Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 22 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States. There were 60 competitors from 54 nations. Nations had been limited to two swimmers each since the 1984 Games. The event was won by Alexander Popov of Russia, the third man to successfully defend an Olympic title in the 100 metre freestyle (after Duke Kahanamoku in 1912 and 1920 and Johnny Weissmuller in 1924 and 1928). Gary Hall, Jr. returned the United States to the podium in the event after a one-Games absence. Gustavo Borges, the silver medalist in 1992, earned bronze. Popov and Borges were the 9th and 10th men to earn multiple medals in the event.

Background

This was the 22nd appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1900 (when the shortest freestyle was the 200 metres), though the 1904 version was measured in yards rather than metres.

Four of the eight finalists from the 1992 Games returned: gold medalist Alexander Popov of the Unified Team (now competing for Russia), silver medalist Gustavo Borges of Brazil, fourth-place finisher Jon Olsen of the United States, and seventh-place finisher Christian Tröger of Germany.

In 1992, Popov defeated defending gold medalist Matt Biondi and proceeded to win every major 50 metre and 100 metre freestyle championship since Barcelona, including the 1994 world championships. Popov was the odds-on favorite. His biggest challenger was American Gary Hall, Jr., runner-up in the world championships.

Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 21st appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

This freestyle swimming competition used the A/B final format instituted in 1984. The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the A final, competing for medals through 8th place. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the semifinals competed in the B final for 9th through 16th place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.

Records

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

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round Monday, 22 July 1996 HeatsFinals

Results

Heats Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.

Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 8 4 Alexander Popov 48.74 2 6 4 Gary Hall, Jr. 48.90 3 8 3 Gustavo Borges 49.17 4 6 3 Francisco Sánchez 49.59 5 5 8 Ricardo Busquets 49.61 , NR 6 6 5 Pavlo Khnykin 49.69 7 6 2 Pieter van den Hoogenband 49.73 8 8 5 Fernando Scherer 49.79 9 8 6 Lars Frölander 49.91 , 10 6 7 Christian Tröger 50.06 11 7 1 Stephen Clarke 50.14 12 7 4 Jon Olsen 50.17 13 5 1 Bartosz Kizierowski 50.18 , NR 14 7 5 Chris Fydler 50.27 2 1 Raimundas Mažuolis , 16 8 2 Rostyslav Svanidze 50.31 17 4 4 Sion Brinn 50.38 , NR 7 6 Björn Zikarsky 19 5 5 Aleh Rukhlevich 50.42 20 6 6 Attila Zubor 50.43 21 5 4 Aleksey Yegorov 50.49 22 7 8 Yoav Bruck 50.61 23 5 3 Nicolas Gruson 50.71 24 8 1 Vladimir Predkin 50.75 25 8 8 Salim Iles 50.87 26 5 2 Brendon Dedekind 50.95 27 5 6 Earl McCarthy 50.99 28 8 7 Nicholas Shackell 51.03 29 3 1 Sergey Ashihmin 51.07 NR 30 7 2 Nicolae Ivan 51.14 31 6 1 Trent Bray 51.18 32 4 1 Indrek Sei 51.19 NR 33 4 7 Juan Benavides 51.20 34 6 8 Richard Sam Bera 51.25 35 7 7 Béla Szabados 51.26 36 2 3 Janko Gojković 51.28 NR 37 5 7 Shunsuke Ito 51.29 38 4 5 Felipe Delgado 51.38 39 4 3 Zhao Lifeng 51.70 40 4 6 Marijan Kanjer 51.76 41 3 6 Giovanni Linscheer 51.82 42 3 8 Arthur Li Kai Yien 51.84 43 3 4 José Isaza 51.86 44 4 8 Kalle Varonen 52.00 45 7 3 José Meolans 52.02 46 2 2 Georgios Giziotis 52.04 47 4 2 Tamer Hamed 52.16 48 3 3 Oleg Tsvetkovskiy 52.39 49 2 7 Koh Yun-ho 52.56 50 3 2 Stavros Michaelides 52.65 51 1 4 Darrick Bollinger 52.68 52 1 5 Kenny Roberts 52.89 53 2 4 Nikola Kalabić 52.98 54 2 6 Diego Perdomo 53.01 55 3 5 Maxim Cazmirciuc 53.18 56 3 7 Huang Chih-yung 53.47 57 2 8 Sng Ju Wei 53.50 58 2 5 Juan Luis Bocanegra 54.05 59 1 6 Diego Mularoni 57.11 60 1 3 Khuwaiter Al-Dhaheri 57.70 — 1 2 Ali Al-Gazali

Finals

Final B

Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 9 3 Jon Olsen 49.80 10 4 Christian Tröger 49.90 11 8 Björn Zikarsky 49.91 12 1 Sion Brinn 50.09 NR 13 2 Chris Fydler 50.31 14 7 Rostyslav Svanidze 50.43 15 5 Stephen Clarke 50.45 16 6 Bartosz Kizierowski 50.51

Final A

Hall led going into the turn, but Popov led coming out of it. Hall caught Popov again in the second length, but Popov pulled away at the finish.

Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 4 Alexander Popov 48.74 5 Gary Hall, Jr. 48.81 3 Gustavo Borges 49.02 4 1 Pieter van den Hoogenband 49.13 NR 5 8 Fernando Scherer 49.57 6 7 Pavlo Khnykin 49.65 7 2 Ricardo Busquets 49.68 8 6 Francisco Sánchez 49.84

References

External links Official Report USA Swimming