The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place between 29 and 30 November. There were 34 competitors from 19 nations. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by

Jon Henricks John Malcolm Henricks (born 6 June 1935) is an Australian Olympic swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Henricks set world records in two freestyle events. Career Henricks began his competitive swimming ca ...

of Australia, the nation's first medal in the event. Australia would win a second 0.4 seconds later (

John Devitt John Thomas Devitt, AM (born 4 February 1937) is an Australian sprint freestyle swimmer of the 1950s and 1960s, who won a gold medal in the 100-metre freestyle at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. He won in controversial circumstances, bein ...

's silver) and a third 0.9 seconds after that ( Gary Chapman's bronze), sweeping the podium—the first sweep in the men's 100 metre freestyle since the United States did it in 1920 and 1924, and the first sweep of any event by Australian competitors. This year, the Americans finished fourth through sixth. It was the first time since 1924 that Japan had competed (that is, excluding 1948) but not medaled.

Background

This was the 12th 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. Two of the eight finalists from the 1952 Games returned: silver medalist Hiroshi Suzuki of Japan and seventh-place finisher

Aldo Eminente Aldo Eminente (19 August 1931 – 25 August 2021 Jon Henricks John Malcolm Henricks (born 6 June 1935) is an Australian Olympic swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Henricks set world records in two freestyle events. Career Henricks began his competitive swimming ca ...

of Australia, a converted distance swimmer who had begun racing sprints in 1953. Colombia and Indonesia each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its 12th 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 only 2 semifinals instead of 3). 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 5 heats of 6 or 7 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. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties. 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 (sport), 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 ar ...

, 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

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1956 Summer Olympics. Reid Patterson broke the Olympic record in the fourth heat with a time of 56.8 seconds; in the same heat, Atsushi Tani tied the old record. In the first semifinal,

broke Patterson's new record with a 55.7 second time. Dick Hanley came in under the old record time; in the second semifinal, Patterson matched the pre-1956 record, Gary Chapman, beat the pre-1956 record, and

beat Patterson's mark from the heats. Henrick's final time of 55.4 was another new Olympic record as well as the world competitive (non-time trial) record.

Schedule

Results

Heats

Five heats were held; the fastest sixteen swimmers advanced to the semifinal round.

Semifinals

Two heats were held; the swimmers with the fastest eight times advanced to the final.

Final

References

* Official Report, pp. 593–94. {{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming At The 1956 Summer Olympics - Men's 100 Metre Freestyle Men's freestyle 100 metre Men's events at the 1956 Summer Olympics