Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle


The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between 26 and 27 July at the Swimming Stadium.

Competition format

The competition used a three-round format. The advancement rule was new, introducing a major change from the format used from 1912 to 1948. A swimmer's place in the heat was no longer used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 9 heats of 6 or 7 swimmers each. The top 24 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 3 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.
This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated. 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.

Results

Heats

24 fastest swimmer from nine heats advanced to semifinal.
Heat 1
RankHeatSwimmerNationTimeNotes
16Göran Larsson57.5
24Dick Cleveland57.8
35Ronald Gora58.0
31Yoshihiro Hamaguchi58.0
34Hiroshi Suzuki58.0
63Rex Aubrey58.2
61Aldo Eminente58.2
88Toru Goto58.3
86Clarke Scholes58.3
109Géza Kádas58.4
114Carlo Pedersoli58.8
123Lev Balandin58.9
123Alex Jany58.9
127Jack Wardrop58.9
155György Ipacs59.1
158Joris Tjebbes59.1
172Ronald Roberts59.5
179Thomas Welsh59.5
193John Durr1:00.0
196Nicasio Silverio1:00.0
199Vladimir Skomarovsky1:00.0
228Endel Edasi1:00.1
233Cheung Kin Man1:00.3
247Lucien Beaumont1:00.4
252Olle Johansson1:00.5
251René Muñiz1:00.5
251Iosif Novac1:00.5
282Neo Chwee Kok1:00.6
282Frank O'Neill1:00.6
305Juan Lanz1:00.9
305Michel Vandamme1:00.9
329Peter Salmon1:01.0
335Pentti Ikonen1:01.1
344Haroldo Lara1:01.2
344Federico Zwanck1:01.2
368Dennis Ford1:01.3
377Alberto Isaac1:01.4
379Lars Svantesson1:01.4
397Marcello Trabucco1:01.5
406Roberto Queralt1:01.6
415Oscar Saiz1:01.7
426Aram Boghossian1:02.0
425Abdel Aziz El-Shafei1:02.0
421Leo Telivuo1:02.0
458Per Olsen1:02.1
468Alfonso Buonocore1:02.3
467Dorri El-Said1:02.3
486Mauno Valkeinen1:02.5
491Ricardo Conde1:02.6
494Fernando Madeira1:02.6
513Hernán Avilés1:02.8
522Francisco Monteiro1:03.1
537Guilherme Patroni1:03.7
542Robert Cook1:04.1
548Geoffrey Marks1:04.1
563Walter Bardgett1:04.4
579José Valdes1:04.5
586Nguyễn Văn Phan1:05.0
591Nahum Buch1:05.6
607Michel Currat1:07.2
614Isaac Mansoor1:10.8

Semifinals

8 fastest swimmers advanced to final.
RankHeatSwimmerNationTimeNotes
11Clarke Scholes57.1,
23Ronald Gora57.7
33Rex Aubrey57.8
32Géza Kádas57.8
31Göran Larsson57.8
62Hiroshi Suzuki58.0
71Aldo Eminente58.3
73Toru Goto58.3
71Yoshihiro Hamaguchi58.3
102Dick Cleveland58.6
112Lev Balandin58.8
123Alex Jany58.9
121Carlo Pedersoli58.9
143Lucien Beaumont59.3
153György Ipacs59.4
151Jack Wardrop59.4
173Ronald Roberts59.5
181Endel Edasi59.8
182Joris Tjebbes59.8
201Nicasio Silverio59.9
212John Durr1:00.2
222Thomas Welsh1:00.3
232Cheung Kin Man1:00.9
243Vladimir Skomarovsky1:01.1

Swim-off

Because there were 3 swimmers with the same swim time, a tie-breaking heat was held. Two fastest swimmer advanced to the final.
RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
1Toru Goto58.5
2Aldo Eminente58.8
3Yoshihiro Hamaguchi59.1

Final

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Clarke Scholes57.4
Hiroshi Suzuki57.4
Göran Larsson58.2
4Toru Goto58.5
5Géza Kádas58.6
6Rex Aubrey58.7
7Aldo Eminente58.7
8Ronald Gora58.8