
36 2 3 Ahmed Hussein  Egypt 2:06.10
37 2 8 Gary Tan  Singapore 2:06.32
38 1 4 Andrei Mihailov  Moldova 2:06.67
39 2 1 Lee Jong-min  South Korea 2:07.14
40 1 5 Ivan Angelov  Bulgaria 2:07.30
41 1 7 Guillermo Cabrera  Dominican Republic 2:08.22
42 3 1 Alex Lim  Malaysia 2:08.23
43 1 6 Miloš Cerović  FR Yugoslavia 2:09.07
44 1 2 Aleksandr Yegorov  Kyrgyzstan 2:13.85
— 4 2 Viktor Bodrogi  Hungary DSQ
— 2 5 Simon Thirsk  South Africa DNS

Semifinals

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Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 2 4 Lenny Krayzelburg  United States 1:57.27 Q, OR
2 1 4 Aaron Peirsol  United States 1:58.44 Q
3 1 5 Matt Welsh  Australia 1:58.57 Q
4 1 3 Örn Arnarson  Iceland 1:58.99 Q, NR
5 2 3 Răzvan Florea  Romania 1:59.44 Q, NR
6 2 2 Gordan Kožulj  Croatia 1:59.56 Q
7 1 2 Rogério Romero  Brazil 1:59.69 Q
8 2 6 Emanuele Merisi  Italy 1:59.78 Q
9 1 7 Marko Strahija  Croatia 1:59.85
10 1 1 Klaas-Erik Zwering  Netherlands 2:00.06 NR
11 2 5 Cameron Delaney  Australia 2:00.39
12 1 6 Sergey Ostapchuk  Russia 2:00.47
13 2 7 Chris Renaud  Canada 2:01.19
14 1 8 Leonardo Costa  Brazil 2:02.26
15 2 8 Volodymyr Nikolaychuk  Ukraine 2:02.27
16 2 1 Yoav Gath  Israel 2:03.80

Final

[edit]
Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 4 Lenny Krayzelburg  United States 1:56.76 OR
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 Aaron Peirsol  United States 1:57.35
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 3 Matt Welsh  Australia 1:57.59 OC
4 6 Örn Arnarson  Iceland 1:59.00
5 8 Emanuele Merisi  Italy 1:59.01
6 2 Răzvan Florea  Romania 1:59.05 NR
7 1 Rogério Romero  Brazil 1:59.27
8 7 Gordan Kožulj  Croatia 1:59.38

References

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  1. ^ "Swimming schedule". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 14 September 2000. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  2. ^ a b c "200 metres Backstroke, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Double gold for Krayzelburg". BBC Sport. 18 September 2000. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  4. ^ Dillman, Lisa (22 September 2000). "Thrills & Chills". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  5. ^ Berlin, Peter (22 September 2000). "De Bruijn Takes Second Gold; Hungarian and Italian Also Triumph : European Swimmers Steal the Show". New York Times. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  6. ^ a b Whitten, Phillip (21 September 2000). "Olympic Day 6 Finals". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  7. ^ Whitten, Phillip (20 September 2000). "Olympic Day 5 Prelims". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  8. ^ Peterson, Lauren (21 September 2000). "States Athletic Teams Krayzelburg, Ervin Advance in Sydney". New York Times. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  9. ^ a b c "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Men's 100m Backstroke Heats" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. pp. 278–279. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
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