The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the
2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
took place on 17–18 September at the
Sydney International Aquatic Centre
The Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC) , formerly Sydney International Aquatic Centre (SIAC), is a swimming pool, swimming venue located in the Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Built in 1994, the SOPAC was a majo ...
in
Sydney, Australia
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...
.
There were 51 competitors from 44 nations, with each nation having up to two swimmers (a limit in place since 1984).
[
Dutchman ]Pieter van den Hoogenband
Pieter Cornelis Martijn van den Hoogenband (; born 14 March 1978) is a Dutch retired swimmer. He is a triple Olympic champion and former world record holder.
Early life
Born in Maastricht, Limburg, he is the son of Cees-Rein van den Hoogenband ...
edged out Australia's top favorite Ian Thorpe
Ian James Thorpe, (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian along wit ...
on the final lap to claim a gold medal in the event. Stunning a massive home crowd, he touched the wall first in 1:45.35 to match his own world record from the semifinals. As a result of starting harder than usual, Thorpe ended up only with a silver in 1:45.83, while Italy's Massimiliano Rosolino
Massimiliano "Massi" Rosolino (born 11 July 1978) is an Italian retired competitive swimmer.
Biography
Born in Naples to an Italian father, Salvatore, and an Australian mother, Carolyn, he moved to Australia at the age of three, coming back to ...
added a bronze to his hardware from the 400 m freestyle
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest c ...
in a time 1:46.65. The medals were the first in the men's 200 metre freestyle for both the Netherlands and Italy.
U.S. swimmer Josh Davis missed the podium by six hundredths of a second (0.06), finishing with a new American record of 1:46.73. Davis was followed in fifth and sixth by British duo Paul Palmer (1:47.95) and James Salter
James Arnold Horowitz (June 10, 1925 – June 19, 2015), better known as James Salter, his pen name and later-adopted legal name, was an American novelist and short-story writer. Originally a career officer and pilot in the United States Air For ...
(1:48.74). Canada's Rick Say
Richard Say (born May 18, 1979) is a three-time Olympic and National record-holding swimmer from Canada. Say swam as a child for the Salmon Arm Sockeye Swim Club with his two brothers and two sisters. At the age of 18, he began attending the Uni ...
(1:48.76) and another Aussie Grant Hackett
Grant George Hackett OAM (born 9 May 1980) is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him t ...
(1:49.46) closed out the field.[
Earlier in the semifinals, Van den Hoogenband blasted a new world record of 1:45.35, slashing 0.16 seconds off the mark set by Thorpe from the Australian trials. One heat later, Thorpe powered home with a second-fastest time of 1:45.37, but missed taking the record back by two hundredths of a second (0.02).][ He also erased ]Yevgeny Sadovyi
Yevgeny Viktorovich Sadovyi (russian: Евгений Викторович Садовый; born 19 January 1973) is a retired Russian freestyle swimmer who won three gold medals at the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona and was subsequently chosen ...
's 1992 Olympic record by 0.14 seconds to pick up a top seed from the prelims (1:46.56).
Background
This was the 11th appearance of the 200 metre freestyle event. It was first contested in 1900. It would be contested a second time, though at 220 yards, in 1904. After that, the event did not return until 1968; since then, it has been on the programme at every Summer Games.
Four of the 8 finalists from the 1996 Games returned: fourth-place finisher Pieter van den Hoogenband
Pieter Cornelis Martijn van den Hoogenband (; born 14 March 1978) is a Dutch retired swimmer. He is a triple Olympic champion and former world record holder.
Early life
Born in Maastricht, Limburg, he is the son of Cees-Rein van den Hoogenband ...
of the Netherlands, sixth-place finisher Massimiliano Rosolino
Massimiliano "Massi" Rosolino (born 11 July 1978) is an Italian retired competitive swimmer.
Biography
Born in Naples to an Italian father, Salvatore, and an Australian mother, Carolyn, he moved to Australia at the age of three, coming back to ...
of Italy, seventh-place finisher Josh Davis of the United States, and eighth-place finisher Paul Palmer of Great Britain. Rosolino had taken silver at the 1998 World Championships, with van den Hoogenband bronze. Australia's Michael Klim
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...
had won those World Championships, but the Australian team in Sydney was Grant Hackett
Grant George Hackett OAM (born 9 May 1980) is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him t ...
and world record holder and home country favourite Ian Thorpe
Ian James Thorpe, (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian along wit ...
.[
Andorra, Belarus, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, India, Lithuania, and Trinidad and Tobago each made their debut in the event. Australia made its 11th appearance, the only nation to have competed in all prior editions of the event.
]
Competition format
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
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
event used freestyle swimming
Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most commo ...
, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl
The front crawl or forward crawl, also known as the Australian crawl or American crawl, is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a f ...
or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool
An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cour ...
is 50 metres long, this race consisted of four lengths of the pool.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
Schedule
All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time
Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state ...
(UTC+10
UTC+10:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +10:00. This time is used in:
As standard time (year-round)
''Principal cities: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Port Moresby, Dededo, Saipan''
North Asia
*Russia – ...
)
Results
Heats
The top 16 across all heats advanced to the semifinals.[
]
Semifinals
Final
References
External links
Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 2000 Summer Olympics - Men's 200 Metre Freestyle
F
200 metre freestyle at the Olympics
Men's events at the 2000 Summer Olympics