Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre butterfly
# Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre butterfly

The men's 200 metre butterfly event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 16 and 17.

After finishing fifth in Sydney four years earlier, U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps added a second gold to his collection. He touched the wall first in 1:54.04, just 0.11 of a second under his own world record. Japan's Takashi Yamamoto earned a silver medal in an Asian record of 1:54.56. Stephen Parry ended Great Britain's 8-year medal drought with a bronze in 1:55.52. Parry also put his teammate Melanie Marshall on the spot to fulfill her promise of shaving her head if the Brits won a single swimming medal in Athens.

Meanwhile, Poland's Paweł Korzeniowski pulled off a fourth-place effort in a national record of 1:56.00. Defending Olympic champion Tom Malchow rounded out the final to eighth place in 1:57.48, matching his semifinal time in the process.

Other notable swimmers missed the top 8 final, featuring Denys Sylantyev (Ukraine), Justin Norris (Australia), Franck Esposito (France), and Anatoly Polyakov (Russia).

## Records

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

| World record | Michael Phelps (USA) | 1:53.93 | Barcelona, Spain | 22 July 2003 |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Olympic record | Tom Malchow (USA) | 1:55.35 | Sydney, Australia | 19 September 2000 |

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| August 17 | Final | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.04 | OR |

## Results

### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 4 | 3 | Takashi Yamamoto | Japan | 1:57.36 | Q |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:57.36 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | 5 | Paweł Korzeniowski | Poland | 1:57.45 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | 4 | Tom Malchow | United States | 1:57.75 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 6 | Wu Peng | China | 1:57.96 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 3 | Justin Norris | Australia | 1:58.05 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 4 | Franck Esposito | France | 1:58.12 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 6 | Ioan Gherghel | Romania | 1:58.12 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 2 | Anatoly Polyakov | Russia | 1:58.12 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 1 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 1:58.13 | Q |
| 11 | 3 | 7 | Nikolay Skvortsov | Russia | 1:58.18 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 5 | Takeshi Matsuda | Japan | 1:58.23 | Q |
| 13 | 5 | 8 | Juan Veloz | Mexico | 1:58.32 | Q |
| 14 | 3 | 2 | Sergiy Advena | Ukraine | 1:58.41 | Q |
| 15 | 3 | 3 | Denys Sylantyev | Ukraine | 1:58.44 | Q |
| 16 | 3 | 5 | Stephen Parry | Great Britain | 1:58.88 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 6 | Travis Nederpelt | Australia | 1:58.93 | |
| 18 | 5 | 2 | Helge Meeuw | Germany | 1:58.96 | |
| 19 | 5 | 7 | Kaio Almeida | Brazil | 1:59.23 | |
| 20 | 3 | 1 | Jeremy Knowles | Bahamas | 1:59.32 | |
| 21 | 4 | 7 | Ioannis Drymonakos | Greece | 1:59.42 | |
| 21 | 3 | 8 | Andrew Livingston | Puerto Rico | 1:59.42 | |
| 23 | 2 | 4 | Nathaniel O'Brien | Canada | 2:00.12 | |
| 24 | 2 | 3 | Jeong Doo-hee | South Korea | 2:00.96 | |
| 25 | 4 | 1 | Dávid Kolozár | Hungary | 2:01.89 | |
| 26 | 2 | 6 | Georgi Palazov | Bulgaria | 2:02.15 | |
| 27 | 2 | 8 | Zoran Lazarovski | Macedonia | 2:02.26 | |
| 28 | 4 | 8 | Juan Pablo Valdivieso | Peru | 2:02.79 | |
| 29 | 1 | 4 | Gastón Rodríguez | Argentina | 2:04.01 | |
| 30 | 2 | 7 | Paulius Andrijauskas | Lithuania | 2:04.64 | |
| 31 | 2 | 5 | Vladan Marković | Serbia and Montenegro | 2:04.77 | |
| 32 | 2 | 2 | Aghiles Slimani | Algeria | 2:04.93 | |
| 33 | 1 | 3 | Donny Utomo | Indonesia | 2:05.71 | |
| 34 | 1 | 7 | Roy Barahona | Honduras | 2:05.99 | |
| 35 | 1 | 2 | Sergio Cabrera | Paraguay | 2:06.15 | |
| 36 | 2 | 1 | Yeh Tzu-cheng | Chinese Taipei | 2:06.41 | |
| 37 | 1 | 5 | James Walsh | Philippines | 2:06.76 | |
| 38 | 1 | 1 | Bertrand Bristol | Seychelles | 2:09.07 | |
| 39 | 1 | 6 | Sergey Pankov | Uzbekistan | 2:13.06 | |

### Semifinals

**Semifinal 1**

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 8 | Stephen Parry | Great Britain | 1:55.57 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:55.65 | Q |
| 3 | 5 | Tom Malchow | United States | 1:57.48 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Anatoly Polyakov | Russia | 1:57.58 | |
| 5 | 3 | Justin Norris | Australia | 1:57.96 | |
| 6 | 2 | Moss Burmester | New Zealand | 1:58.09 | |
| 7 | 1 | Sergiy Advena | Ukraine | 1:58.11 | |
| 8 | 7 | Takeshi Matsuda | Japan | 1:58.13 | |

**Semifinal 2**

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 5 | Paweł Korzeniowski | Poland | 1:56.40 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Takashi Yamamoto | Japan | 1:56.69 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Wu Peng | China | 1:56.81 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Ioan Gherghel | Romania | 1:57.31 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Nikolay Skvortsov | Russia | 1:57.37 | Q |
| 6 | 8 | Denys Sylantyev | Ukraine | 1:57.93 | |
| 7 | 6 | Franck Esposito | France | 1:59.00 | |
| 8 | 1 | Juan Veloz | Mexico | 1:59.78 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | 5 | Michael Phelps | United States | 1:54.04 | OR |
| | 6 | Takashi Yamamoto | Japan | 1:54.56 | AS |
| | 4 | Stephen Parry | Great Britain | 1:55.52 | |
| 4 | 3 | Paweł Korzeniowski | Poland | 1:56.00 | NR |
| 5 | 7 | Ioan Gherghel | Romania | 1:56.10 | |
| 6 | 2 | Wu Peng | China | 1:56.28 | |
| 7 | 1 | Nikolay Skvortsov | Russia | 1:57.14 | |
| 8 | 8 | Tom Malchow | United States | 1:57.48 | |
