Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre freestyle
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 20 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.Results
Heats
Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 3 | Anders Holmertz | 1:48.41 | Q | |
| 2 | 4 | 4 | Danyon Loader | 1:48.48 | Q | |
| 3 | 5 | 4 | Josh Davis | 1:48.63 | Q | |
| 4 | 6 | 5 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | 1:48.68 | Q | |
| 5 | 5 | 2 | Massimiliano Rosolino | 1:48.80 | Q | |
| 6 | 6 | 3 | Daniel Kowalski | 1:48.92 | Q | |
| 7 | 4 | 1 | Gustavo Borges | 1:49.00 | Q | |
| 8 | 4 | 2 | Paul Palmer | 1:49.05 | ||
| 8 | 4 | 5 | Jani Sievinen | 1:49.05 | ||
| 10 | 6 | 4 | Michael Klim | 1:49.17 | q | |
| 11 | 4 | 7 | Aimo Heilmann | 1:49.57 | q | |
| 12 | 4 | 6 | Vladimir Pyshnenko | 1:49.79 | q | |
| 13 | 5 | 6 | Pier Maria Siciliano | 1:49.88 | q | |
| 14 | 6 | 6 | Antti Kasvio | 1:50.55 | q, | |
| 15 | 5 | 5 | John Piersma | 1:50.59 | q | |
| 16 | 6 | 1 | Jacob Carstensen | 1:50.79 | q | |
| 17 | 4 | 8 | Nicolae Butacu | 1:50.83 | q | |
| 18 | 6 | 7 | Andrew Clayton | 1:51.06 | qˆ | |
| 19 | 3 | 3 | Miroslav Vučetić | 1:51.26 | NR | |
| 20 | 4 | 3 | Attila Czene | 1:51.59 | ||
| 20 | 6 | 2 | Trent Bray | 1:51.59 | ||
| 22 | 6 | 8 | Aleksey Yegorov | 1:51.66 | ||
| 23 | 5 | 8 | Shunsuke Ito | 1:51.97 | ||
| 24 | 5 | 1 | Christophe Bordeau | 1:52.17 | ||
| 25 | 5 | 7 | Miklós Kollár | 1:52.19 | ||
| 26 | 3 | 1 | Koh Yun-ho | 1:52.80 | NR | |
| 27 | 1 | 4 | Carlos Santander | 1:53.13 | NR | |
| 28 | 3 | 7 | Vyacheslav Kabanov | 1:53.36 | ||
| 29 | 3 | 5 | Earl McCarthy | 1:53.67 | ||
| 30 | 3 | 4 | Dimitrios Manganas | 1:53.84 | ||
| 31 | 3 | 6 | Salim Iles | 1:54.10 | NR | |
| 32 | 2 | 6 | José Isaza | 1:54.58 | ||
| 33 | 3 | 8 | Torlarp Sethsothorn | 1:54.73 | ||
| 34 | 2 | 3 | Jure Bučar | 1:54.75 | ||
| 35 | 2 | 1 | Raymond Papa | 1:54.77 | ||
| 36 | 2 | 4 | Bartosz Sikora | 1:55.33 | ||
| 37 | 2 | 5 | Sng Ju Wei | 1:55.51 | ||
| 38 | 2 | 2 | Dmitry Lapin | 1:55.52 | ||
| 39 | 1 | 3 | Carl Probert | 1:56.33 | ||
| 40 | 2 | 8 | Felipe Delgado | 1:55.52 | ||
| 41 | 3 | 2 | Andrei Zaharov | 1:57.47 | ||
| 42 | 2 | 7 | Denys Zavhorodniy | 1:58.67 | ||
| 43 | 1 | 5 | Thamer Al-Shamroukh | 2:13.75 |