Swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle


The men's 100 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics programme. It was the seventh appearance of the event, which had only not featured at the 1900 Games. The competition was held from Saturday August 6, 1932 to Sunday August 7, 1932.
Twenty-two swimmers from ten nations competed.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1932 Summer Olympics.
World Record57.4 Johnny WeissmullerMiami February 17, 1924
Olympic Record58.6 Johnny WeissmullerAmsterdam August 11, 1928

Saturday August 6, 1932: In the first semi-final Yasuji Miyazaki set a new Olympic record with 58.0 seconds.

Competition format

The competition used a three-round format. The advancement rule was a modification of the one used since 1912, allowing the top swimmers in each race plus one or more wild cards to advance. For this event, the top two in each preliminary heat plus the fastest third-place swimmer would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal would move on to the final. There were 4 heats of between 5 and 6 swimmers, allowing 9 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 4 or 5 swimmers each; 6 advanced to the final.
Each race involved two lengths of the 50-metre pool.

Results

Heats

The fastest two in each heat and the fastest third-placed from across the heats advanced to the final.

Heat 1

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
10:59.6
21:00.4
31:01.1
41:02.9
51:05.3
61:08.4

Heat 2

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
10:59.3
20:59.6
30:59.8
41:02.8
51:05.9

Heat 3

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
10:59.5
21:02.0
31:04.2
41:04.7
51:06.2
61:08.2

Heat 4

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
10:58.7
21:01.5
31:02.2
41:02.9
51:06.9

Semifinals

The fastest three in each semi-final advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
10:58.0,
20:59.3
30:59.3
40:59.4
51:01.4

Semifinal 2

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
10:59.0
20:59.2
30:59.5
40:59.6

Final

Sunday August 7, 1932:
RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
0:58.2
0:58.6
0:58.8
40:59.2
50:59.2
60:59.5