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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 (201.17 m) which were also ratified for the event.

As of 2018, the IAAF has ratified 24 world records in the event.

Records 1951–1976

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
20.6y			Andy Stanfield	United States	Philadelphia, United States	May 26, 1951
20.6			Andy Stanfield	United States	Los Angeles, United States	June 28, 1952
20.6	0.0		Thane Baker	United States	Bakersfield, United States	June 23, 1956
20.6		20.75	Bobby Morrow	United States	Melbourne, Australia	November 27, 1956
20.6			Manfred Germar	West Germany	Wuppertal, Germany	October 1, 1958
20.6y	−1.6		Ray Norton	United States	Berkeley, United States	March 19, 1960
20.6			Ray Norton	United States	Philadelphia, United States	April 30, 1960
20.5y			Peter Radford	United Kingdom	Wolverhampton, United Kingdom	May 28, 1960
20.5	0.0	20.75	Stone Johnson	United States	Stanford, United States	July 2, 1960
20.5	0.0		Ray Norton	United States	Stanford, United States	July 2, 1960
20.5		20.65	Livio Berruti	Italy	Rome, Italy	September 3, 1960
20.5	0.0	20.62	Livio Berruti	Italy	Rome, Italy	September 3, 1960
20.5y	−1.1	20.67	Paul Drayton	United States	Walnut, United States	June 23, 1962
20.3y	−0.1		Henry Carr	United States	Tempe, United States	March 23, 1963
20.2y	0.5		Henry Carr	United States	Tempe, United States	April 4, 1964
20.0y	0.0		Tommie Smith	United States	Sacramento, United States	June 11, 1966
19.8 A	0.9	19.83 A	Tommie Smith	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 16, 1968
19.8 A	0.9	19.86 A	Don Quarrie	Jamaica	Cali, Colombia	August 3, 1971
19.8y	1.3		Don Quarrie	Jamaica	Eugene, United States	June 7, 1975

The "Time" column indicates the ratified mark; the "Wind" column indicates the wind assistance in metres per second, 2.0 m/s the current maximum allowable, a negative indicates the mark was set running into a wind; the "Auto" column indicates a fully automatic time that was also recorded in the event when hand-timed marks were used for official records, or which was the basis for the official mark, rounded to the 10th or 100th of a second, depending on the rules then in place.

John Carlos ran 19.7A seconds (19.92A auto) (1.9 ms wind), at altitude, at the 1968 US Olympic Trials in Echo Summit. The run was not ratified as a world record because Carlos was wearing shoes with 'brush' spikes which did not have sanction as official footwear.

Henry Carr's winning time at the 1964 Olympics (17 October) was a hand timed 20.3 seconds. The electronic time was 20.36 seconds, which was the fastest auto time to that date. Tommie Smith ran 20.26 for 220 yards at Provo in 1967. By deducting .12 seconds for the 200 metre equivalent, he is estimated to have run 20.14 for that distance.

Records post-1977

Beginning 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.

Time	Wind	Auto	Athlete	Nationality	Location of race	Date
19.83 A	0.9		Tommie Smith	United States	Mexico City, Mexico	October 16, 1968
19.72 A	1.8		Pietro Mennea	Italy	Mexico City, Mexico	September 12, 1979
19.66	1.7		Michael Johnson	United States	Atlanta, United States	June 23, 1996
19.32	0.4	19.313	Michael Johnson	United States	Atlanta, United States	August 1, 1996
19.30	−0.9	19.296	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	Beijing, China	August 20, 2008
19.19	−0.3	19.190	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	Berlin, Germany	August 20, 2009

The record progressions for automatic times at low altitude (after Carr's 20.36 in 1964) were 20.30 seconds by Valeriy Borzov at Helsinki in 1971, then Larry Black 20.28, 1972 at Munich, 20.00 (Borzov, 1972 also at Munich), 19.96 (Mennea, 1980), 19.75 (Carl Lewis, 1983), 19.75 (Joe DeLoach, 1988) and 19.73 (Michael Marsh, 1992), before Michael Johnson ran 19.66 in 1996.

See also

• Women's 200 metres world record progression
• Men's 100 metres world record progression

Notes

1. ^ "IAAF World Championships: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Daegu 2011" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2011. pp. Pages 595, 596. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
2. ^ "12th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2009" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2009. pp. Pages 546, 547. Archived from the original (pdf) on June 29, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
3. original source has the correct year--1966, not 1968
4. ^ Hymans, Richard; Matrahazi, Imre. "IAAF World Records Progression" (pdf) (2015 ed.). International Association of Athletics Federations. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
5. Clarey, Christopher (August 20, 2009). "Bolt Needs Little Urging to Crush His 200 World Record". New York Times.
6. "World records set at Berlin World Championships have been ratified". IAAF. 2009-09-20. Retrieved 2010-05-02.

• Men's world athletics record progressions
• 200 metres