The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 19–20 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia. There were 73 competitors from 66 nations. Nations have been limited to two swimmers each since the 1984 Games.

Summary

Netherlands' Pieter van den Hoogenband stormed home on the final length to claim his second Olympic gold medal at these Games. He posted a time of 48.30 to hold off Russia's defending Olympic champion Alexander Popov by almost two-fifths of a second (0.40). It was the Netherlands' first medal in the men's 100 metre freestyle. Failing to attain a third straight triumph in the same event, Popov settled for the silver in 48.69. Popov became only the second man to win three medals in the 100 metre freestyle, the first since Duke Kahanamoku in 1912–1924. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Gary Hall, Jr. took bronze with a 48.73 time. Hall was the 11th man to win two medals in the event.

After breaking a split world record in the 4×100 m freestyle relay on the opening night, Australia's overwhelming favorite Michael Klim missed out the podium in a close race against Hall by a hundredth of a second, finishing with a time of 48.74. Klim was followed in fifth by Hall's teammate Neil Walker (49.09), and in sixth by Sweden's three-time Olympian Lars Frölander (49.22). Russia's Denis Pimankov (49.36) and another Aussie Chris Fydler (49.44) rounded out the finale.

Earlier in the semifinals, Van den Hoogenband cleared a 48-second barrier to set a new world record of 47.84, slashing 0.34 seconds off the mark set by Klim from the relay.

One of the most popular highlights in the event took place in the first heat. Dubbed as Eric the Eel, Equatorial Guinea's Eric Moussambani received a dubious honor of being the slowest Olympic swimmer in history. Two other swimmers, Niger's Karim Bare and Tajikistan's Farkhod Oripov, plunged into the pool and were cast out of the race under a no false-start rule, leaving Moussambani as the last man standing. Cheered by a large crowd, he finished a one-man heat in 1:52.72, nearly seven seconds slower than a winning time by Van den Hoogenband over double the distance a day before.

Background

This was the 23rd 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.

Seven of the eight finalists from the 1996 Games returned: two-time gold medalist Alexander Popov of Russia, silver medalist Gary Hall, Jr. of the United States, bronze medalist (and 1992 silver medalist) Gustavo Borges of Brazil, fourth-place finisher Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands, fifth-place finisher Fernando Scherer of Brazil, sixth-place finisher Pavlo Khnykin of Ukraine, and eighth-place finisher Francisco Sánchez of Venezuela.

Popov had recovered from a near-fatal stabbing in 1996 to win the 1997 European championship and repeat as world champion in 1998. His 1994 world record had stood until the start of the Games; in the freestyle relays, however, hometown hopeful Michael Klim (the 1998 world championship runner-up) had broken that record with his first leg split. Van den Hoogenband won the 200 metre freestyle earlier in Sydney.

The Republic of the Congo, the Czech Republic, Equatorial Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Mauritius, Mongolia, Niger, Nigeria, Slovenia, and Tajikistan each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 22nd appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

This freestyle swimming competition returned to the three-round format used from 1948 to 1980, abandoning the A/B final format used between 1984 and 1996. The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

Records

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

The following records were established during the competition: DateRoundNameNationalityTimeRecord 16 September Final* Michael Klim Australia 48.18 WR 19 September Semifinal 2 Pieter van den Hoogenband Netherlands 47.84 WR * Split from the men's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

Schedule

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Tuesday, 19 September 2000 10:0019:00 HeatsSemifinals Wednesday, 20 September 2000 19:53 Final

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 9 4 Pieter van den Hoogenband 48.64 2 10 5 Michael Klim 49.09 3 10 6 Lars Frölander 49.16 , NR 4 10 4 Alexander Popov 49.29 5 9 5 Gary Hall, Jr. 49.32 6 8 2 Denis Pimankov 49.45 8 5 Chris Fydler 8 9 7 Salim Iles 49.70 , NR 9 8 4 Neil Walker 49.73 10 10 2 Lorenzo Vismara 49.74 10 1 Roland Mark Schoeman 12 10 8 José Meolans 49.75 , NR13 9 3 Gustavo Borges 49.76 8 7 Christian Tröger 15 9 6 Attila Zubor 49.79 16 7 8 Duje Draganja 49.83 , NR 17 10 7 Bartosz Kizierowski 49.84 18 8 6 Johan Kenkhuis 49.93 19 8 1 Stefan Nystrand 50.19 9 2 Karel Novy 21 6 3 Peter Mankoč 50.28 22 8 3 Romain Barnier 50.32 23 7 2 Rolandas Gimbutis 50.46 24 6 1 Kim Min-suk 50.49 25 7 4 Torsten Spanneberg 50.56 26 9 8 Yannick Lupien 50.62 27 8 8 Pavlo Khnykin 50.63 28 7 3 Javier Botello 50.87 29 7 5 Craig Hutchison 50.90 30 9 1 Aleh Rukhlevich 50.96 7 1 Marcos Hernández 32 7 7 Thierry Wouters 51.07 33 7 6 Jere Hård 51.11 34 6 5 Spyridon Bitsakis 51.28 6 8 Sergey Ashihmin 36 4 2 Carl Probert 51.34 NR 37 6 7 Richard Sam Bera 51.52 38 6 6 Yoav Bruck 51.62 39 5 1 Nikola Kalabić 51.82 40 4 5 Christopher Murray 51.93 5 2 Allen Ong 42 5 7 George Gleason 52.00 43 4 7 Indrek Sei 52.09 44 4 6 Tamer Hamed 52.14 45 5 3 Květoslav Svoboda 52.18 46 3 4 Paul Kutscher 52.22 47 4 8 Fernando Jácome 52.24 4 4 Mark Chay 49 6 2 Željko Panić 52.40 50 6 4 Francisco Sánchez 52.43 51 3 2 Howard Hinds 52.52 52 4 3 Glen Walshaw 52.53 53 5 6 Igor Sitnikov 52.57 54 3 3 Aleksandr Agafonov 52.58 55 5 4 Wu Nien-pin 52.72 56 5 5 Felipe Delgado 52.78 57 5 8 Chrysanthos Papachrysanthou 52.82 58 3 5 Ríkardur Ríkardsson 52.85 59 3 6 George Bovell 52.90 60 3 1 Gentle Offoin 52.91 NR 61 3 7 Kenny Roberts 53.40 62 4 1 Rodrigo Olivares 53.50 63 2 3 Gregory Arkhurst 53.55 64 3 8 Alejandro Castellanos 54.06 65 2 4 Hamid Reza Mobarez 54.12 66 2 5 Christophe Lim Wen Ying 54.33 67 2 6 Ganaagiin Galbadrakh 58.79 68 2 2 Ragi Edde 59.26 69 2 7 Marien Michel Ngouabi 1:00.39 70 2 1 Dawood Youssef Mohamed Jassim 1:02.45 71 1 5 Eric Moussambani 1:52.72 NR — 1 3 Karim Bare 1 4 Farkhod Oripov — 10 3 Fernando Scherer

Semifinals

Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 2 4 Pieter van den Hoogenband 47.84 , 2 1 4 Michael Klim 48.80 3 1 5 Alexander Popov 48.84 4 2 5 Lars Frölander 48.93 , NR 5 2 2 Neil Walker 49.04 6 2 3 Gary Hall, Jr. 49.13 7 1 3 Denis Pimankov 49.43 8 2 6 Chris Fydler 49.55 9 2 8 Attila Zubor 49.58 10 1 7 José Meolans 49.66 NR 11 1 2 Lorenzo Vismara 49.67 1 8 Duje Draganja NR 13 1 6 Salim Iles 49.70 =NR 14 1 1 Christian Tröger 49.80 15 2 7 Roland Mark Schoeman 49.84 16 2 1 Gustavo Borges 49.93

Final

Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 4 Pieter van den Hoogenband 48.30 3 Alexander Popov 48.69 7 Gary Hall, Jr. 48.73 4 5 Michael Klim 48.74 5 2 Neil Walker 49.09 6 6 Lars Frölander 49.22 7 1 Denis Pimankov 49.36 8 8 Chris Fydler 49.44

References

External links Official Olympic Report