Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre butterfly
The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place between 20–21 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.
Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | Record |
| 21 September | Final A | Anthony Nesty | 53.00 |
Results
Heats
Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Andy Jameson | 53.34 | Q | |
| 2 | 7 | Matt Biondi | 53.46 | Q | |
| 3 | 6 | Anthony Nesty | 53.50 | Q, NR | |
| 4 | 7 | Michael Gross | 53.78 | Q | |
| 5 | 7 | Jon Sieben | 53.85 | Q | |
| 6 | 6 | Vadim Yaroshchuk | 54.17 | Q | |
| 7 | 5 | Tom Ponting | 54.31 | Q | |
| 8 | 6 | Jay Mortenson | 54.44 | Q | |
| 9 | 7 | Benny Nielsen | 54.52 | q | |
| 10 | 5 | Anthony Mosse | 54.63 | q | |
| 11 | 5 | Vlastimil Černý | 54.66 | q | |
| 12 | 5 | Zheng Jian | 54.69 | q | |
| 13 | 6 | Neil Cochran | 54.75 | q | |
| 14 | 7 | Hiroshi Miura | 54.82 | q | |
| 15 | 5 | Rafał Szukała | 54.83 | q | |
| 16 | 5 | Shen Jianqiang | 54.86 | q | |
| 17 | 7 | Martin Herrmann | 55.20 | ||
| 18 | 6 | José Luis Ballester | 55.27 | ||
| 19 | 7 | Frank Drost | 55.38 | ||
| 20 | 4 | David Wilson | 55.54 | ||
| 21 | 7 | Robert Wolf | 55.73 | ||
| 22 | 6 | Leonardo Michelotti | 55.83 | ||
| 23 | 6 | Konstantin Petrov | 55.84 | ||
| 24 | 4 | Yukinori Tanaka | 56.19 | ||
| 25 | 4 | Ross Anderson | 56.31 | ||
| 26 | 4 | Eduardo de Poli | 56.37 | ||
| 27 | 6 | Ludovic Depickère | 56.47 | ||
| 28 | 5 | Valerio Giambalvo | 56.57 | ||
| 29 | 2 | Reinhold Leitner | 56.72 | ||
| 30 | 4 | Théophile David | 56.77 | ||
| 31 | 3 | Joseph Eric Buhain | 57.17 | ||
| 32 | 3 | Wladimir Ribeiro | 57.25 | ||
| 33 | 2 | Mabílio Albuquerque | 57.30 | ||
| 34 | 1 | Paul Yelle | 57.36 | ||
| 35 | 4 | Ang Peng Siong | 57.41 | ||
| 36 | 3 | Theodoros Griniazakis | 57.56 | ||
| 37 | 3 | Paulo Camacho | 57.62 | ||
| 38 | 3 | Park Yeong-cheol | 57.74 | ||
| 39 | 3 | Tsang Yi Ming | 57.84 | ||
| 40 | 2 | Urbano Zea | 57.89 | ||
| 41 | 4 | Carlos Romo | 58.04 | ||
| 42 | 2 | Pedro Lima | 59.21 | ||
| 43 | 2 | Graham Thompson | 1:00.13 | ||
| 44 | 2 | Kristan Singleton | 1:00.97 | ||
| 45 | 2 | William Cleveland | 1:01.10 | ||
| 46 | 1 | Sergio Fafitine | 1:01.15 | ||
| 47 | 1 | Plutarco Castellanos | 1:02.69 | ||
| 48 | 1 | Salam Mohamed Abdul Salam | 1:03.69 | ||
| 49 | 1 | Mohamed Bin Abid | 1:06.25 | ||
| 50 | 1 | Trevor Ncala | 1:06.85 | ||
| 51 | 1 | Jorge Gomes | 1:09.60 | ||
| 1 | Salvador Vassallo | ||||
| 2 | Oon Jin Gee | ||||
| 3 | Matjaž Kozelj | ||||
| 4 | Michael Adam |