Paris Olympics preview: 200m

Men's 200m

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• Noah Lyles seeks a first Olympic 200m gold after three world title wins
• USA’s Lyles and Kenny Bednarek head season top list
• Andre De Grasse defends title and enters Paris off a win in Szekesfehervar

Not since the men’s 200m final at the Tokyo Olympic Games has Noah Lyles been beaten in the half-lap event. 

That’s a win streak of 25 races – 17 of them finals – across almost three years and his victories in that time include two more world titles to go with his 2019 crown and another Diamond League trophy.

Lyles has made no secret of the fact that he intends to make history, on and off the track. In Paris he’ll hope to line up for the 200m as the newly crowned Olympic 100m champion, ready to build on the 200m bronze he claimed in Tokyo.

That Olympic final three years ago remains one of only two 200m finals that Lyles has lost since his first season as a professional in 2017. In Tokyo he was beaten by Andre De Grasse and Kenny Bednarek, who will return as two of his rivals in Paris.

Just like he did in Tokyo, Lyles will start as the favourite. As well as being unbeaten in the event since 2021, the 27-year-old has achieved the fastest time of the year so far - 19.53, clocked when winning the US title in Eugene in June. In fact, No.1 on the season top list is where Lyles has sat for the 200m each year since 2018, capped by the US record of 19.31 he set in 2022 – a performance that places him third on the world all-time list.

Now he has the chance to become the first US winner of the men’s Olympic 200m title since 2004. But not if Bednarek gets there first. 

Second on this season’s top list, Bednarek is in the form of his life and he finished just 0.06 behind Lyles at the US Olympic trials, setting a PB of 19.59. That was his second PB of the year, following the 19.67 he ran to win at the Doha Diamond League. He also won the Diamond League race in Eugene in 19.89, but his runner-up finish ahead of Lyles in Tokyo – scene of his pre-2024 best of 19.68 – is so far the only time the 2022 world silver medallist Bednarek has finished ahead of his compatriot in 11 finals. 

In Paris they will be joined on the US team by Erriyon Knighton, the 20-year-old who finished fourth in Tokyo and then claimed world 200m bronze in Eugene and silver in Budapest. When a US athlete last won the men's Olympic 200m title, the nation swept the medals. 

That could happen again in Paris but there are several sprinters capable of spoiling the US party. Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo claimed a world medal double in Budapest, securing silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m behind Lyles and Knighton. He’s the third-fastest sprinter this year among the entries and won the Diamond League race in Monaco. Lyles had been due to race there, too, but decided to extend his training block in Florida instead.

Third in Monaco was Tarsis Orogot, the 21-year-old who ran a Ugandan record of 19.75 in Gainesville in May and will become the first athlete from his nation to contest the men’s 200m at the Olympics since 1992.

After eight global medal wins, Canada’s De Grasse finally got his gold in Tokyo after clocking a Canadian record of 19.62 to deny Bednarek and Lyles. He has been some way off that 200m form so far this year but did dip under 20 seconds to win in Szekesfehervar earlier this month, his 19.98 just 0.01 off the time he ran to triumph in the Hungarian city in 2021, a month before he claimed his Olympic crown.

Ryan Zeze heads the host nation’s team, following his 19.90 PB in La Chaux-de-Fonds a couple of weeks ago.

Other athletes looking to make an impact include Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who finished fourth in the world 200m final in Budapest but has been injured this year, plus Dominican Republic's Alexander Ogando and Jamaican champion Bryan Levell.

 

Women's 200m

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• Shericka Jackson ready to rebound and add to global title haul
• Gabby Thomas goes for first individual global gold after making statement in London
• Julien Alfred on track to make more history for Saint Lucia

Two of the four fastest women in history will be in the race for the Olympic women’s 200m crown in Paris.

Shericka Jackson sits second on the world all-time list with the 21.41 Jamaican record she set to win her second world 200m title in Budapest last year, which followed the 21.45 she ran to win her first in Oregon in 2022.

Gabby Thomas is at No.4 all time, following the PB of 21.60 she set to win the US title 12 months ago.

Just two weeks out from the start of the women’s 200m in Paris, Thomas sent a signal with her winning run at the Diamond League meeting in London. It was not so much the victory, but the way the 27-year-old achieved it – charging from fourth to first in the closing stages.

She ran 21.82 – the third-fastest time of the season so far behind her own world-leading 21.78 in the semifinals and 21.81 in the final at the US Olympic trials in Eugene.

In contrast, Jackson’s last race before the Games ended with her pulling up in discomfort, but it has since been reported that she was suffering from cramp, rather than something more sinister. Prior to that 200m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Szekesfehervar, the 30-year-old won the Jamaican title in 22.29 – her best so far this season – as part of a national sprint title double.

But Jackson clearly knows how to time her peak to perfection, as her two world title wins show. She’ll also be looking to rebound after easing up too early in her heat at the Tokyo Olympics and failing to advance.

Unbeaten in the half lap event from June 2022 until May 2024, she finished fifth in the Diamond League in Oslo but won Diamond League races either side of that in Marrakech and Stockholm. She’s also entered for the 100m in Paris, while Thomas will focus on the 200m. 

In London last weekend it looked as though the win was going to world fourth-place finisher Julien Alfred, before those final few devastating strides by Thomas. Prior to the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March, Saint Lucia had never had a medallist at a senior global championships. Alfred made sure her nation’s first medal was a golden one by winning the 60m title there and after contesting the 100m in Paris, the 23-year-old will hope to make even more history in the 200m.

The 21.86 she ran when finishing runner-up to Thomas in the UK capital improved her own national record by 0.05 and moved her up to third on the season top list. Sitting between Thomas and Alfred so far this season is Mckenzie Long, who claimed a 100m, 200m and 4x100m treble at the NCAA Championships in June. She set her PB of 21.83 when winning the NCAA 200m title and followed that with 21.91 to finish third at the US Olympic trials behind Thomas and Brittany Brown, who will add further strength to the team in Tokyo.

Brown secured 200m silver at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and ran a PB of 21.90 to claim her runner-up spot at the trials.

Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith won the world title ahead of Brown in a national record of 21.88 five years ago. She finished third in that recent race in London, clocking 22.07 for a time that makes her the fifth-fastest this season among those entered for Paris. Her teammate Daryll Neita, the European silver medallist behind Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, is next quickest on 22.20, while Kambundji – the 2022 world indoor 60m champion – is also among those in action.

Multiple world medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of Cote d’Ivoire will want to go at least one better than her fourth-place finishes in the 100m and 200m at the 2016 Games and 100m in Tokyo, and has clocked 22.36 in the longer event this year.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics