The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

Aaron Peirsol established a new world record of 52.54 to defend his Olympic title in the event. His teammate Matt Grevers earned a silver in 53.11, giving the United States a one-two finish. Meanwhile, Australia's Hayden Stoeckel and Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin, who both finished behind Grevers by 0.07 of a second, tied for the bronze medal in a matching time of 53.18.

Stoeckel's teammate Ashley Delaney finished fifth in 53.31, while Great Britain's Liam Tancock, who led a field in the first 50 metres, faded only to sixth place in 53.39. Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer (53.51) and Japan's Junichi Miyashita (53.99) rounded out the finale. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went faster than a winning time of 54.09, previously set by Peirsol in Athens four years earlier.

Earlier, Grevers erased Peirsol's 2004 Olympic record of 53.45 to pick up a top seed in the prelims, until Stoeckel broke a 53-second barrier, and eventually lowered the record to 52.97 in the semifinals.

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

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 10 Heat 4 Matt Grevers 53.41 August 11 Semifinal 1 Arkady Vyatchanin 53.06 August 11 Semifinal 2 Hayden Stoeckel 52.97 August 12 Final Aaron Peirsol 52.54

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 4 Matt Grevers 53.41 Q, 2 4 5 Arkady Vyatchanin 53.64 Q 3 6 4 Aaron Peirsol 53.65 Q 4 6 7 Aschwin Wildeboer 53.67 Q 5 3 5 Gerhard Zandberg 53.75 Q, AF 6 6 5 Liam Tancock 53.85 Q 7 5 3 Hayden Stoeckel 53.93 Q 8 3 8 Ľuboš Križko 54.07 Q, NR 9 5 5 Ashley Delaney 54.08 Q 10 5 2 Junichi Miyashita 54.12 Q 11 4 2 Stanislav Donets 54.18 Q 12 4 3 Tomomi Morita 54.21 Q 13 6 3 Markus Rogan 54.22 Q 14 6 1 Mirco Di Tora 54.39 Q 15 5 1 Guy Barnea 54.50 Q 16 5 6 Gregor Tait 54.62 Q 17 4 6 Aristeidis Grigoriadis 54.71 18 3 4 Damiano Lestingi 54.78 19 5 4 Helge Meeuw 54.88 20 6 2 Guilherme Guido 54.89 6 8 Răzvan Florea 22 4 8 George Du Rand 54.90 23 3 7 Sung Min 54.99 24 4 1 Gordan Kožulj 55.05 25 3 3 Benjamin Stasiulis 55.08 26 2 6 Omar Pinzón 55.11 27 3 6 Jonathan Massacand 55.21 NR 28 4 7 Nick Driebergen 55.31 29 2 5 Pavel Sankovich 55.39 30 3 1 Derya Büyükuncu 55.43 31 5 8 Jake Tapp 55.54 32 3 2 Vytautas Janušaitis 55.65 33 6 6 Thomas Rupprath 55.77 34 5 7 Marko Strahija 55.89 35 2 4 Örn Arnarson 56.15 36 2 3 Roland Rudolf 56.25 37 2 2 Sun Xiaolei 56.44 38 2 8 Oleksandr Isakov 56.55 39 1 4 Danil Bugakov 56.59 40 2 7 Eduardo Germán Otero 56.74 41 2 1 Tomáš Fučík 57.29 42 1 5 Stanislav Osinsky 57.42 43 1 3 Jared Heine 58.86 44 1 2 Souhaib Kalala 45 1 6 Rubel Mohammad Rana

Semifinals Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 2 6 Hayden Stoeckel 52.97 Q, , OC 2 2 4 Matt Grevers 52.99 Q 3 1 4 Arkady Vyatchanin 53.06 Q, ER 4 1 5 Aschwin Wildeboer 53.51 Q, NR 5 2 5 Aaron Peirsol 53.56 Q 6 1 3 Liam Tancock 53.61 Q 7 1 2 Junichi Miyashita 53.69 Q 8 2 2 Ashley Delaney 53.76 Q 9 2 1 Markus Rogan 53.80 10 1 7 Tomomi Morita 53.95 11 2 3 Gerhard Zandberg 53.98 12 1 8 Gregor Tait 54.37 13 1 6 Ľuboš Križko 54.38 14 2 7 Stanislav Donets 54.57 15 1 1 Mirco Di Tora 54.92 16 2 8 Guy Barnea 54.93

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes2 Aaron Peirsol 52.54 5 Matt Grevers 53.11 3 Arkady Vyatchanin 53.18 4 Hayden Stoeckel 58 Ashley Delaney 53.31 67 Liam Tancock 53.39 NR76 Aschwin Wildeboer 53.51 81 Junichi Miyashita 53.99

References

External links Official Olympic Report