The men's

100 metre freestyle The 100 metre freestyle is often considered to be the highlight (Blue Ribbon event) of the sport of swimming, like 100 metres in the sport of Athletics. The first swimmer to break the one-minute barrier (long course) was Johnny Weissmuller, in 1 ...

was a swimming event held as part of the

swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, eleven swimming events were contested, six for men and five for women. The competitions were held from Saturday August 8, 1936 to Saturday August 15, 1936. There was a total of 248 participants from 29 co ...

programme. It was the ninth appearance of the event, which had not been featured only at the 1900 Games. The competition was held on Saturday and Sunday, 8 and 9 August 1936. Forty-five swimmers from 23 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by

Ferenc Csik Ferenc Csik (12 December 1913 – 29 March 1945) was a Hungarian swimmer who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. In the 1936, Olympics he won a gold medal in the 100 m freestyle event and a bronze medal in the 4×200 m freesty ...

of Hungary, the nation's first victory in the event since 1904 and third overall (second all-time behind the United States with 5). For the second consecutive Games, Japan took two medals in the 100 metre freestyle, this time silver (

Masanori Yusa was a Japanese freestyle swimmer. He won gold medals in the 4 × 200 m relay in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, setting world records on both occasions. In 1936 he finished almost simultaneously with Shigeo Arai and Masaharu Taguchi in the 100 m rac ...

) and bronze (

Shigeo Arai was a Japanese freestyle swimmer who competed at the 1936 Olympics. He won a gold medal in 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, setting a world record. In the individual 100 m race he finished almost simultaneously with Masanori Yusa and Masaharu Taguchi ...

). The United States' seven-Games medal streak in the event ended as the nation's best result was sixth place by

Peter Fick Peter Joseph Fick (December 12, 1913 – August 10, 1980) was an American competition swimmer and former world record-holder in two events. Fick represented the United States at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. He was the world rec ...

Background

This was the ninth 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. None of the six finalists from 1932 returned. American

, the world record holder, was a slight favorite. The Japanese team was strong once again. European champion

of Hungary was considered a tier below the Americans and Japanese. Bermuda, Bolivia, the Republic of China, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, and Peru each made their debut in the event. The United States made its ninth appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

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 used a three-round (quarterfinals, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was a modification of the one used since 1912, allowing the top swimmers in each race plus one or more wild cards to advance. For this event, the top two in each preliminary heat plus the next two fastest swimmers would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal plus the fastest fourth-place swimmer would move on to the final. There were 7 heats of between 6 and 8 swimmers, allowing 16 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 8 swimmers each; 7 advanced to the final. Each race involved two lengths of the 50-metre pool.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics.

set a new Olympic record in the first heat with 57.6 seconds. In the fifth heat

Masaharu Taguchi was a Japanese freestyle swimmer. At the 1936 Olympics he won a gold medal in the 4 × 200 m relay, setting a new world record. In the individual 100 m race he finished almost simultaneously with Masanori Yusa and Shigeo Arai and was placed four ...

bettered the Olympic record with 57.5 seconds.

equalized this record in the second semifinal with 57.5 seconds.

Schedule

Results

Heats

Saturday 8 August 1936: The fastest two in each heat and the next two fastest from across the heats advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

Heat 5

Heat 6

Heat 7

Semifinals

Saturday 8 August 1936: The fastest three in each semi-final and the fastest fourth-placed from across the heats advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final

Sunday 9 August 1936:

Results summary

References

External links

Olympic Report
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 1936 Summer Olympics - Men's 100 Metre Freestyle Swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics Men's events at the 1936 Summer Olympics