The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place between July 24 and 25. This was the first time in history that the 100m freestyle was swum under 50 seconds. There were 41 competitors from 27 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 Jim Montgomery of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and tenth overall victory in the men's 100 metre freestyle (most of any nation). His countryman Jack Babashoff took silver. Peter Nocke's bronze was the first medal for West Germany in the event, though the United Team of Germany had won a bronze in 1964 (by West German Hans-Joachim Klein).

Background

This was the 17th 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.

Three of the eight finalists from the 1972 Games returned: bronze medalist Vladimir Bure of the Soviet Union, seventh-place finisher Michel Rousseau of France, and eighth-place finisher Klaus Steinbach of West Germany. Reigning gold medalist Mark Spitz had retired after the 1972 Games at the age of 22. The new American favorite was Jim Montgomery, who had set the world record at the 1975 AAU championships. His main challenger would have been Jonty Skinner, but apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics. Montgomery had finished third at the 1975 world championships behind Andy Coan (not competing in Montreal) and Bure.

Bulgaria, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and the Virgin Islands each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 17th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

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.

Jim Montgomery broke the world record in the first semifinal, posting a 50.39 second time. In the final, he was the first swimmer to break the 50-second barrier, winning in 49.99 seconds for the new world record.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round Saturday, 24 July 1976 11:0019:00 HeatsSemifinals Sunday, 25 July 1976 20:15 Final

Results

Heats

Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 5 Joe Bottom 51.47 3 Klaus Steinbach 51.47 3 3 Jack Babashoff 51.53 4 2 Marcello Guarducci 51.57 5 5 Peter Nocke 51.59 6 4 Vladimir Bure 51.81 7 4 Andrey Krylov 52.02 8 6 Jim Montgomery 52.13 9 6 Michel Rousseau 52.43 10 2 Steve Pickell 52.65 11 4 Gary MacDonald 52.91 12 6 Roberto Pangaro 53.05 13 2 Martin Smith 53.17 14 2 René Écuyer 53.20 4 Svante Rasmuson 53.20 16 1 Andrey Bogdanov 53.23 6 Kevin Burns 53.23 18 4 Glenn Patching 53.29 19 5 Bruce Robertson 53.37 20 5 Peter Coughlan 53.49 21 2 Ramón Volcan 53.53 22 6 Fritz Warncke 53.55 23 5 Dan Larsson 53.81 24 1 Stefan Georgiev 53.85 25 3 Jorge Delgado, Jr. 53.91 26 1 Roger Pyttel 53.93 27 3 Neil Rogers 53.96 28 1 Dirk Braunleder 54.04 29 1 Jorge Comas 54.05 30 5 Gianni Versari 54.11 31 1 Mark Crocker 54.14 32 3 Paul Jouanneau 54.49 33 2 Helmut Levy 54.60 34 1 Kozo Higuchi 54.67 35 6 Fernando Cañales 55.31 36 5 Steven Newkirk 55.43 37 6 José Pereira 55.46 38 2 Kris Sumono 55.50 39 4 Gerardo Rosario 56.00 40 6 Sigurður Ólafsson 56.01 41 3 Campari Knoepffler 58.48

Swim-off

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Andrey Bogdanov 52.82 2 Kevin Burns 53.11

Semifinals

Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 1 Jim Montgomery 50.39 , 2 1 Marcello Guarducci 51.35 3 2 Jack Babashoff 51.46 4 1 Klaus Steinbach 51.62 5 2 Peter Nocke 51.83 6 2 Joe Bottom 51.92 7 1 Vladimir Bure 51.93 8 2 Andrey Krylov 52.32 9 2 Michel Rousseau 52.36 10 1 Roberto Pangaro 52.68 11 1 Stephen Pickell 52.89 12 1 René Ecuyer 52.92 13 2 Gary MacDonald 52.96 14 1 Andrei Bogdanov 53.05 15 2 Martin Smith 53.11 16 2 Svante Rasmussen 53.34

Final

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes Jim Montgomery 49.99 Jack Babashoff 50.81 Peter Nocke 51.31 4 Klaus Steinbach 51.68 5 Marcello Guarducci 51.70 6 Joe Bottom 51.79 7 Vladimir Bure 52.03 8 Andrey Krylov 52.15

References