The men's 200 metres at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States 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 0.16 seconds by Carl Lewis of the United States (clocking the then-third fastest time in history), 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 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 in 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 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 of Jamaica. The favorite was Carl Lewis of the United States, attempting to win four golds, with his teammates Kirk Baptiste and Thomas Jefferson 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 Carl Lewis set a new Olympic record with 19.80 seconds.

Schedule

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7)

Date Time Round Monday, 6 August 1984 10:0012:00 HeatsQuarterfinals Wednesday, 8 August 1984 16:0018:30 SemifinalsFinal

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Pietro Mennea 20.70 2 Peter Van Miltenburg 21.06 3 Robson Caetano 21.08 4 Georges Kablan Degnan 21.39 5 Earl Haley 21.52 6 Inoke Bainimoli 22.16 7 Saidur Rahman Dawn 22.59 — Emmanuel Bitanga

Heat 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Leroy Reid 20.62 2 Ralf Lübke 20.88 3 Luke Watson 21.26 4 Yu Zhuanghui 21.48 5 Nordin Mohamed Jadi 21.88 6 Gregory Simons 21.88 7 James Idun 22.55 8 Glen Abrahams 22.75

Heat 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carlo Simionato 21.06 2 Dudley Parker 21.12 3 Jürgen Evers 21.12 4 Florencio Aguilar 21.50 5 Sheikh Omar Faye 21.56 6 Mohammad Mansha 22.04 7 Christian Nenepath 22.20 8 Clifford Sibusiso Mamba 22.76

Heat 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Thomas Jefferson 20.63 2 Desai Williams 20.70 3 João Batista da Silva 20.70 4 Jamal Al-Abdullah 21.10 5 Paul Narracott 21.20 6 Larry Miller 21.93 7 Markus Büchel 22.14 8 Augustus Moulton 22.94

Heat 5

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Patrick Barré 20.88 2 Fred Martin 20.98 3 Gus Young 21.14 4 Alfred Nyambane 21.35 5 Hiroki Fuwa 21.37 6 Henry Ngolwe 21.58 7 Antoine Kiakouama 21.64 8 Odiya Silweya 22.46

Heat 6

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Don Quarrie 20.84 2 Ade Mafe 21.24 3 Tony Sharpe 21.31 4 Sumet Promna 21.53 5 Lindel Hodge 22.28 6 Mohamed Al-Hashimi 22.83 7 Aldo Salandra 22.90 8 Jean-Yves Mallat 22.91

Heat 7

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carl Lewis 21.02 2 Atlee Mahorn 21.42 3 Julien Thode 21.62 4 Manuel Ramírez 21.71 5 Henrique Ferreira 21.87 6 Luís Barroso 22.03 7 Christopher Madzokere 22.75 — Kgosiemang Khumoyarano

Heat 8

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Kirk Baptiste 20.63 2 Luis Morales 21.05 3 Neville Hodge 21.12 4 Ali Bakhta 21.15 5 Arnaldo da Silva 21.24 6 Lapule Tamean 21.97 7 Gustavo Envela 22.14 8 Emilio Samayoa 22.19

Heat 9

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Stefano Tilli 20.72 2 Jean-Jacques Boussemart 20.82 3 Mohamed Purnomo 21.01 4 David Sawyerr 21.29 5 Ivan Benjamin 21.54 6 Moussa Savadogo 21.72 7 Denis Rose 21.87 — Hasely Crawford

Heat 10

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Jang Jae-Geun 21.32 2 John Goville 21.59 3 John Mayers 21.70 4 Nelson Erazo 21.72 5 Damel Flowers 21.72 6 Daniel André 22.16 — Allan Wells Christian Haas

Quarterfinals

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carl Lewis 20.48 2 Stefano Tilli 20.64 3 Atlee Mahorn 20.69 4 Luis Morales 20.82 5 Mohamed Purnomo 20.93 6 Patrick Barré 20.95 7 Dudley Parker 21.10 8 Ali Bakhta 21.35

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Desai Williams 20.40 2 Pietro Mennea 20.50 3 Ade Mafe 20.55 4 João Batista da Silva 20.61 5 Jürgen Evers 20.95 6 Jang Jae-Keun 20.14 7 John Mayers 21.46 — Leroy Reid

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Thomas Jefferson 20.47 2 Jean-Jacques Boussemart 20.54 3 Donald Quarrie 20.57 4 Robson da Silva 20.88 5 Julien Thode 21.45 6 Tony Sharpe 21.46 7 John Goville 21.55 — Fred Martin

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Kirk Baptiste 20.48 2 Ralf Lübke 20.57 3 Gus Young 20.75 4 Carlo Simionato 20.86 5 Peter Van Miltenburg 21.09 6 Luke Watson 21.14 7 Jamal Al-Abdulla 21.44 — Neville Hodge

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Kirk Baptiste 20.29 2 Thomas Jefferson 20.40 3 Pietro Mennea 20.47 4 Jean-Jacques Boussemart 20.55 5 Atlee Mahorn 20.77 6 Robson da Silva 20.80 7 Gus Young 21.17 8 Luis Morales 21.22

Semifinal 2

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes 1 Carl Lewis 20.27 2 João Batista da Silva 20.61 3 Ade Mafe 20.63 4 Ralf Lübke 20.67 5 Desai Williams 20.70 6 Stefano Tilli 20.72 7 Donald Quarrie 20.77 8 Carlo Simionato 20.92

Final

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes Carl Lewis 19.80 Kirk Baptiste 19.96 Thomas Jefferson 20.26 4 João Batista da Silva 20.30 5 Ralf Lübke 20.51 6 Jean-Jacques Boussemart 20.55 7 Pietro Mennea 20.55 8 Ade Mafe 20.85

See also 1980 Men's Olympic 200 metres (Moscow) 1982 Men's European Championships 200 metres (Athens) 1983 Men's World Championships 200 metres (Helsinki) 1984 Friendship Games 200 metres (Moscow) 1986 Men's European Championships 200 metres (Stuttgart) 1987 Men's World Championships 200 metres (Rome) 1988 Men's Olympic 200 metres (Seoul)

References

External links Results