The 200 Meter: Everything You Want to Know

The 200-meter (200-metre in UK English) sprint is the second shortest standard-length outdoor track and field event, behind the 100-meter sprint. The race covers half the length of a running track, starting on one of the curves.

The 200-meter is still short enough that pure speed is often the decisive factor when it comes to winning, but unlike the 100-meter, speed endurance also plays a significant role. Speed endurance is the ability to hold top speed for an extended period. In the case of elite males, this is about 20 seconds. For elite females, this is about 22 seconds.

Both the men’s and women’s world record holders in the 200-meter, Usain Bolt and Florence Griffith-Joyner (“Flo-Jo”), also hold the world records in the 100 meters, showing that speed is definitely the most important factor for determining the winner.

Read on to learn about the 200-meter, including its history, record holders, and who the fastest sprinters of all-time are in this event. 

History of the 200m | 200m track History

The 200-meter has been contested at every Olympics for men since the 1900 Olympics in Paris. For women, the 200-meter inaugural event was the 1948 Olympics in London.

Men’s 200m Record Progression

World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) is the governing body of athletics that ratifies world records. The evolution of track surfaces, shoe technology, and scientific training methods has all contributed to increasingly faster times over the decades.

World Athletics started ratifying 200-meter records on a curved track in 1951. A 200-meter straight event is still run as an exhibition event at some meets.

The first recognized 200-meter record was 20.5 seconds, hand-timed and run by Andy Stanfield. In the 1970s, records would switch from being hand-timed to electronically timed. This allowed for times to be rounded to the nearest hundredth of a second rather than tenth.

The hand-timed record would progress to 19.8 seconds before Italy’s Pietro Mennea then lowered the record with electric timing to 19.72 seconds in Mexico City in 1979.

Mennea’s record would stand until 1996, when Michael Johnson would run 19.66 seconds and then smash his own record with a time of 19.32 seconds. Johnson’s record would stand until the current record holder, Usain Bolt, ran 19.30 seconds at the Beijing Olympics. Bolt would go on to break his own world record the next year at the World Championships, running 19.19 seconds into a slight headwind.  

Women’s 200m Record Progression

For women, early records were ratified by the International Women’s Sports Federation (FSFI) and later by World Athletics. Great Britain’s Alice Cast is credited with the first early record of 27.8 seconds hand-timed in 1922.

The women’s record saw gradual improvements through the mid-20th century, until Irena Szewińska would go on to run the best-recognized hand-timed record of 22.7 seconds. She would then set the first electronic record with a time of 22.58 seconds with a barely legal wind of 2.0m/s.

East Germany’s Renate Stecher would take the record from Szewińska, but Szewińska would take it back again in 1974, running 22.21 seconds. Marita Koch of East Germany would dominate the event over the late 70s and 80s, breaking the record four times and setting a best time of 21.71 seconds. Her compatriot, Heike Drechsler, would also go on to run this time twice.

The current women’s 200m world record was set by the American Florence Griffith-Joyner at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Her phenomenal time of 21.34 seconds remains one of the longest-standing records in track and field history.

Men’s 200 Meters | Fastest 200m Men All-Time