Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke
The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 24 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 24 September | Heat 6 | Igor Polyansky | | 55.04 | |
| 24 September | Heat 7 | David Berkoff | | 54.51 | |
Results
Heats
Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | David Berkoff | | 54.51 | Q, |
| 2 | 6 | Igor Polyansky | | 55.04 | Q |
| 3 | 7 | Daichi Suzuki | | 55.90 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | Sergei Zabolotnov | | 56.13 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Frank Hoffmeister | | 56.19 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | Sean Murphy | | 56.20 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | Mark Tewksbury | | 56.20 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | Frank Baltrusch | | 56.45 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | Dirk Richter | | 56.52 | q |
| 10 | 6 | Franck Schott | | 56.76 | q |
| 11 | 6 | Georgi Mihalev | | 57.06 | q |
| 12 | 5 | Jens-Peter Berndt | | 57.08 | q, |
| 13 | 5 | Jay Mortenson | | 57.19 | q |
| 14 | 3 | David Lim Fong Jock | | 57.34 | q, NR |
| 15 | 5 | Shigemori Maruyama | | 57.54 | q |
| 16 | 4 | Manuel Guzmán | | 57.62 | q |
| 17 | 5 | Eðvarð Þór Eðvarðsson | | 57.70 | q |
| 18 | 6 | Lin Laijiu | | 57.74 | |
| 19 | 7 | Paul Kingsman | | 57.80 | |
| 20 | 7 | Rogério Romero | | 57.91 | |
| 21 | 6 | Lars Sørensen | | 58.01 | |
| 22 | 4 | Neil Harper | | 58.02 | |
| 23 | 4 | Martín López-Zubero | | 58.06 | |
| 24 | 4 | Patrick Ferland | | 58.17 | |
| 25 | 3 | Neil Cochran | | 58.25 | |
| 26 | 3 | Alejandro Alvizuri | | 58.37 | |
| 27 | 5 | Carl Wilson | | 58.40 | |
| 28 | 4 | Tamás Deutsch | | 58.65 | |
| 29 | 3 | Stephen Cullen | | 58.82 | |
| 30 | 5 | Pavel Vokoun | | 58.88 | |
| 31 | 4 | Renaud Boucher | | 58.90 | |
| 32 | 5 | Simon Upton | | 59.06 | |
| 33 | 3 | Ernesto Vela | | 59.19 | |
| 34 | 3 | Ilias Malamas | | 59.24 | |
| 35 | 4 | Huang Guoxiong | | 59.36 | |
| 36 | 3 | Richard Gheel | | 59.37 | |
| 37 | 5 | Valerio Giambalvo | | 59.48 | |
| 38 | 4 | Wladimir Ribeiro | | 59.76 | |
| 39 | 3 | Amin Amer | | 1:00.76 | |
| 40 | 2 | Park Dong-pil | | 1:01.25 | |
| 41 | 2 | Patrick Sagisi | | 1:01.86 | |
| 42 | 2 | Yip Hor Man | | 1:01.91 | |
| 42 | 2 | Horst Niehaus | | 1:01.91 | |
| 44 | 2 | Brett Halford | | 1:02.95 | |
| 45 | 2 | Eric Greenwood | | 1:03.11 | |
| 46 | 2 | Pablo Barahona | | 1:03.90 | |
| 47 | 2 | Bruno N'Diaye | | 1:05.06 | |
| 48 | 1 | Filippo Piva | | 1:07.63 | |
| 49 | 1 | Mohamed Abdullah | | 1:08.91 | |
| 50 | 1 | Rami Kantari | | 1:09.35 | |
| 51 | 1 | Mohamed Bin Abid | | 1:10.01 | |
| 52 | 1 | Yul Mark Du Pont | | 1:12.50 | |
| 1 | Paul Yelle | | | |
| 1 | Danny Bowering | | | |
Finals
Final B
Final A
