A number of new world records and Olympic records were set in various events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
World records (and Olympic records)
- previous record of 685 was set in 1995 by Young Sung Shim and tied in 1996 by Kyo Moon Oh (August 12)
- Women's individual (70 m, 72 arrow): South Korea's Park Sung-hyun, 682 points (August 12)
- previous record of 679 was set in 2004 by Natalia Valeeva
- Women's team (70 m, 216 arrow): South Korea's Lee Sung Jin, Park Sung Hyun, Yun Mi Jin, 2030 points (August 12)
- previous record of 1994 was set at 2000 Games by South Korean team
Olympic records
- previous record of 172 was set in 2000 by Jang Yong Ho
- Women's Individual (70 m, 18 arrow): Korea's Yun Mi Jin, 173 points (tied record)
- previous record of 173 was set in 2000 by Yun Mi Jin
World records (and Olympic records)
- record of 12.91 s was set in August 1993 by Colin Jackson
- previous record of 4.90 m set by Isinbayeva
World records (and Olympic records)
- previous record of 34.000 s was set in August 2002 by Yonghua Jiang
- This record was broken multiple times during these Games, the prior instances being:
- New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer, 3:26.400 (August 21)
- Australia's Katie Mactier, 3:29.945 (August 21)
- previous record of 3:30.604 was set in May by Ulmer
- previous record of 3:59:583 was set in 2002 by Australian team
World records (and Olympic records)
- Note: rowing records are not official due to variable course conditions.
- previous record of 6:50.63 was set in 1995 by Berit Christoffersen and Lene Andersson
- Men's 8-man boat: United States team, 5:19.85 (unofficial) (August 15)
- previous record of 5:22.80 was set in 1999 by Netherlands team
- Women's 8-man boat: United States team, 5:56.55 (unofficial) (August 15)
- previous record of 5:57.02 was set in 1999 by Romanian team
World records (and Olympic records)
- previous record of 702.5 was set in June 2003 by Jason Parker
- previous record of 588 was set in May 2002 by Igor Kolesov, and tied in July 2002 by Yang Ling
Olympic records
- previous record of 596 was set in 1996 by Wolfram Waibel
- Men's 10 m Air Rifle (Final): Zhu, 702.7 points
- previous record of 696.4 was set in 2000 by Cai Yalin
- previous record of 590 was set in 2000 by Franck Dumoulin
- Men's 10 m Air Pistol (Final): China's Wang Yifu, 690.0 points
- previous record of 688.9 was set in 2000 by Dumoulin
- previous record of 124 was set in 1996 by Michael Diamond
- Men's Trap (Final): Alipov, 149 hits (tied record)
- previous record of 149 was set in 1996 by Diamond
- previous record of 143 was set in 2000 by Russell Mark
- Men's Double Trap (Final): Almaktoum, 189 hits (tied record)
- previous record of 189 was set in 1996 by Mark
- previous record of 125 was set in 1996 by Ennio Falco
- previous record of 585 was set in 1996 by Yang Ling
- previous record of 686.1 was set in 1996 by Aleksandra Ivosev
- previous record of 397 was set in 1996 by Petra Horneber
- Women's 10 m Air Rifle (Final): China's Du Li, 502.0 points
- previous record of 498.2 was set in 1992 by Yeo Kab-Soon
- established new record after rule change
World records (and Olympic records)
- previous record of 53.66 s was set in March 2004 by Libby Lenton
- previous record of 4:08.41 was set in July 2004 by Phelps
- previous record of 3:13.67 was set at 2000 Games by Australian team
- previous record of 3:36.00 was set in July 2002 by German team
- previous record of 3:31.54 was set in July 2003 by United States team
- Backstroke leg of Men's 4 × 100 m medley: United States's Aaron Peirsol, 53.45 s (August 21)
- previous record of 53.60 s was set in August 1999 by Lenny Krayzelburg
- previous record of 3:58.30 was set at 2000 Games by United States team
- previous record of 7:55.47 was set in August 1987 by East German team
World records (and Olympic records)
- previous record of 207.5 kg was set in November 2002 by Mingjuan Wang
- Women's under 48 kg (snatch): Turkey's Nurcan Taylan, 97.5 kg (August 14)
- previous record of 93.5 kg was set in September 2003 by Zhou Li
- previous record of 113.5 kg was set in November 2003 by Batsiushk
- record of 325 kg was set at 2000 Games by Nikolai Peshalov
- Women's 63–69 kg (snatch): China's Liu Chunhong, 122.5 kg (August 19)
- previous record of 120.0 kg was set in November 2003 by Liu
- Women's 63–69 kg (clean and jerk): China's Liu Chunhong, 153.0 kg (August 19)
- previous record of 152.5 kg was set in November 2003 by Liu
- Women's 63–69 kg (total): China's Liu Chunhong, 275.0 kg (August 19)
- previous record of 270.0 kg was set in November 2003 by Liu
- Women's over 75 kg (clean and jerk): China's Tang Gonghong, 182.5 kg (August 21)
- previous record of 175.0 kg was set in April 2004 by Tang
- Women's over 75 kg (total): China's Tang Gonghong, 305.0 kg (August 21)
- previous record of 302.5 kg was set in April 2004 by Tang
- previous record of 263.0 kg was set in November 2002 by Reza Zadeh