Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre breaststroke
The men's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between August 29 and August 30. This swimming event used the breaststroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.Medalists
Results
Heats
Heat 1
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Mark Chatfield | | 1:05.89 | |
| 2 | Bill Mahony | | 1:07.14 | |
| 3 | Bernard Combet | | 1:08.08 | |
| 4 | Paul Jarvie | | 1:09.26 | |
| 5 | Sokhon Yi | | 1:11.00 | |
| 6 | Edmondo Mingione | | 1:11.75 | |
| 7 | Morkal Faruk | | 1:13.86 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Nikolay Pankin | | 1:07.31 | |
| 2 | Robert Stoddart | | 1:08.44 | |
| 3 | Malcolm O'Connell | | 1:09.33 | |
| 4 | Sándor Szabó | | 1:09.68 | |
| 5 | Gustavo Salcedo | | 1:10.17 | |
| 6 | Jean-Pierre Dubey | | 1:10.31 | |
| 7 | Cezary Śmiglak | | 1:10.53 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | David Wilkie | | 1:06.35 | |
| 2 | Tom Bruce | | 1:06.45 | |
| 3 | Klaus Katzur | | 1:07.36 | |
| 4 | Vladimir Kosinsky | | 1:07.39 | |
| 5 | Amman Jalmaani | | 1:09.28 | |
| 6 | Steffen Kriechbaum | | 1:09.87 | |
| 7 | Bruno Bassoul | | 1:19.94 | |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Nobutaka Taguchi | | 1:06.07 | |
| 2 | José Sylvio Fiolo | | 1:06.23 | |
| 3 | Rainer Hradetzky | | 1:08.67 | |
| 4 | Liam Ball | | 1:09.68 | |
| 5 | Andreas Hellmann | | 1:10.13 | |
| 6 | Karl Christian Koch | | 1:11.27 | |
| 7 | Piero Ferracuti | | 1:16.74 | |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | John Hencken | | 1:05.96 | |
| 2 | Roger-Philippe Menu | | 1:08.63 | |
| 3 | Mike Whitaker | | 1:08.86 | |
| 4 | Felipe Muñoz | | 1:08.95 | |
| 5 | Pedro Balcells | | 1:09.37 | |
| 6 | Alfredo Hunger | | 1:11.44 | |
| 7 | Theodoros Koutoumanis | | 1:12.05 | |
| 8 | Rudi Vingerhoets | | 1:12.59 | |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Walter Kusch | | 1:06.95 | |
| 2 | Viktor Stulikov | | 1:08.18 | |
| 3 | Michael Günther | | 1:08.93 | |
| 4 | Osvaldo Boretto | | 1:09.64 | |
| 5 | János Tóth | | 1:10.02 | |
| 6 | Angel Chakarov | | 1:10.34 | |
| 7 | Paul Naisby | | 1:11.05 | |
| 8 | Guðjón Guðmundsson | | 1:11.11 | |
Semifinals
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Nobutaka Taguchi | | 1:04.94 | WR |
| Tom Bruce | | 1:05.43 | |
| John Hencken | | 1:05.61 | |
| 4 | Mark Chatfield | | 1:06.01 | |
| 5 | Walter Kusch | | 1:06.23 | |
| 6 | José Sylvio Fiolo | | 1:06.24 | |
| 7 | Nikolay Pankin | | 1:06.36 | |
| 8 | David Wilkie | | 1:06.52 | |
Key: WR = World record
