Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke
The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between 30 July and 1 August, at the Swimming Stadium. This swimming event used the backstroke. 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 | Note |
| 1 | Gilbert Bozon | | 1:07.8 | |
| 2 | Allen Stack | | 1:08.9 | |
| 3 | Bert Wardrop | | 1:09.9 | |
| 4 | Jitse van der Veen | | 1:10.5 | |
| 5 | Norihiko Kurahashi | | 1:10.7 | |
| 6 | Vladimir Lopatin | | 1:10.8 | |
| 7 | Lucien Beaumont | | 1:14.2 | |
| 8 | Khamlillal Shah | | 1:18.3 | |
Heat 2
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Pedro Galvão | | 1:08.1 | |
| 2 | Yasumasa Nishino | | 1:10.1 | |
| 3 | Clemente Mejía | | 1:10.7 | |
| 4 | Helmut Koppelstätter | | 1:11.9 | |
| 5 | Hermann Gericke | | 1:12.6 | |
| 6 | Jerzy Boniecki | | 1:13.4 | |
| 7 | Eurico Surgey | | 1:13.7 | |
Heat 3
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Jack Taylor | | 1:07.2 | |
| 2 | Boris Škanata | | 1:07.5 | |
| 3 | João Gonçalves Filho | | 1:09.7 | |
| 4 | Ladislav Bačík | | 1:10.2 | |
| 5 | Imre Nyéki | | 1:10.6 | |
| 6 | Peter Salmon | | 1:13.8 | |
| 7 | Tom Pettersen | | 1:15.4 | |
Heat 4
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Yoshi Oyakawa | | 1:06.0 | |
| 2 | Lin Meiring | | 1:08.5 | |
| 3 | Fernando Pavan | | 1:09.1 | |
| 4 | Jitse van der Veen | | 1:09.1 | |
| 5 | Bijoy Barman | | 1:27.3 | |
Heat 5
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | John Brockway | | 1:08.8 | |
| 2 | Lucien Zins | | 1:09.7 | |
| 3 | Ilo da Fonseca | | 1:09.9 | |
| 4 | Leonid Sagayduk | | 1:11.4 | |
| 5 | Wu Chuanyu | | 1:12.3 | |
| 6 | Eduardo Barbeiro | | 1:13.0 | |
Heat 6
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Egidio Massaria | | 1:08.8 | |
| 2 | Viktor Solovyov | | 1:09.5 | |
| 3 | Lincoln Hurring | | 1:09.6 | |
| 4 | László Gyöngyösi | | 1:10.0 | |
| 5 | Frank O'Neill | | 1:10.5 | |
| 6 | Erkki Marttinen | | 1:15.2 | |
Tie-breaker
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Note |
| 1 | Bert Wardrop | | 1:07.8 | |
| 2 | Ilo da Fonseca | | 1:09.5 | |
Final
| Rank | Athlete | Country | Time | Notes |
| Yoshi Oyakawa | | 1:05.4 | OR |
| Gilbert Bozon | | 1:06.2 | |
| Jack Taylor | | 1:06.4 | |
| 4 | Allen Stack | | 1:07.6 | |
| 5 | Pedro Galvão | | 1:07.7 | |
| 6 | Bert Wardrop | | 1:07.8 | |
| 7 | Boris Škanata | | 1:08.1 | |
| 8 | Lin Meiring | | 1:08.3 | |
Key: OR = Olympic record
