The men's sailors 100 metre freestyle was one of the four
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
events on the
Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The second swimming race was open only to sailors of the Greek Royal Navy. Eleven entered but only three actually took part in the event.
The winning time was nearly a minute slower than that of the open 100 metre freestyle.
Background
This was the only appearance of an event limited to Greek Royal Navy sailors. The exclusionary nature of this race is a rare phenomenon in the
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
, which in general include only events open to all competitors:
Bill Mallon
William James Mallon (born February 2, 1952) is an American orthopedic surgeon, former professional golfer and a leading authority on the history of the Olympic Games.
Golf career
Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Mallon studied at Duke Universit ...
, in his book about the 1896 Games, says of the event that "''its inclusion in the Olympic records is dubious at best''", a statement which is directly repeated on Olympedia.
However, the competition is included in the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
's database of Olympic medalists, while there is no record of
or any other major figure in the beginning of the modern Olympic movement making any objection to the consideration of the race as Olympic.
Competition format
This
freestyle swimming
Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most commo ...
competition involved a single race, with all swimmers competing at the same time. The swimmers were taken out by ship into the bay, where they would swim toward shore.
[Official Report, part 2, p. 96.]
Schedule
The 100 metre freestyle for sailors was the second of the swimming events, held shortly after the open 100 metre freestyle.
[
]
Results
References
* (Digitally available a
* (Excerpt available a
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics - Men's sailors 100 metre freestyle
Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics, Men's freestyle sailors 0100