The men's 200 metre butterfly 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 ...
took place on 18–19 September at the
Sydney International Aquatic Centre in
Sydney, Australia.
U.S. swimmer
Tom Malchow
Thomas Andrew Malchow (born August 18, 1976) is a retired American competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder.
Malchow represented the United States in three consecutive Summer Olympics. At the 1996 Summer Olympi ...
shattered his own Olympic record to claim a gold medal in the event. Coming from third place on the final turn, he held off a challenge from fast-pacing
Denys Sylantyev
Denys Olegovich Sylantyev ( uk, Денис Олегович Силантьєв; born 3 October 1976) is a Ukrainian politician and retired swimmer. He competed at four consecutive Olympics between 1996 and 2008 and who won a silver medal in th ...
of Ukraine to touch the wall first in 1:55.35. Sylantyev trailed behind by almost half a second (0.50) to take a silver in 1:55.76, while Australia's
Justin Norris settled for the bronze in an Oceanian record of 1:56.17.
Russia's
Anatoly Polyakov
Anatoly Sergeyevich Polyakov (russian: Анатолий Серге́евич Поляков; born May 10, 1980) is a butterfly swimmer from Russia, who won a bronze in the men's 200 metres butterfly event at the 2004 European Championships in Mad ...
finished outside the medals in 1:56.34. 15-year-old
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold med ...
, the youngest male U.S. Olympic swimmer in 68 years, continued to improve his personal best of 1:56.50, but it was only enough to pull off a fifth-place finish.
[
Phelps, who later emerged as the most-decorated Olympian of all-time, was followed in the sixth spot by Great Britain's Stephen Parry in 1:57.01. Defending Olympic champion ]Denis Pankratov
Denis Pankratov (russian: Денис Панкратов; born 4 July 1974) is a retired Russian butterfly swimmer of the 1990s, who was best known for winning the butterfly double at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States in a unique ...
seized a powerful lead on the first length, but faded shortly to seventh place in 1:57.97. France's Franck Esposito
Franck Esposito (born 13 April 1971 in Salon-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône) is a former World Record holding, and four-time Olympic, butterfly swimmer from France. He swam for France at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympics; and won the bronze me ...
(1:58.39), bronze medalist in Barcelona eight years earlier, closed out the field.[
Earlier, Malchow posted a top-seeded time of 1:56.25 on the morning prelims to cut off ]Melvin Stewart
Melvin Monroe Stewart Jr. (born November 18, 1968) is an American swimming promoter, former competition swimmer and world record-holder who won two gold medals and one bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He is the co-fou ...
's 1992 Olympic record by a hundredth of a second (0.01). Followed by an evening session on day three, he eventually lowered it to 1:56.02 in the semifinals.
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.
Results
Heats
[
]
Semifinals
Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
Final
References
External links
Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 2000 Summer Olympics - Men's 200 Metre Butterfly
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Men's events at the 2000 Summer Olympics