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The 200 meter sprint has been included as a men's event in all Olympic Games since Paris 1900, and a women's 200 meter event was introduced in London 1948. In the early 1900s, the 200m sprint was often held on a straight track (similar to the 100m sprint), but it has been in it's current format since the 1950s, where the first half of the race is along the curve of a 400m running track, while the second half is along a 100m stretch. Athletes from the U.S. have had the most success in these events, winning 17 golds and 48 overall medals in the men's, and six golds in the women's; however, the past two decades have seen Jamaica emerge as the most dominant nation, with Jamaican women now tied with U.S. athletes on 13 overall medals.

Record breakers

Between 1900 and 2004, no male athlete won multiple Olympic golds in the event, however Jamaica's Usain Bolt, who holds the Olympic and world records, claimed gold in 2008, 2012 and 2016, as part of his "triple triple". In the women's event, three women have won the 200m gold twice; Bärbel Eckert-Wöckel in 1976 and 1980 for East Germany, Veronica Campbell-Brown in 2004 and 2008 for Jamaica, and Elaine Thompson-Herah in 2016 and 2020, also for Jamaica. The women's Olympic and world record was set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in the Seoul Games in 1988 (where she also set the record in the 100m sprint) both of these records still stand today.

Doing the double

The 200m sprint attracts many competitors from the 100m sprint, with eleven men and eight women winning gold in both events in the same Olympics; with many also winning team golds in the 4x100m relay. Valerie Brisco-Hooks in 1984, along with Michael Johnson and Marie-José Pérec in 1996, are the only athletes to have won gold in both the 200m and 400m races at the same Olympics. Jesse Owens and Carl Lewis (both from Alabama) are the only athletes to have won the "sprint-jump quadruple"; winning golds in the 100m, 4x100m relay, 200m and long jump in the 1936 and 1984 Games respectively.