Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle


The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 22 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.
U.S. Matt Biondi smashed a new Olympic record to claim his first ever individual gold and fourth career medal in swimming at these Games. Maintaining a lead from start to finish, he pulled away from a star-studded field to hit the wall first in 48.63. Biondi also enjoyed his teammate Chris Jacobs taking home the silver in 49.08, as the Americans climbed on top of the podium for the sixth time in the event's Olympic history with a 1–2 finish. Earlier in the prelims, Jacobs sliced off Rowdy Gaines' 1984 record by six-tenths of a second to establish a new Olympic standard of 49.20 in the eighth heat, until Biondi eventually lowered it to 49.04 in the final of ten heats. Meanwhile, France's Stéphan Caron held off an intense sprint battle against Soviet duo Gennadiy Prigoda and Iurie Başcatov to take home the bronze in 49.62.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
DateRoundNameNationalityTimeRecord
22 SeptemberHeat 8Chris Jacobs49.20
22 SeptemberHeat 10Matt Biondi49.04
22 SeptemberFinal AMatt Biondi48.63

Competition format

The competition used the A/B final format instituted in 1984. The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the A final, competing for medals through 8th place. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the semifinals competed in the B final for 9th through 16th place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
110Matt Biondi49.04Q,
28Chris Jacobs49.20Q
39Stéphan Caron49.37Q
49Iurie Başcatov50.08Q
510Gennadiy Prigoda50.13Q
68Per Johansson50.22Q
79Andrew Baildon50.34Q
88Tommy Werner50.45Q
910Steffen Zesner50.73q,
107Hilton Woods50.73q
118Franz Mortensen50.74q
128Sven Lodziewski50.77q
139Thomas Fahrner50.78q
1410Sandy Goss50.81q
159Tsvetan Golomeev50.82q
169Tom Stachewicz50.90q
1710Stéfan Voléry50.96q
188Roberto Gleria50.97
199Torsten Wiegel51.02
209Christophe Kalfayan51.05
2110Andy Jameson51.18
228Roland Lee51.20
237Dano Halsall51.21
244Manuel Guzmán51.25
257Peter Rohde51.38
2610Petr Kladiva51.39
2710Shen Jianqiang51.40
287Rodrigo González51.46
297Hans Kroes51.65
307Patrick Dybiona51.79
316Magnús Ólafsson52.01
325Shigeo Ogata52.08
336Jorge Fernandes52.23
346Jean-Marie Arnould52.26
356Yves Clausse52.27
367Ross Anderson52.33
376Emanuel Nascimento52.41
386Feng Qiangbiao52.45
395Carlos Scanavino52.52
406Ang Peng Siong52.53
415Markus Opatril52.66
428Mihály Richárd Bodor52.77
433Oon Jin Gee53.26
445Murat Tahir53.27
454Moustafa Amer53.57
465Vaughan Smith53.58
475Richard Sam Bera53.59
481Garvin Ferguson53.62
494Michael Wright53.64
504Li Khai Kam53.70
514René Concepcion53.84
525Hakan Eskioğlu53.95
534Jonathan Sakovich54.24
543Hans Foerster54.29
553Kwon Sang-won54.34
565Ignacio Escamilla54.56
573Song Kwang-sun54.63
583Ronald Pickard54.72
592Mouhamed Diop54.93
603Graham Thompson55.20
611Paul Yelle55.35
623Pedro Lima55.53
634Chiang Chi-li55.87
642Plutarco Castellanos56.11
653Hasan Al-Shammari56.44
662Warren Sorby56.66
671Sergio Fafitine57.10
682Pablo Barahona57.97
692Michele Piva57.99
701Jason Chute58.14
712Filippo Piva58.39
721Mohamed Bin Abid58.81
732Ahmad Faraj59.10
742Trevor Ncala59.25
751Emile Lahoud1:02.40
761Yul Mark Du Pont1:02.70
6Stefan Opatril
7Giorgio Lamberti

Finals

Final B

Final A