Swimming at the 1992 Summer Games: Previous Summer Games ▪ Next Summer Games
Host City: Barcelona, Spain
Venue(s): Bernat Picornell Pools, Barcelona
Date Started: July 31, 1992
Date Finished: July 31, 1992
| Gold: | Tamás Darnyi |
| Silver: | Greg Burgess |
| Bronze: | Attila Czene |
In the first five days in Barcelona, eight world record holders had been upset in their specialities. Hungary’s Tamás Darnyi was a huge favorite in both IMs, and was the defending champion, world record holder, and 1991 World Champion in both events. He had not lost an individual medley since 1984, had already defended his 400 IM four days earlier, and was hoping not to become the ninth victim of the record holder curse. And he did not, winning the 200 IM, although it was somewhat closer than expected. Darnyi won in 2:00.76, only 0.21 seconds ahead of American Greg Burgess. Darnyi was only fourth after three legs, and the curse appeared real, but he powered home to defend his gold medal.\n\nAmerican Ron Karnaugh finished sixth in the final, which was a difficult swim for him emotionally. His father, Peter, came to the Opening Ceremony, and then died of a heart attack after leaving the stadium. Ron Karnaugh did not know this until later that night when USOC Executive Director Harvey Schiller and USOC Board member George Steinbrenner came to his room in the Olympic Village to tell him. Steinbrenner, well-known as the owner of the New York Yankees, learned that his mother was concerned about how they would pay for Ron’s medical school, which he planned to start that fall, but Steinbrenner told them not to worry, and financed the schooling of the man he would later call “Doctor Ron.” Karnaugh later became a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation.
| Rank | Athlete | Age | Team | NOC | Medal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tamás Darnyi | 25 | Hungary | HUN | Gold | |
| 2 | Greg Burgess | 20 | United States | USA | Silver | |
| 3 | Attila Czene | 18 | Hungary | HUN | Bronze | |
| 4 | Jani Sievinen | 18 | Finland | FIN | ||
| 5 | Christian Geßner | 24 | Germany | GER | ||
| 6 | Ron Karnaugh | 26 | United States | USA | ||
| 7 | Matt Dunn | 18 | Australia | AUS | ||
| 8 | Gary Anderson | 23 | Canada | CAN | ||
| 9 | Martín López-Zubero | 23 | Spain | ESP | ||
| 10 | Serghei Mariniuc | 23 | Unified Team | EUN | ||
| 11 | Lars Sørensen | 24 | Denmark | DEN | ||
| 12 | Frédéric Lefèvre | 22 | France | FRA | ||
| 13 | Tatsuya Kinugasa | 17 | Japan | JPN | ||
| 14 | Darren Ward | 23 | Canada | CAN | ||
| 15 | Takahiro Fujimoto | 22 | Japan | JPN | ||
| 16 | Luca Sacchi | 24 | Italy | ITA | QC | |
| 17 | Manuel Guzmán | 22 | Puerto Rico | PUR | ||
| 18 | John Davey | 27 | Great Britain | GBR | ||
| 19 | Aleksandr Savitsky | 21 | Unified Team | EUN | ||
| 20 | Marcin Maliński | 19 | Poland | POL | ||
| 21 | Petteri Lehtinen | 18 | Finland | FIN | ||
| 22 | Marcel Wouda | 20 | Netherlands | NED | ||
| 23 | Joaquín Fernández | 21 | Spain | ESP | ||
| 24 | Stefaan Maene | 20 | Belgium | BEL | ||
| 25 | Marian Satnoianu | 21 | Romania | ROU | ||
| 26 | Denislav Kalchev | 19 | Bulgaria | BUL | ||
| 27 | Clifford Lyne | 22 | South Africa | RSA | ||
| 28 | Simon Percy | 21 | New Zealand | NZL | ||
| 29 | Igor Łuczak | 19 | Poland | POL | ||
| 30 | José Carlos Souza Filho | 21 | Brazil | BRA | ||
| 31 | Desmond Koh | 19 | Singapore | SIN | ||
| 32 | Josef Hladky | 30 | Germany | GER | ||
| 33 | Diogo Madeira | 21 | Portugal | POR | ||
| 34 | Gary O'Toole | 23 | Ireland | IRL | ||
| 35 | Renato Ramalho | 25 | Brazil | BRA | ||
| 36 | Andy Rolley | 22 | Great Britain | GBR | ||
| 37 | Li Arthur | 19 | Hong Kong | HKG | ||
| 38 | Joseph Buhain | 22 | Philippines | PHI | ||
| 39 | Ratapong Sirasanont | 16 | Thailand | THA | ||
| 40 | Gary Tan | 18 | Singapore | SIN | ||
| 41 | Ricardo Torres | 25 | Panama | PAN | ||
| 42 | Duncan Todd | 17 | Hong Kong | HKG | ||
| 43 | Christophe Verdino | 19 | Monaco | MON | ||
| 44 | Sultan Al-Otaibi | 22 | Kuwait | KUW | ||
| 45 | Alejandro Alvizuri | 24 | Peru | PER | ||
| 46 | Plutarco Castellanos | 21 | Honduras | HON | ||
| 47 | Émile Lahoud | 17 | Lebanon | LIB | ||
| 48 | Carl Probert | 16 | Fiji | FIJ | ||
| 49 | Mohamed Bin Abid | 23 | United Arab Emirates | UAE | ||
| 50 | Mouhamed Diop | 28 | Senegal | SEN | ||
| 51 | Kenny Roberts | 14 | Seychelles | SEY | ||
| 52 | Jean-Paul Adam | 15 | Seychelles | SEY | ||
| AC r1/2 | Martin Roberts | 26 | Australia | AUS | DQ | |
| AC r1/2 | Roberto Bonilla | 20 | Guatemala | GUA | DQ | |
| AC r1/2 | Rodrigo González | 24 | Mexico | MEX | DQ | |
| AC r1/2 | Jan Bidrman | 26 | Sweden | SWE | DQ |