The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 17 and 18.

After missing out on the semifinals in Sydney four years earlier, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima shattered one of the longest-standing Olympic swimming records when he clocked 2:09.44, erasing a 0.77-second mark by American swimmer Mike Barrowman in 1992. This achievement secured a breaststroke double for the second consecutive time. In a surprise turn of events, 15-year-old Dániel Gyurta of Hungary claimed the silver medal with a time of 2:10.80, narrowly edging out U.S. swimmer Brendan Hansen in a close race by 0.07 of a second. Hansen, who had broke Kitajima's world record at the U.S. Olympic trials one month earlier, finished third in 2:10.87.

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.

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 18 Final Kosuke Kitajima 2:09.44

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 6 2 Dániel Gyurta 2:11.29 Q 2 4 4 Kosuke Kitajima 2:11.97 Q 3 4 5 Paolo Bossini 2:12.09 Q 4 4 3 Mike Brown 2:12.69 Q 5 6 4 Brendan Hansen 2:12.77 Q 6 5 8 Vladislav Polyakov 2:12.96 Q 7 6 3 Ian Edmond 2:13.08 Q 8 5 3 Grigory Falko 2:13.45 Q 9 5 5 Scott Usher 2:13.59 Q 10 6 5 Jim Piper 2:13.79 Q 11 5 6 Genki Imamura 2:14.10 Q 12 4 1 Terence Parkin 2:14.12 Q 13 5 2 Maxim Podoprigora 2:14.31 Q 14 6 7 Richárd Bodor 2:14.36 Q 15 2 4 Lai Zhongjian 2:14.61 Q 16 4 6 Chris Cook 2:14.68 Q 17 5 4 Dmitry Komornikov 2:14.92 18 4 8 Jens Kruppa 2:15.29 19 3 2 Ratapong Sirisanont 2:15.39 20 3 3 Valeriy Dymo 2:15.52 21 3 4 Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson 2:15.60 22 6 8 Michael Williamson 2:15.75 23 4 2 Regan Harrison 2:15.86 24 2 1 Eduardo Fischer 2:16.04 25 5 1 Hugues Duboscq 2:16.56 26 5 7 Thijs van Valkengoed 2:16.80 27 6 1 Martin Gustavsson 2:17.12 28 2 5 Mihail Alexandrov 2:17.19 29 6 6 Morgan Knabe 2:17.20 30 3 6 Daniel Málek 2:17.47 31 2 6 Sofiane Daid 2:17.78 32 3 7 Aleksander Baldin 2:17.90 33 3 8 Romanos Alyfantis 2:18.18 34 2 8 Andrey Morkovin 2:18.48 35 1 3 Bradley Ally 2:18.64 36 2 2 Emil Tahirovič 2:18.65 37 3 1 Vanja Rogulj 2:18.81 38 1 1 Miguel Molina 2:19.19 39 2 3 Ben Labowitch 2:19.25 40 4 7 Loris Facci 2:19.38 41 2 7 Tam Chi Kin 2:19.48 42 1 4 Wang Wei-wen 2:20.65 43 1 5 Malick Fall 2:22.31 44 1 2 Edvinas Dautartas 2:23.12 45 1 7 Sergiu Postica 2:27.21 46 1 6 Anton Kramarenko 2:28.59 3 5 Jarno Pihlava

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Kosuke Kitajima 2:10.86 Q 2 5 Mike Brown 2:12.14 Q 3 3 Vladislav Polyakov 2:12.19 Q 4 2 Jim Piper 2:12.22 Q 5 6 Grigory Falko 2:12.42 6 1 Richárd Bodor 2:12.76 7 7 Terence Parkin 2:13.58 8 8 Chris Cook 2:15.91

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Dániel Gyurta 2:10.75 Q 2 3 Brendan Hansen 2:10.81 Q 3 5 Paolo Bossini 2:11.76 Q 4 2 Scott Usher 2:12.00 Q 5 7 Genki Imamura 2:12.86 6 1 Maxim Podoprigora 2:14.66 7 8 Lai Zhongjian 2:14.94 6 Ian Edmond

Final Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 3 Kosuke Kitajima 2:09.44 4 Dániel Gyurta 2:10.80 5 Brendan Hansen 2:10.87 4 6 Paolo Bossini 2:11.20 5 1 Vladislav Polyakov 2:11.76 6 7 Mike Brown 2:11.94 7 2 Scott Usher 2:11.95 8 Jim Piper

References

External links Official Olympic Report