Swimming at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Medalists
Jim Montgomery   United States   Jack Babashoff   United States   Peter Nocke   West Germany

Swimming events at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m				women
4×200 m		men
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Olympic Games took place between July 24 and 25.^[1] This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). 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.

This was the first time in history that the 100m freestyle was swum under 50 seconds.

Medalists

Gold	Jim Montgomery  United States
Silver	Jack Babashoff  United States
Bronze	Peter Nocke  West Germany

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Jim Montgomery (USA)	50.59	Kansas City, United States	23 August 1975
Olympic record	Mark Spitz (USA)	51.22	Munich, West Germany	3 September 1972

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Andrey Bogdanov	Soviet Union	53.23	q
2	Stefan Georgiev	Bulgaria	53.85
3	Roger Pyttel	East Germany	53.93
4	Dirk Braunleder	West Germany	54.04
5	Jorge Comas	Spain	54.05
6	Mark Crocker	Hong Kong	54.14
7	Kozo Higuchi	Japan	54.67

Key: Q = Qualified, q = Qualified for Swim-Off, WR = World record

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Marello Guarducci	Italy	51.57	Q
2	Steve Pickell	Canada	52.65	Q
3	Martin Smith	Great Britain	53.17	Q
4	René Écuyer	France	53.20	Q
5	Ramón Volcan	Venezuela	53.53
6	Helmut Levy	Colombia	54.60
7	Kris Sumono	Indonesia	55.50

Key: Q = Qualified, q = Qualified for Swim-Off, WR = World record

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	51.47	Q
2	Jack Babashoff	United States	51.53	Q
3	Jorge Delgado, Jr.	Ecuador	53.91
4	Neil Rogers	Australia	53.96
5	Paul Jovanneau	Brazil	54.49
6	Campari Knoepffler	Nicaragua	58.48

Key: Q = Qualified, q = Qualified for Swim-Off, WR = World record

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	51.81	Q
2	Andrey Krylov	Soviet Union	52.02	Q
3	Gary MacDonald	Canada	52.91	Q
4	Svante Rasmuson	Sweden	53.20	Q
5	Glenn Patching	Australia	53.29
6	Gerardo Rosario	Philippines	56.00

Key: Q = Qualified, q = Qualified for Swim-Off, WR = World record

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Joe Bottom	United States	51.47	Q
2	Peter Nocke	West Germany	51.59	Q
3	Bruce Robertson	Canada	53.37
4	Peter Coughlan	Australia	53.49
5	Dan Larsson	Sweden	53.81
6	Gianni Versari	Panama	54.11
7	Steven Newkirk	Virgin Islands	55.43

Key: Q = Qualified, q = Qualified for Swim-Off, WR = World record

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Jim Montgomery	United States	52.13	Q
2	Michael Rousseau	France	52.43	Q
3	Roberto Pangaro	Italy	53.05	Q
4	Kevin Burns	Great Britain	53.23	q
5	Fritz Warncke	Norway	53.55
6	Fernando Cañales	Puerto Rico	55.31
7	José Pereira	Portugal	55.46
8	Sigurður Ólafsson	Iceland	56.01

Key: Q = Qualified, q = Qualified for Swim-Off, WR = World record

Swim-Off for 16th Place

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Andrey Bogdanov	Soviet Union	52.82	Q
2	Kevin Burns	Great Britain	53.11

Key: Q = Qualified, q = Qualified for Swim-Off, WR = World record

Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Jim Montgomery	United States	50.39	Q, WR
2	Marcello Guarducci	Italy	51.35	Q
3	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	51.62	Q
4	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	51.93	Q
5	Roberto Pangaro	Italy	52.68
6	Stephen Pickell	Canada	52.89
7	René Ecuyer	France	52.92
8	Andrei Bogdanov	Soviet Union	53.05

Key: Q = Qualified, WR = Olympic record

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	Jack Babashoff	United States	51.46	Q
2	Peter Nocke	West Germany	51.83	Q
3	Joe Bottom	United States	51.92	Q
4	Andrey Krylov	Soviet Union	52.32	Q
5	Michel Rousseau	France	52.36
6	Gary MacDonald	Canada	52.96
7	Martin Smith	Great Britain	53.11
8	Svante Rasmussen	Sweden	53.34

Key: Q = Qualified

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Jim Montgomery	United States	49.99	WR
	Jack Babashoff	United States	50.81
	Peter Nocke	West Germany	51.31
4	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	51.68
5	Marcello Guarducci	Italy	51.70
6	Joe Bottom	United States	51.79
7	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	52.03
8	Andrey Krylov	Soviet Union	52.15

Key: WR = World record

References