Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre freestyle


The inaugural men's 50-metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 24 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.
U.S. swimmer Matt Biondi demolished a new world record to become the event's first ever Olympic champion. He threw down a scorching time in 22.14 to add a fourth gold and sixth medal to his Olympic hardware, and to slice 0.04 seconds off the record set by South Africa's Peter Williams. Starting the race with a fastest reaction, Biondi's rival and teammate Tom Jager faded down the stretch to pick up the silver in 22.36. Meanwhile, Soviet Union's Gennadiy Prigoda edged out Swiss swimmer Dano Halsall by 12-hundredths of a second to take home the bronze in 22.71.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following records were established during the competition:
DateRoundNameNationalityTimeRecord
24 SeptemberHeat 8Matt Biondi22.39
24 SeptemberFinal AMatt Biondi22.14

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to final A, where they competed for the top 8 places. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the heats swam in final B, for ninth through the sixteenth place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B.
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
18Matt Biondi22.39Q,
29Gennadiy Prigoda22.57Q
37Dano Halsall22.61Q, NR
39Tom Jager22.61Q
57Volodymyr Tkachenko22.81Q
67Frank Henter22.98Q
78Andrew Baildon22.99Q
88Stéfan Voléry23.04Q
99Ang Peng Siong23.08q, NR
108Per Johansson23.12q
119Stephan Güsgen23.22q
117Stéphan Caron23.22q,
139Shen Jianqiang23.41q
139Tsvetan Golomeev23.41q,
154Mark Andrews23.44q, NR
168Göran Titus23.44q
178Hilton Woods23.46q
186Feng Qiangbiao23.47
186Christophe Kalfayan23.47
207Vagn Høgholm23.50
209Hans Kroes23.50
227Mark Foster23.51
237Petr Kladiva23.53
245Manuel Guzmán23.61
256Mike Fibbens23.67
268Peter Rohde23.70
276Thomas Stachewicz23.72
286Yves Clausse23.99
298Rodrigo González24.01
306Paulo Trindade24.02
315Sérgio Esteves24.24
321Garvin Ferguson24.25NR
337José Moreira24.26
334Joseph Eric Buhain24.26NR
355Li Khai Kam24.30
366Markus Opatril24.32
375Jorge Fernandes24.40
386Alexander Pilhatsch24.42
395Michael Wright24.47
405Magnús Ólafsson24.50
414Richard Sam Bera24.63NR
425Mohamed El-Azoul24.64
424Murat Tahir24.64
444Hans Foerster24.72
456Urbano Zea24.86
453Oon Jin Gee24.86
473Ronald Pickard25.01
485Mohamed Hassan25.11
491Paul Yelle25.15
504Hakan Eskioğlu25.24
513Chiang Chi-li25.26
523Vaughan Smith25.29
533Graham Thompson25.38
543Song Kwang-sun25.40
553Wirmandi Sugriat25.55
563Bruno N'Diaye25.63
572Warren Sorby25.64
582Pablo Barahona25.79
591Sergio Fafitine25.97
602Plutarco Castellanos26.00
612Hasan Al-Shammari26.27
622Jason Chute26.46
632Michele Piva26.60
632Ahmad Faraj26.60
652Trevor Ncala26.88
661Filippo Piva26.96
671Amine El-Domyati27.34
681Mubarak Faraj Bilal27.60
691Yul Mark Du Pont27.93
4Pedro Lima
4Mouhamed Diop

Swimoff

Finals

Final B

Final A