Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke


The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Aaron Peirsol established a new world record of 52.54 to defend his Olympic title in the event. His teammate Matt Grevers earned a silver in 53.11, giving the United States a one-two finish. Meanwhile, Australia's Hayden Stoeckel and Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin, who both finished behind Grevers by 0.07 of a second, tied for the bronze medal in a matching time of 53.18.
Stoeckel's teammate Ashley Delaney finished fifth in 53.31, while Great Britain's Liam Tancock, who led a field in the first 50 metres, faded only to sixth place in 53.39. Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer and Japan's Junichi Miyashita rounded out the finale. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went faster than a winning time of 54.09, previously set by Peirsol in Athens four years earlier.
Earlier, Grevers erased Peirsol's 2004 Olympic record of 53.45 to pick up a top seed in the prelims, until Stoeckel broke a 53-second barrier, and eventually lowered the record to 52.97 in the semifinals.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
August 10Heat 4Matt Grevers53.41
August 11Semifinal 1Arkady Vyatchanin53.06
August 11Semifinal 2Hayden Stoeckel52.97
August 12FinalAaron Peirsol52.54,

Results

Heats

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
14Arkady Vyatchanin53.06Q,, EU
25Aschwin Wildeboer53.51Q
33Liam Tancock53.61Q
42Junichi Miyashita53.69Q, AS
57Tomomi Morita53.95
68Gregor Tait54.37
76Ľuboš Križko54.38
81Mirco Di Tora54.92

Semifinal 2

RankLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
16Hayden Stoeckel52.97Q,
24Matt Grevers52.99Q
35Aaron Peirsol53.56Q
42Ashley Delaney53.76Q
51Markus Rogan53.80
63Gerhard Zandberg53.98
77Stanislav Donets54.57
88Guy Barnea54.93

Final