Men's 200 metres world record progression
The following table shows the world record progression in the men's 200 metres, as ratified by the IAAF. The current record of 19.19 seconds was set by Usain Bolt at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.
The IAAF maintained separate records for 200 m over a straight track and over a curved track until 1976, when records for the former were discarded. The IAAF ratified the first record for 200 m on a curved track in 1951. "y" denotes times for 220 yards which were also ratified for the event.
As of 2018, the IAAF has ratified 24 outdoor world records in the event.
Indoor
Indoor records are run on a shorter 200 metres track. "y" indicates marks were set over the imperial distance, and an asterisk indicates a record was repeated. Only Marie-Rose, Christie, and Fredericks' records were ratified by the IAAF.Outdoor
Records 1951–1976
| Time | Wind | Auto | Athlete | Nationality | Location of race | Date | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 20.6 | Andy Stanfield |  United States|1912Records post-1977Beginning in 1975, the IAAF accepted separate automatically electronically timed records for events up to 400 metres. Starting on January 1, 1977, the IAAF required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second for these events.Tommie Smith's 1968 Olympic gold medal victory was the fastest recorded fully electronic 200 metre sprint up to that time.
The record progressions for automatic times at low altitude were 20.30 seconds by Valeriy Borzov at Helsinki in 1971, then Larry Black 20.28, 1972 at Munich, 20.00, 19.96, 19.75, 19.75 and 19.73, before Michael Johnson ran 19.66 in 1996. |