The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships took place between 24 July and 25 July. The heats and semifinals were held 24 July. The final was held 25 July.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and championship records were as follows.

	Name	Nationality	Time	Location	Date
World record	Michael Phelps Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	1:57.94	Santa Clara Santa Clara, California Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...	29 June 2003
Championship record	Jani Sievinen Jani Sievinen Jani Nikanor Sievinen is a former medley swimmer from Finland, who won the silver medal in the 200 m individual medley at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia...	Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...	1:58.16	Rome Rome Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...	11 September 1994

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	WR	CR
July 25	Final	Michael Phelps Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	1:56.04	WR	CR

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Michael Phelps Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...		1:56.04	WR
	Ian Thorpe Ian Thorpe Ian James Thorpe OAM , nicknamed the Thorpedo and Thorpey, is an Australian swimmer who specialises in freestyle, but also competes in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian, and with three gold and two silver medals, was the most...		1:59.66	NR
	Massimiliano Rosolino Massimiliano Rosolino -Biography:Born in Naples of an Italian father, Salvatore, and Australian mother, Carolyn, he moved to Australia at the age of three, coming back to Italy at six. Rosolino declared about his beginnings as a swimmer:...		1:59.71
4	Jani Sievinen Jani Sievinen Jani Nikanor Sievinen is a former medley swimmer from Finland, who won the silver medal in the 200 m individual medley at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia...		1:59.98
5	George Bovell George Bovell George Bovell III is a three-time Olympic swimmer from Trinidad and Tobago. He represented the country at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics. At the 2004 Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the men's 200 IM:the 9th medalist in the country's history and 12th medal overall...		2:00.06
6	Takahiro Mori Takahiro Mori is a retired male medley swimmer from Japan. He represented his native country at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. He is best known for winning three gold medals at the Summer Universiade.-References:*...		2:01.29
7	Kevin Clements		2:01.51
8	Brian Johns Brian Johns Brian Johns is an Olympic swimmer from Canada. Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, he grew up in Richmond, British Columbia and trained with the Aquanauts and Racers swim clubs. He started swimming at age five. He is currently attending the University of British Columbia and is on the varsity swimming...		2:01.62

Key: NR = National record, WR = World record