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FastestThings

Women's 200 Metres

Florence Griffith-Joyner

American athlete. women's 200 m mark of 21.34 seconds at Seoul on 29 September 1988, the personal best on the World Athletics all-time list.

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Race time

21.34s

women's 200 m, Seoul, wind +1.3 m/s. One personal best per athlete.

OfficialWorld Athletics (opens source in a new tab)

This list

Why it's so fast

The women's 200 metres is a bend plus a straight. The legal list is the wind-legal personal bests, not training reps.

  1. Curve, then straight

    The first half is technical. The second half is whether the speed is still there. Both have to be good.

  2. Legal marks only

    Wind and the meet are part of the result the governing list prints. This page does not promote an illegal clock.

This is how the category works. A note written for this entry appears here once it is in the database.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 21.34sRanked figure

    women's 200 m, Seoul, wind +1.3 m/s. One personal best per athlete.

    Official
    World Athletics (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Country
United States
Event
women's 200 m
Mark
21.34 s
Venue
Seoul

Context

Background

Florence Griffith-Joyner's ranked women's 200 m time is 21.34 seconds at Seoul on 29 September 1988, wind +1.3 m/s. World Athletics, Athletic Stats (refreshed 5 October 2026) and Track & Field News print that time and date.

The list is one event. A mark from another distance is a different page, with its own slug. Wind above +2.0 m/s is not legal and is not stored. Lower is faster.

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.