The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between 30 and 31 August. This swimming event used backstroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

Results

Heats

Five heats were held; the fastest sixteen swimmers advanced to the Semifinals. The swimmers that advanced to the Semifinals are highlighted.

Heat One Rank Athlete Country Time 1 John Monckton Australia 1:04.4 2 József Csikány Hungary 1:04.5 3 Wolfgang Wagner Germany 1:04.7 4 Kazuo Tomita Japan 1:04.7 5 Herman Verbauwen Belgium 1:05.0 6 Julio Cabrera Spain 1:06.5 7 Raúl Cerqueira Portugal 1:06.7 8 Dimitrios Kolovos Greece 1:13.8

Heat Two Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Bob Bennett United States 1:02.0 2 Leonid Barbier Soviet Union 1:03.5 3 Jürgen Dietze Germany 1:04.0 4 Jan Jiskoot Netherlands 1:05.9 5 Friedrich Suda Austria 1:06.0 6 Mihovil Dorčić Yugoslavia 1:06.0 7 Joram Shnider Israel 1:11.1 8 Ünsal Fikirci Turkey 1:15.2

Heat Three Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Robert Christophe France 1:04.0 2 Graham Sykes Great Britain 1:04.8 3 Bob Wheaton Canada 1:05.7 4 Bengt-Olov Almstedt Sweden 1:05.9 5 Alejandro Gaxiola Mexico 1:05.9 6 Athos de Oliveira Brazil 1:07.9 7 Rudy Muller Luxembourg 1:12.3

Heat Four Rank Athlete Country Time 1 David Theile Australia 1:03.1 2 Veiko Siimar Soviet Union 1:04.6 3 Giuseppe Avellone Italy 1:05.4 4 Haydn Rigby Great Britain 1:06.2 5 Kazuo Watanabe Japan 1:08.4 6 Lorenzo Cortez Philippines 1:08.7 7 Rolf Burggraf Switzerland 1:11.0

Heat Five Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Frank McKinney United States 1:02.4 2 Pedro Diz Argentina 1:04.7 3 Stig-Olof Grenner Finland 1:04.7 4 Claude Raffy France 1:05.8 5 Gilberto Elsa Italy 1:05.8 6 Enrique Rabell Mexico 1:08.0 7 János Konrád Hungary 1:19.9

Semifinals

Two heats were held; the fastest eight swimmers advanced to the Finals. Those that advanced are highlighted.

Semifinal One Rank Athlete Country Time 1 David Theile Australia 1:03.1 2 Robert Christophe France 1:03.7 3 Bob Bennett United States 1:03.7 4 John Monckton Australia 1:03.8 5 Veiko Siimar Soviet Union 1:04.6 6 Kazuo Tomita Japan 1:05.2 7 Stig-Olof Grenner Finland 1:05.2 8 Herman Verbauwen Belgium 1:06.2

Semifinal Two Rank Athlete Country Time 1 Frank McKinney United States 1:03.8 2 Wolfgang Wagner Germany 1:03.9 3 Leonid Barbier Soviet Union 1:04.3 4 Jürgen Dietze Germany 1:04.7 5 Graham Sykes Great Britain 1:04.7 6 Pedro Diz Argentina 1:05.0 7 József Csikány Hungary 1:05.2 8 Giuseppe Avellone Italy 1:06.5

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes David Theile 1:01.9 OR Frank McKinney 1:02.1 Bob Bennett 1:02.3 4 Robert Christophe 1:03.2 5 Leonid Barbier 1:03.5 6 Wolfgang Wagner 1:03.5 7 John Monckton 1:04.1 8 Veiko Siimar 1:04.6

Key: OR = Olympic record

References