The men's

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

had an entry list of 76 competitors from 58 nations, with ten qualifying heats (76), four quarterfinals (32), and two semifinals (16) before the final (8) took off on Wednesday August 8, 1984. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 ...

of the United States, the nation's first victory in the men's 200 metres since 1968 and 13th overall. It was the third gold medal of the Games for Lewis, who was attempting to match

Jesse Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifet ...

in winning the 100, 200, long jump, and 4x100 relay; his victory in this event left only the relay to go, in which the United States was heavily favored. The American team competed a medal sweep in this event, the first since 1956 and the fifth overall for the United States, with Kirk Baptiste earning silver and

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

taking bronze.

Background

This was the 19th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Olympics in 1896 but has been on the program ever since. Two of the eight finalists from the 1980 Games returned: gold medalist (and 1972 bronze medalist and 1976 finalist) Pietro Mennea of Italy and bronze medalist (and 1976 gold medalist)

Don Quarrie Donald O'Riley Quarrie CD (born 25 February 1951) is a Jamaican former track and field athlete, one of the world's top sprinters during the 1970s. At the 1976 Summer Olympics he was the gold medallist in the Olympic 200 meters and silver med ...

of Jamaica. The favorite was

of the United States, attempting to win four golds, with his teammates Kirk Baptiste and

his biggest challengers. The Soviet-led boycott had little effect on this event, with none of the top 200 metres runners in 1984 being from boycotting nations. Algeria, Bangladesh, the British Virgin Islands, the People's Republic of China, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Indonesia, Mali, Mauritius, the Netherlands Antilles, Oman, Qatar, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 18th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

The competition used the four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system introduced in 1960 was used in the heats. There were 10 heats of 8 runners each (before withdrawals), with the top 3 men in each advancing to the quarterfinals along with the next 2 fastest overall. The quarterfinals consisted of 4 heats of 8 athletes each (again, before withdrawals); the 4 fastest men in each heat advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals, each with 8 runners. Again, the top 4 athletes advanced. The final had 8 runners. The races were run on a 400 metre track.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics. In the final

set a new Olympic record with 19.80 seconds.

Schedule

All times are

Pacific Daylight Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00 ...

( UTC-7)

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Heat 7

Heat 8

Heat 9

Heat 10

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 2

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

References

External links

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Results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics - Men's 200 metres 2 200 metres at the Olympics Men's events at the 1984 Summer Olympics