The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between August 30 and 31. This swimming event used the butterfly stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

The winning margin was 1.29 seconds which as of 2024 remains the only time this event for men was won by more than one second at the Olympics.

Results

Heats

Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Dave Edgar 57.30 Q 2 Roger Pyttel 57.98 Q 3 Peter Remmel 58.97 4 Andrzej Chudziński 1:00.22 5 Alain Mosconi 1:00.23 6 Salvador Vilanova 1:01.25 7 Martin Edwards 1:01:29 8 Bruno Bassoul 1:05.45

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Bruce Robertson 56.45 Q 2 István Szentirmay 58.07 Q 3 Sérgio Waismann 58.37 Q 4 Yasuhiro Komazaki 59.71 5 Hugo Valencia 1:00.14 6 Feridun Aybars 1:04:46 7 Chhay-Kheng Nhem 1:05.12 8 Wong Ronnie 1:07.50

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 3 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Roland Matthes 57.16 Q 2 Neil Rogers 57.40 Q 3 John Mills 58.28 Q 4 Viktor Sharygin 58.40 5 Arturo Lang-Lenton 59.22 6 Georgijs Kuļikovs 59.28 7 Dimitrios Karydis 1:00.06 8 Roy Chan 1:02.24

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 4 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Jerry Heidenreich 56.86 Q 2 Lutz Stoklasa 57.50 Q 3 Bob Kasting 57.65 Q 4 Geoffrey Ferreira 58.26 Q 5 Jacques Leloup 58.77 6 Vladimir Krivtsov 59.83 7 Carlos Singson 1:02.11

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 5 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Mark Spitz 56.45 Q 2 Hartmut Flöckner 57.41 Q 3 Juan Carlos Bello 57.54 Q 4 Byron MacDonald 57.56 Q 5 Hans Lampe 59.00 6 Sean Maher 59.50 7 Vasil Dobrev 1:00.07 8 Aleksandar Pavličević 1:00.29

Key: Q = Qualified

Semifinals Heat 1 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Roland Matthes 56.51 Q 2 Bruce Robertson 56.86 Q 3 Byron MacDonald 57.06 Q 4 Neil Rogers 57.28 Q 5 Roger Pyttel 57.69 6 Sérgio Waismann 58.07 7 Lutz Stoklasa 58.33 8 Geoffrey Ferreira 58.54

Heat 2 Rank Athlete Country Time Notes 1 Mark Spitz 55.98 Q 2 Jerry Heidenreich 56.18 Q 3 Dave Edgar 56.88 Q 4 Hartmut Flöckner 56.96 Q 5 Juan Carlos Bello 57.51 6 Bob Kasting 57.67 7 John Mills 58.13 8 István Szentirmay 58.25

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes Mark Spitz 54.27 WR Bruce Robertson 55.56 Jerry Heidenreich 55.74 4 Roland Matthes 55.87 5 Dave Edgar 56.11 6 Byron MacDonald 57.27 7 Hartmut Flöckner 57.40 8 Neil Rogers 57.90

Key: WR = World record

References