AthleticsAthletics world record
200 m, men
19.19 s
- Holder
- Usain Bolt
- Date
- Place
- Berlin
- Standing since
- 2009 (17 years)
✓ Value cross-checked in a second source
How the record evolved
The last record set in each decade, up to the current record (highlighted).
| Year | Record | Holder |
|---|---|---|
| 19.19 s | Usain Bolt | |
| 19.30 s | Usain Bolt | |
| 19.32 s | Michael Johnson | |
| 19.72 s | Pietro Mennea | |
| 19.8 s | Tommie Smith | |
| 20.6 s | Manfred Germar |
Put them in order
Sort these records from the oldest to the most recent.
- 19.72 sPietro Mennea
- 19.19 sUsain Bolt
- 20.6 sManfred Germar
- 19.32 sMichael Johnson
What to remember
The 200 m starts on the bend and ends on the home straight, so it takes a combination of techniques to run it well. At the World Championships in Berlin, on August 20, 2009, Jamaica's Usain Bolt ran it in 19.19 s into a 0.3 m/s headwind, an average of 37.52 km/h.
The record improved patiently, decade after decade. In 1958 Manfred Germar ran 20.6 s. Tommie Smith clocked 19.8 s in 1968, Pietro Mennea 19.72 s in 1979 and Michael Johnson 19.32 s in 1996. Bolt himself already held the record in 2008, with 19.30 s. Between 1958 and 2009 the time fell by 6.8%, over 51 years.
Bolt won eight Olympic gold medals and eleven world titles. He won both the 100 m and the 200 m at three consecutive Olympics, in 2008, 2012 and 2016. At the top level, the men's 200 m is run in under 20 seconds.
Related records
Sources and licences
- Value, holder and date: Wikipedia article “List of world records in athletics” (revision used 1378411308). Data from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo: Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil, Photo licensed under CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons). Remove this photo.
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