The men's 100 metre breaststroke event at the
2012 Summer Olympics took place on 28–29 July at the
London Aquatics Centre
The London Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility with two swimming pools and a diving pool in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. The centre, designed by architect Zaha Hadid as one of the main venues of the 2012 Summer Olympic ...
in
London, United Kingdom.
Cameron van der Burgh
Cameron van der Burgh OIS (born 25 May 1988) is a retired South African competitive swimmer and hedge fund analyst. He is Africa's first home-trained world record holder and individual male Olympic Champion. He is married to long time partne ...
smashed a new world record to end South Africa's medal drought for an Olympic gold in the event. He blasted out to a 27.07 split on the first length, and pulled strongly ahead of the field to touch the wall first in 58.46, slashing 0.12 seconds off the record set by Australia's
Brenton Rickard
Brenton Scott Rickard (born 19 October 1983) is a retired breaststroke swimmer from Australia. He emerged at the international level in 2006, swimming at the Commonwealth games. He has captured multiple Olympic and World Championship medals, a ...
in a high-tech bodysuit from the 2009 World Championships. An underwater camera footage also showed him executing three illegal butterfly kicks on the pullout. The champion later admitted that he was doing it, saying that by not doing it "you are falling behind or giving yourself a disadvantage." Rickard's teammate
Christian Sprenger
Christian David Sprenger (born 19 December 1985) is an Australian former breaststroke swimmer. He trains at the Commercial Swimming Club under Simon Cusack.
Swimming career
At the 2008 Australian Swimming Championships he qualified in the ...
ripped off a sterling time of 58.93 to snatch the silver, moving him to sixth all time in the event's history. Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer
Brendan Hansen
Brendan Joseph Hansen (born August 15, 1981) is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in breaststroke events. Hansen is a six-time Olympic medalist, and is also a former world record-holder in both the 100-meter and 200-meter ...
ended his three-year retirement to take the bronze in 59.49.
Hungary's
Dániel Gyurta
Dániel Gyurta (; born 4 May 1989) is a Hungarian former competitive swimmer who mainly competed in the 200-metre breaststroke. In 2016, Gyurta became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), he is a member of the European Olympic ...
finished off the podium with a fourth-place time and a national record in 59.53. Japan's defending Olympic champion
Kosuke Kitajima
is a Japanese retired breaststroke swimmer. He won gold medals at the men's 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and the 2008 Summer Olympics – becoming the first and only swimmer to sweep the breaststroke even ...
witnessed his three-peat bid come to an end with a fifth-place time in 59.79. Rickard, the former world record holder, earned a sixth spot in 59.87, while Italy's
Fabio Scozzoli
Fabio Scozzoli (born 8 August 1988) is an Italian swimmer. At the 2012 World Short Course Championships, he won the gold medal in the 100 metre breaststroke. He is the 2022 Mediterranean champion in the 50 metre breaststroke.
Career
On 25 Jul ...
(59.97) and Lithuania's
Giedrius Titenis
Giedrius Titenis (born 21 July 1989) is a Lithuanian swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He is a four-time Olympian, a multiple-time Lithuanian record holder in the men's breaststroke, and a double swimming champion in the same discip ...
(1:00.84) closed out the field.
[
Earlier in the semifinals, Van der Burgh cleared a 59-second barrier for the second time in his career and the first in textile to pick up a final top seed in 58.83, erasing Kitajima's 2008 Olympic record by eight-hundredths of a second.
]
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
Results
Heats
Semifinals
Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
Final
References
External links
NBC Olympics Coverage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics - Men's 100 metre breaststroke
Men's 00100 metre breaststroke
Men's events at the 2012 Summer Olympics