The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held on 26 and 27 July at the Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex. There were 39 competitors from 26 nations. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games (except in 1960, when the limit was two). The event was won by Jörg Woithe of East Germany, the nation's first medal in the men's 100 metre freestyle. Sweden earned its first medals in the event since 1952 with Per Holmertz's silver and Per Johansson's bronze.

Background

This was the 18th 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.

None of the eight finalists from the 1976 Games returned. The top sprinters of the time were absent, Rowdy Gaines due to the American-led boycott and Jonty Skinner due to the ban on apartheid South Africa.

Algeria, Angola, Cyprus, Libya, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event. Great Britain and Hungary each made their 16th appearance, most of the nations competing in 1980, but behind the absent United States' 17 appearances.

Competition format

The competition used a three-round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952, though with 2 semifinals. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 6 heats, with between 6 and 8 swimmers each. The top 16 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final.

This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

Records

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

Schedule

All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

Date Time Round Saturday, 26 July 1980 10:0018:30 HeatsSemifinals Sunday, 27 July 1980 20:00 Final

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 5 Jörg Woithe 50.49 2 5 Martin Smith 51.88 3 4 Per Holmertz 52.01 4 5 Mark Tonelli 52.04 5 1 Sergey Krasyuk 52.08 2 Sergey Kopliakov 7 4 René Écuyer 52.09 8 3 Per Johansson 52.11 3 Neil Brooks 10 4 Sergey Smiryagin 52.21 11 3 Raffaele Franceschi 52.26 12 1 Per Wikström 52.29 13 2 David López-Zubero 52.43 14 4 Jorge Fernandes 52.51 15 5 Cees Vervoorn 52.57 16 3 Graeme Brewer 52.59 17 4 Alberto Mestre 52.62 18 2 Mark Taylor 52.65 19 1 Stéfan Voléry 52.68 20 1 Fabrizio Rampazzo 52.71 21 2 Paolo Revelli 52.74 22 5 Herwig Bayer 52.79 23 1 Rui Abreu 52.85 24 2 Guy Goosen 52.87 25 5 Frank Kühne 52.93 26 4 Cyro Delgado 53.00 27 3 Ramón Lavín 53.45 28 3 Tsvetan Golomeev 53.50 29 2 Yulyan Vasilev 53.61 30 1 Gábor Mészáros 54.41 31 3 Mohamed Halimi 55.16 32 5 Tô Văn Vệ 56.75 33 2 Lakis Fylaktou 57.41 34 4 Adham Hemdan 58.33 35 2 Jorge Lima 59.39 36 1 Abdulwahab Werfeli 37 1 Bilall Yamouth 38 3 Zoë Andrianifaha 39 5 Edgar Martins — 4 David Cummins

Semifinals

Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 2 Jörg Woithe 50.21 2 2 Per Holmertz 51.19 3 1 Per Johansson 51.42 4 2 Sergey Kopliakov 51.51 5 2 René Écuyer 51.62 6 1 Sergey Krasyuk 51.81 7 2 Raffaele Franceschi 51.87 8 1 Graeme Brewer 51.91 9 1 Per Wikström 52.15 10 1 Mark Tonelli 52.17 11 1 Sergey Smiryagin 52.18 2 David López-Zubero 13 1 Martin Smith 52.41 14 2 Neil Brooks 52.70 15 2 Cees Vervoorn 52.73 16 1 Jorge Fernandes 52.91

Final

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Jörg Woithe 50.40 Per Holmertz 50.91 Per Johansson 51.29 4 Sergey Kopliakov 51.34 5 Raffaele Franceschi 51.69 6 Sergey Krasyuk 51.80 7 René Écuyer 52.01 8 Graeme Brewer 52.22

References