Men's 200 metres world record progression

The following table shows the world record progression in the men's 200 metres, as ratified by the IAAF. The current record of 19.19 seconds was set by Usain Bolt at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.

The IAAF maintained separate records for 200 m over a straight track and over a curved track until 1976, when records for the former were discarded. The IAAF ratified the first record for 200 m on a curved track in 1951. "y" denotes times for 220 yards (201.17 m) which were also ratified for the event.

As of 2018, the IAAF has ratified 24 outdoor world records in the event.[1]

Indoor

Indoor records are run on a shorter 200 metres track. "y" indicates marks were set over the 220 yards (201.17 m) imperial distance, and an asterisk indicates a record was repeated. Only Marie-Rose, Christie, and Fredericks' records were ratified by the IAAF.[2]

Time Athlete Nationality Location of race Date
Manual timing
22.6y Maxie Long  United States Buffalo 19 January 1901
22.6y* Loren Murchison  United States Brooklyn 28 April 1919
22.4y Loren Murchison  United States New York 6 January 1925
22.2y Loren Murchison  United States New York 6 January 1925
22.2y* Ted Ellison  United States New York 1 March 1935
21.7y Thomas Robinson  Bahamas Chicago 18 January 1959
21.7y* James Green  United States Chicago 23 December 1967
21.6* Dieter Hübner  West Germany Stuttgart 2 March 1968
21.6 Bernd Jacob  West Germany Stuttgart 2 March 1968
21.2y[a] John Carlos  United States East Lansing 14 February 1970
21.1y Carl Lawson  Jamaica Pocatello 2 March 1974
21.1 Günter Arnold  East Germany Berlin-Est 18 January 1976
20.6y Erwin Skamrahl  West Germany Sindelfingen 11 February 1983
Electronic timing
21.43 Manfred Ommer  West Germany Stuttgart 26 February 1972
21.40 Manfred Ommer  West Germany Munich 23 February 1974
21.16 Karl-Heinz Weisenseel  West Germany Stuttgart 22 February 1975
21.11 Karl-Heinz Weisenseel  West Germany Sindelfingen 25 February 1978
21.11* Pietro Mennea  Italy Milan 4 March 1978
21.05 Mauro Zuliani  Italy Genova 9 February 1980
20.99 Erwin Skamrahl  West Germany Dortmund 13 February 1982
20.98 Ralf Lübke  West Germany Sindelfingen 11 February 1983
20.77 Ralf Lübke  West Germany Sindelfingen 12 February 1983
20.74 Pietro Mennea  Italy Genova 13 February 1983
20.67 Ralf Lübke  West Germany Stuttgart 10 February 1984
20.57 Ralf Lübke  West Germany Stuttgart 11 February 1984
20.52 Stefano Tilli  Italy Turin 21 February 1985
20.36 Bruno Marie-Rose  France Liévin 22 February 1987
20.25 Linford Christie  Great Britain Liévin 19 February 1995
19.92 Frank Fredericks  Namibia Liévin 18 February 1996

Outdoor

Records 1951–1976

Time Wind Auto Athlete Nationality Location of race Date
20.6y Andy Stanfield United States Philadelphia, United States 26 May 1951[4]
20.6 Andy Stanfield United States Los Angeles, United States 28 June 1952[4]
20.6 0.0 Thane Baker United States Bakersfield, United States 23 June 1956[4]
20.6 20.75 Bobby Morrow United States Melbourne, Australia 27 November 1956[4]
20.6 Manfred Germar  West Germany Wuppertal, Germany 1 October 1958[4]
20.6y −1.6 Ray Norton  United States Berkeley, United States 19 March 1960[4]
20.6 Ray Norton  United States Philadelphia, United States 30 April 1960[4]
20.5y Peter Radford  United Kingdom Wolverhampton, United Kingdom 28 May 1960[4]
20.5 0.0 20.75 Stone Johnson  United States Stanford, United States 2 July 1960[4]
20.5 0.0 Ray Norton  United States Stanford, United States 2 July 1960[4]
20.5 20.65 Livio Berruti  Italy Rome, Italy 3 September 1960[4]
20.5 0.0 20.62 Livio Berruti  Italy Rome, Italy 3 September 1960[4]
20.5y −1.1 20.67 Paul Drayton  United States Walnut, United States 23 June 1962[4]
20.3y −0.1 Henry Carr  United States Tempe, United States 23 March 1963[4]
20.2y 0.5 Henry Carr  United States Tempe, United States 4 April 1964[4]
20.0y 0.0 Tommie Smith  United States Sacramento, United States 11 June 1966[5][4]
19.8 A 0.9 19.83 A Tommie Smith  United States Mexico City, Mexico 16 October 1968[4]
19.8 A 0.9 19.86 A Don Quarrie  Jamaica Cali, Colombia 3 August 1971[4]
19.8y 1.3 Don Quarrie  Jamaica Eugene, United States 7 June 1975[4]

The "Time" column indicates the ratified mark; the "Wind" column indicates the wind assistance in metres per second, 2.0 m/s the current maximum allowable, a negative indicates the mark was set running into a wind; the "Auto" column indicates a fully automatic time that was also recorded in the event when hand-timed marks were used for official records, or which was the basis for the official mark, rounded to the 10th or 100th of a second, depending on the rules then in place.

John Carlos ran 19.7A seconds (19.92A auto) (1.9 ms wind), at altitude, at the 1968 US Olympic Trials in Echo Summit. The run was not ratified as a world record because Carlos was wearing shoes with 'brush' spikes which did not have sanction as official footwear.

Henry Carr's winning time at the 1964 Olympics (17 October) was a hand timed 20.3 seconds. The electronic time was 20.36 seconds, which was the fastest auto time to that date. Tommie Smith ran 20.26 for 220 yards at Provo in 1967. By deducting .12 seconds for the 200-metre equivalent, he is estimated to have run 20.14 for that distance.[6]: 45 

Records post-1977

Beginning in 1975, the IAAF accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting on January 1, 1977, the IAAF required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events.[4]

Tommie Smith's 1968 Olympic gold medal victory was the fastest recorded fully electronic 200-metre sprint up to that time.

Time Wind Auto Athlete Nationality Location of race Date
19.83 A 0.9 Tommie Smith  United States Mexico City, Mexico 16 October 1968[4]
19.72 A 1.8 Pietro Mennea  Italy Mexico City, Mexico 12 September 1979[4]
19.66 1.7 Michael Johnson  United States Atlanta, United States 23 June 1996[4]
19.32 0.4 19.313 Michael Johnson  United States Atlanta, United States 1 August 1996[4]
19.30 −0.9 19.296 Usain Bolt  Jamaica Beijing, China 20 August 2008[4]
19.19 −0.3 19.190 Usain Bolt  Jamaica Berlin, Germany 20 August 2009[1][7][8]

The record progressions for automatic times at low altitude (after Carr's 20.36 in 1964) were 20.30 seconds by Valeriy Borzov at Helsinki in 1971, then Larry Black 20.28, 1972 at Munich, 20.00 (Borzov, 1972 also at Munich), 19.96 (Mennea, 1980), 19.75 (Carl Lewis, 1983), 19.75 (Joe DeLoach, 1988) and 19.73 (Michael Marsh, 1992), before Michael Johnson ran 19.66 in 1996.[6]: 46–47 

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Some considered Carlos' time invalid for records as it was run on a dirt track.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "IAAF World Championships: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Daegu 2011" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2011. pp. Pages 595, 596. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
  2. ^ "Main > Records Progression - World Indoor Records Men, 200 m". trackfield.brinkster.net.
  3. ^ "2 World Marks Fall in Simplot Games". Idaho State Journal. 28 Feb 1971. p. 9. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y "12th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2009" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2009. pp. Pages 546, 547. Archived from the original (pdf) on June 29, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  5. ^ original source has the correct year--1966, not 1968
  6. ^ a b Hymans, Richard; Matrahazi, Imre. "IAAF World Records Progression" (pdf) (2015 ed.). International Association of Athletics Federations. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
  7. ^ Clarey, Christopher (August 20, 2009). "Bolt Needs Little Urging to Crush His 200 World Record". New York Times.
  8. ^ "World records set at Berlin World Championships have been ratified". IAAF. 2009-09-20. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
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