Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place between July 24 and 25.[1] This was the first time in history that the 100m freestyle was swum under 50 seconds. There were 41 competitors from 27 nations.[2] Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games (except in 1960, when the limit was two). The event was won by Jim Montgomery of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and tenth overall victory in the men's 100 metre freestyle (most of any nation). His countryman Jack Babashoff took silver. Peter Nocke's bronze was the first medal for West Germany in the event, though the United Team of Germany had won a bronze in 1964 (by West German Hans-Joachim Klein).

Men's 100 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Jim Montgomery
VenueOlympic Pool
Dates24–25 July
Competitors41 from 27 nations
Winning time49.99 WR
Medalists
Jim Montgomery
 United States
Jack Babashoff
 United States
Peter Nocke
 West Germany

Background

This was the 17th 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.[2]

Three of the eight finalists from the 1972 Games returned: bronze medalist Vladimir Bure of the Soviet Union, seventh-place finisher Michel Rousseau of France, and eighth-place finisher Klaus Steinbach of West Germany. Reigning gold medalist Mark Spitz had retired after the 1972 Games at the age of 22. The new American favorite was Jim Montgomery, who had set the world record at the 1975 AAU championships. His main challenger would have been Jonty Skinner, but apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics. Montgomery had finished third at the 1975 world championships behind Andy Coan (not competing in Montreal) and Bure.[2]

Bulgaria, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and the Virgin Islands each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 17th 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 2 semifinals. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties. 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 6 heats, with between 6 and 8 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.

This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl 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

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record Jim Montgomery (USA)50.59Kansas City, United States23 August 1975
Olympic record Mark Spitz (USA)51.22Munich, West Germany3 September 1972

Jim Montgomery broke the world record in the first semifinal, posting a 50.39 second time. In the final, he was the first swimmer to break the 50-second barrier, winning in 49.99 seconds for the new world record.

Schedule

Date Time Round
Saturday, 24 July 197611:00
19:00
Heats
Semifinals
Sunday, 25 July 197620:15Final

Results

Heats

RankHeatSwimmerNationTimeNotes
15Joe Bottom United States51.47Q
3Klaus Steinbach West Germany51.47Q
33Jack Babashoff United States51.53Q
42Marcello Guarducci Italy51.57Q
55Peter Nocke West Germany51.59Q
64Vladimir Bure Soviet Union51.81Q
74Andrey Krylov Soviet Union52.02Q
86Jim Montgomery United States52.13Q
96Michel Rousseau France52.43Q
102Steve Pickell Canada52.65Q
114Gary MacDonald Canada52.91Q
126Roberto Pangaro Italy53.05Q
132Martin Smith Great Britain53.17Q
142René Écuyer France53.20Q
4Svante Rasmuson Sweden53.20Q
161Andrey Bogdanov Soviet Union53.23QSO
6Kevin Burns Great Britain53.23QSO
184Glenn Patching Australia53.29
195Bruce Robertson Canada53.37
205Peter Coughlan Australia53.49
212Ramón Volcan Venezuela53.53
226Fritz Warncke Norway53.55
235Dan Larsson Sweden53.81
241Stefan Georgiev Bulgaria53.85
253Jorge Delgado, Jr. Ecuador53.91
261Roger Pyttel East Germany53.93
273Neil Rogers Australia53.96
281Dirk Braunleder West Germany54.04
291Jorge Comas Spain54.05
305Gianni Versari Panama54.11
311Mark Crocker Hong Kong54.14
323Paul Jouanneau Brazil54.49
332Helmut Levy Colombia54.60
341Kozo Higuchi Japan54.67
356Fernando Cañales Puerto Rico55.31
365Steven Newkirk Virgin Islands55.43
376José Pereira Portugal55.46
382Kris Sumono Indonesia55.50
394Gerardo Rosario Philippines56.00
406Sigurður Ólafsson Iceland56.01
413Campari Knoepffler Nicaragua58.48
Swim-off
RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
1Andrey Bogdanov Soviet Union52.82Q
2Kevin Burns Great Britain53.11

Semifinals

RankHeatSwimmerNationTimeNotes
11Jim Montgomery United States50.39Q, WR
21Marcello Guarducci Italy51.35Q
32Jack Babashoff United States51.46Q
41Klaus Steinbach West Germany51.62Q
52Peter Nocke West Germany51.83Q
62Joe Bottom United States51.92Q
71Vladimir Bure Soviet Union51.93Q
82Andrey Krylov Soviet Union52.32Q
92Michel Rousseau France52.36
101Roberto Pangaro Italy52.68
111Stephen Pickell Canada52.89
121René Ecuyer France52.92
132Gary MacDonald Canada52.96
141Andrei Bogdanov Soviet Union53.05
152Martin Smith Great Britain53.11
162Svante Rasmussen Sweden53.34

Final

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Jim Montgomery United States49.99WR
Jack Babashoff United States50.81
Peter Nocke West Germany51.31
4Klaus Steinbach West Germany51.68
5Marcello Guarducci Italy51.70
6Joe Bottom United States51.79
7Vladimir Bure Soviet Union52.03
8Andrey Krylov Soviet Union52.15

References

  1. "Swimming at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  2. "100 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
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