Athletics at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games:

The Soviet-led boycott had no effect on this race, as no Eastern Europeans were challengers in the 200. Carl Lewis was the story of the 1984 Olympics as he was attempting to emulate Jesse Owens’ feat of 1936 in winning the 100, 200, long jump, and 4x100 relay. By the day of the 200 final, he had already won gold in the 100 and long jump. His biggest opponents in the 200 were felt to be his teammates Kirk Baptiste and Thomas Jefferson. Italys’ Pietro Mennea, 1980 gold medalist was also back, in his fourth straight Olympic 200 final, but was not expected to be a threat to Lewis. Lewis opened up a lead on the curve, had two metres as he entered the straight, and appeared to win as he pleased. His time was 19.80, run into a headwind of 0.9 m/s, and writing in _Track & Field News_, Bob Hersh noted that it was the best 200 ever run. Lewis would return three days later to win his fourth gold medal. Baptiste also ran a superb race, finishing second in 19.96 against the wind, but could not catch Lewis. Jefferson completed the US sweep, with Mennea in seventh.