Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre breaststroke

The men's 200 metre breaststroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19–20 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.^[1]

Men's 200 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XXVII Olympiad
Venue	Sydney International Aquatic Centre
Date	September 19, 2000 (heats & semifinals) September 20, 2000 (final)
Competitors	49 from 44 nations
Winning time	2:10.87 EU
Medalists
Domenico Fioravanti  Italy Terence Parkin  South Africa Davide Rummolo  Italy
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Domenico Fioravanti emerged as a major force on the international swimming after effortlessly winning his second gold at these Games. He maintained a lead from start to finish and posted a European record of 2:10.87, the second-fastest of all time, making him the first ever swimmer in Olympic history to strike a breaststroke double.^[2][3] South Africa's Terence Parkin, a deaf mute since birth, enjoyed the race of his life to take a silver medal in an African record of 2:12.50.^[4] Fioravanti's fellowman Davide Rummolo gave Italy a further reason to celebrate, as he powered home with the bronze in 2:12.73.^[5][6]

Acknowledging a massive cheer from the home crowd, Australia's Regan Harrison swam his lifetime best, but finished outside the podium by 15-hundredths of a second in 2:12.88. Czech Republic's Daniel Málek pulled off a fifth-place finish in a national record of 2:13.20, while Kyle Salyards, the only U.S. swimmer in the final, earned a sixth spot with a time of 2:13.27. France's Yohann Bernard (2:13.31) and another Aussie Ryan Mitchell (2:14.00) rounded out the finale.^[5] Notable swimmers failed to reach the top 8 final, featuring Hungary's Norbert Rózsa, the defending Olympic champion, who placed thirteenth (2:14.67), and Canada's Morgan Knabe, who had the fastest 100-metre split, but faded badly on the final lap to place tenth (2:14.01).^[7]

Shortly before the next Olympics, Fioravanti was forced to retire from swimming after failing a routine medical test carried by the Italian National Olympic Committee. Tests revealed that he was diagnosed with a genetic heart anomaly.^[8][9]

Records

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

World record	Mike Barrowman (USA)	2:10.16	Barcelona, Spain	29 July 1992	[10]
Olympic record	Mike Barrowman (USA)	2:10.16	Barcelona, Spain	29 July 1992	[10]

Results

Heats

^[10]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	6	7	Davide Rummolo	Italy	2:12.75	Q, NR
2	4	5	Daniel Málek	Czech Republic	2:14.10	Q, NR
3	7	2	Morgan Knabe	Canada	2:14.18	Q
4	7	7	Maxim Podoprigora	Austria	2:14.37	Q, NR
5	5	6	Ryan Mitchell	Australia	2:14.69	Q
6	7	4	Stéphan Perrot	France	2:14.79	Q
7	7	6	Regan Harrison	Australia	2:14.85	Q
8	5	7	Martin Gustavsson	Sweden	2:15.02	Q
9	6	2	Domenico Fioravanti	Italy	2:15.04	Q
10	6	3	Terence Parkin	South Africa	2:15.06	Q
11	6	1	Norbert Rózsa	Hungary	2:15.27	Q
12	6	4	Yohann Bernard	France	2:15.35	Q
13	5	3	Akira Hayashi	Japan	2:15.54	Q
14	6	5	Kyle Salyards	United States	2:15.57	Q
15	2	2	Alexander Tkachev	Kyrgyzstan	2:15.63	Q
16	7	5	Dmitry Komornikov	Russia	2:15.70	Q
17	7	3	Kosuke Kitajima	Japan	2:15.71
18	4	3	Marek Krawczyk	Poland	2:16.08
19	4	4	Valērijs Kalmikovs	Latvia	2:16.21	NR
20	5	4	Roman Sloudnov	Russia	2:16.26
21	5	5	Tom Wilkens	United States	2:16.30
22	5	8	Aliaksandr Hukau	Belarus	2:16.93
23	5	1	Benno Kuipers	Netherlands	2:17.03
24	6	6	Adam Whitehead	Great Britain	2:17.16
25	4	8	Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson	Iceland	2:17.86	NR
26	7	8	José Couto	Portugal	2:18.08
27	4	1	Andrew Bree	Ireland	2:18.14
28	2	6	Oleg Lisogor	Ukraine	2:18.28
29	3	2	Joe Kyong-fan	South Korea	2:19.16	NR
30	3	5	Li Tsung-chueh	Chinese Taipei	2:19.30
31	4	7	Steven Ferguson	New Zealand	2:19.31
32	4	6	Tal Stricker	Israel	2:19.33
33	3	4	Raiko Pachel	Estonia	2:19.71
34	2	3	Jarno Pihlava	Finland	2:19.76
35	3	8	Francisco Suriano	El Salvador	2:20.10
36	2	5	Jeremy Knowles	Bahamas	2:20.31
37	1	4	Andrés Bicocca	Argentina	2:20.98
38	5	2	Zhu Yi	China	2:21.60
39	3	6	Alvaro Fortuny	Guatemala	2:21.78
40	3	1	Muhammad Akbar Nasution	Indonesia	2:23.81
41	4	2	Ratapong Sirisanont	Thailand	2:23.95
42	3	7	Tam Chi Kin	Hong Kong	2:24.04
43	3	3	Juan José Madrigal	Costa Rica	2:24.49
44	7	1	Elvin Chia	Malaysia	2:26.84
45	1	3	Nguyễn Ngọc Anh	Vietnam	2:29.54
46	2	7	Sergey Voytsekhovich	Uzbekistan	2:30.23
47	1	5	Leonard Ngoma	Zambia	2:32.90
	2	4	Vadim Tatarov	Moldova	DNS
	6	8	Jens Kruppa	Germany	DNS

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Kyle Salyards	United States	2:13.38	Q
2	4	Daniel Málek	Czech Republic	2:13.46	Q, NR
3	7	Yohann Bernard	France	2:13.48	Q
4	2	Terence Parkin	South Africa	2:13.57	Q
5	8	Dmitry Komornikov	Russia	2:13.95
6	5	Maxim Podoprigora	Austria	2:14.20
7	3	Stéphan Perrot	France	2:14.59
8	6	Martin Gustavsson	Sweden	2:15.23

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Domenico Fioravanti	Italy	2:12.37	Q, NR
2	4	Davide Rummolo	Italy	2:13.23	Q
3	6	Regan Harrison	Australia	2:13.75	Q
4	3	Ryan Mitchell	Australia	2:13.87	Q
5	5	Morgan Knabe	Canada	2:14.01
6	7	Norbert Rózsa	Hungary	2:14.67
7	1	Akira Hayashi	Japan	2:15.16
8	8	Alexander Tkachev	Kyrgyzstan	2:16.90

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Domenico Fioravanti	Italy	2:10.87	EU
	7	Terence Parkin	South Africa	2:12.50	AF
	5	Davide Rummolo	Italy	2:12.73
4	1	Regan Harrison	Australia	2:12.88	OC
5	6	Daniel Málek	Czech Republic	2:13.20	NR
6	3	Kyle Salyards	United States	2:13.27
7	2	Yohann Bernard	France	2:13.31
8	8	Ryan Mitchell	Australia	2:14.00