Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre backstroke

Men's 200 metre backstroke at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Venue	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center
Date	26 July 1996 (heats & finals)
Competitors	44 from 36 nations
Winning time	1:58.54
Medalists
Brad Bridgewater  United States Tripp Schwenk  United States Emanuele Merisi  Italy

The men's 200 metre backstroke event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 26 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Martín López-Zubero (ESP)	1:56.57	Tuscaloosa, United States	23 November 1991
Olympic record	Martín López-Zubero (ESP)	1:58.47	Barcelona, Spain	28 July 1992

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	5	Brad Bridgewater	United States	1:59.04	Q
2	4	4	Tripp Schwenk	United States	1:59.58	Q
3	5	2	Mirko Mazzari	Italy	1:59.95	Q
4	6	4	Emanuele Merisi	Italy	2:00.01	Q
5	6	7	Hajime Itoi	Japan	2:00.43	Q
6	4	6	Martín López-Zubero	Spain	2:00.77	Q
7	4	2	Bartosz Sikora	Poland	2:00.99	Q
8	5	3	Rodolfo Falcón	Cuba	2:01.20	Q
9	5	4	Vladimir Selkov	Russia	2:01.32	q, WD
10	4	3	Adam Ruckwood	Great Britain	2:01.35	q
11	5	7	Ji Sang-jun	South Korea	2:01.39	q
12	6	5	Ralf Braun	Germany	2:01.50	q, WD
13	4	1	Olivér Ágh	Hungary	2:01.84	q
14	3	6	Marko Strahija	Croatia	2:01.95	q, NR
15	6	6	Ryuji Horii	Japan	2:02.33	q
16	5	6	Chris Renaud	Canada	2:02.48	q
17	3	4	Rogério Romero	Brazil	2:03.49	q
18	4	7	Sergey Ostapchuk	Russia	2:03.50	q
19	3	1	Miroslav Machovič	Slovakia	2:04.15	NR
20	5	1	Neisser Bent	Cuba	2:04.23
21	3	2	Derya Büyükuncu	Turkey	2:04.28
22	2	4	Arūnas Savickas	Lithuania	2:04.38
23	6	1	Steven Dewick	Australia	2:04.46
24	3	3	Rastislav Bizub	Czech Republic	2:04.55
25	3	7	Raymond Papa	Philippines	2:05.09
26	2	7	Dulyarit Phuangthong	Thailand	2:05.26
27	2	8	Nicolás Rajcevich	Chile	2:05.79	NR
28	1	4	Nicholas Neckles	Barbados	2:05.88
29	3	8	Nuno Laurentino	Portugal	2:05.95
30	2	5	Carlos Arena	Mexico	2:05.96
31	1	5	Alex Lim	Malaysia	2:06.17
32	6	8	Martin Harris	Great Britain	2:07.75
33	2	1	Artur Elezarov	Moldova	2:07.86
34	6	3	Nicolae Butacu	Romania	2:08.59
35	2	3	Adrian O'Connor	Ireland	2:08.90
36	1	3	Gerald Koh	Singapore	2:09.86
37	2	6	Panagiotis Adamidis	Greece	2:10.22
38	1	6	Trương Ngọc Tuấn	Vietnam	2:12.05
39	4	8	Zhao Yi	China	2:13.31
	2	2	Fahad Al-Otaibi	Kuwait	DNS
	3	5	Volodymyr Nikolaychuk	Ukraine	DNS
	4	5	Tamás Deutsch	Hungary	DNS
	5	8	Stev Theloke	Germany	DNS
	6	2	Jani Sievinen	Finland	DNS

Finals

Final B

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
9	2	Ryuji Horii	Japan	2:01.54
10	7	Chris Renaud	Canada	2:01.70
11	6	Marko Strahija	Croatia	2:01.84	NR
12	3	Olivér Ágh	Hungary	2:02.17
13	4	Adam Ruckwood	Great Britain	2:02.40
14	5	Ji Sang-jun	South Korea	2:02.68
15	1	Rogério Romero	Brazil	2:03.20
16	8	Sergey Ostapchuk	Russia	2:03.91

Final A

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Brad Bridgewater	United States	1:58.54
	5	Tripp Schwenk	United States	1:58.99
	6	Emanuele Merisi	Italy	1:59.18
4	1	Bartosz Sikora	Poland	2:00.05	NR
5	2	Hajime Itoi	Japan	2:00.10	NR
6	7	Martín López-Zubero	Spain	2:00.74
7	3	Mirko Mazzari	Italy	2:01.27
8	8	Rodolfo Falcón	Cuba	2:08.14

External links

• Official Report
• USA Swimming