The men's
100 metre freestyle event at the
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
was held on 26 and 27 July at the
Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex
The Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex was a covered swimming centre in Moscow, Russia. The venue, built for the 1980 Summer Olympics, makes up the Olimpiysky Sports Complex architectural ensemble together with the Olimpiysky Arena. ...
.
There were 39 competitors from 26 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 Jörg Woithe of East Germany, the nation's first medal in the men's 100 metre freestyle. Sweden earned its first medals in the event since 1952 with Per Holmertz's silver and Per Johansson's bronze.
]
Background
This was the 18th 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.Rowdy Gaines
Ambrose "Rowdy" Gaines IV (born February 17, 1959) is an American former competitive swimmer, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He is a swimming analyst fo ...
due to the American-led boycott and Jonty Skinner
John "Jonty" Alexander Skinner (born 15 February 1954) is a former South African competition swimmer and world record-holder, who became an American college swimming coach and a coach of the US national team.
Swimming career
Skinner was born ...
due to the ban on apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
South Africa.[
Algeria, Angola, Cyprus, Libya, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event. Great Britain and Hungary each made their 16th appearance, most of the nations competing in 1980, but behind the absent United States' 17 appearances.
]
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
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 ...
event used 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 ...
, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl
The front crawl or forward crawl, also known as the Australian crawl or American crawl, is a swimming stroke usually regarded as the fastest of the four front primary strokes. As such, the front crawl stroke is almost universally used during a f ...
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.
Schedule
All times are Moscow Time
Moscow Time (MSK, russian: моско́вское вре́мя) is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the eleven time zones of Russia. It has b ...
(UTC+3
UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...
)
Results
Heats
Semifinals
Final
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 1980 Summer Olympics - Men's 100 Metre Freestyle
F
Men's events at the 1980 Summer Olympics