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

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place between July 24 and 25.[1] This was the first time in history that the 100m freestyle was swum under 50 seconds. There were 41 competitors from 27 nations.[2] Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games (except in 1960, when the limit was two). The event was won by Jim Montgomery of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and tenth overall victory in the men's 100 metre freestyle (most of any nation). His countryman Jack Babashoff took silver. Peter Nocke's bronze was the first medal for West Germany in the event, though the United Team of Germany had won a bronze in 1964 (by West German Hans-Joachim Klein).

Men's 100 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Jim Montgomery
VenueOlympic Pool
Dates24–25 July
Competitors41 from 27 nations
Winning time49.99 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Jim Montgomery
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Jack Babashoff
 United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Peter Nocke
 West Germany
← 1972
1980 →

Background

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This was the 17th appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1900 (when the shortest freestyle was the 200 metres), though the 1904 version was measured in yards rather than metres.[2]

Three of the eight finalists from the 1972 Games returned: bronze medalist Vladimir Bure of the Soviet Union, seventh-place finisher Michel Rousseau of France, and eighth-place finisher Klaus Steinbach of West Germany. Reigning gold medalist Mark Spitz had retired after the 1972 Games at the age of 22. The new American favorite was Jim Montgomery, who had set the world record at the 1975 AAU championships. His main challenger would have been Jonty Skinner, but apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics. Montgomery had finished third at the 1975 world championships behind Andy Coan (not competing in Montreal) and Bure.[2]

Bulgaria, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and the Virgin Islands each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 17th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

Competition format

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The competition used a three-round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952, though with 2 semifinals. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 6 heats, with between 6 and 8 swimmers each. The top 16 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final.

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.

Records

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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

Jim Montgomery broke the world record in the first semifinal, posting a 50.39 second time. In the final, he was the first swimmer to break the 50-second barrier, winning in 49.99 seconds for the new world record.

Schedule

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All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round
Saturday, 24 July 1976 11:00
19:00
Heats
Semifinals
Sunday, 25 July 1976 20:15 Final

Results

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Heats

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Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 5 Joe Bottom   United States 51.47 Q
3 Klaus Steinbach   West Germany 51.47 Q
3 3 Jack Babashoff   United States 51.53 Q
4 2 Marcello Guarducci   Italy 51.57 Q
5 5 Peter Nocke   West Germany 51.59 Q
6 4 Vladimir Bure   Soviet Union 51.81 Q
7 4 Andrey Krylov   Soviet Union 52.02 Q
8 6 Jim Montgomery   United States 52.13 Q
9 6 Michel Rousseau   France 52.43 Q
10 2 Steve Pickell   Canada 52.65 Q
11 4 Gary MacDonald   Canada 52.91 Q
12 6 Roberto Pangaro   Italy 53.05 Q
13 2 Martin Smith   Great Britain 53.17 Q
14 2 René Écuyer   France 53.20 Q
4 Svante Rasmuson   Sweden 53.20 Q
16 1 Andrey Bogdanov   Soviet Union 53.23 QSO
6 Kevin Burns   Great Britain 53.23 QSO
18 4 Glenn Patching   Australia 53.29
19 5 Bruce Robertson   Canada 53.37
20 5 Peter Coughlan   Australia 53.49
21 2 Ramón Volcan   Venezuela 53.53
22 6 Fritz Warncke   Norway 53.55
23 5 Dan Larsson   Sweden 53.81
24 1 Stefan Georgiev   Bulgaria 53.85
25 3 Jorge Delgado, Jr.   Ecuador 53.91
26 1 Roger Pyttel   East Germany 53.93
27 3 Neil Rogers   Australia 53.96
28 1 Dirk Braunleder   West Germany 54.04
29 1 Jorge Comas   Spain 54.05
30 5 Gianni Versari   Panama 54.11
31 1 Mark Crocker   Hong Kong 54.14
32 3 Paul Jouanneau   Brazil 54.49
33 2 Helmut Levy   Colombia 54.60
34 1 Kozo Higuchi   Japan 54.67
35 6 Fernando Cañales   Puerto Rico 55.31
36 5 Steven Newkirk   Virgin Islands 55.43
37 6 José Pereira   Portugal 55.46
38 2 Kris Sumono   Indonesia 55.50
39 4 Gerardo Rosario   Philippines 56.00
40 6 Sigurður Ólafsson   Iceland 56.01
41 3 Campari Knoepffler   Nicaragua 58.48
Swim-off
Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 Andrey Bogdanov   Soviet Union 52.82 Q
2 Kevin Burns   Great Britain 53.11

Semifinals

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Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 1 Jim Montgomery   United States 50.39 Q, WR
2 1 Marcello Guarducci   Italy 51.35 Q
3 2 Jack Babashoff   United States 51.46 Q
4 1 Klaus Steinbach   West Germany 51.62 Q
5 2 Peter Nocke   West Germany 51.83 Q
6 2 Joe Bottom   United States 51.92 Q
7 1 Vladimir Bure   Soviet Union 51.93 Q
8 2 Andrey Krylov   Soviet Union 52.32 Q
9 2 Michel Rousseau   France 52.36
10 1 Roberto Pangaro   Italy 52.68
11 1 Stephen Pickell   Canada 52.89
12 1 René Ecuyer   France 52.92
13 2 Gary MacDonald   Canada 52.96
14 1 Andrei Bogdanov   Soviet Union 53.05
15 2 Martin Smith   Great Britain 53.11
16 2 Svante Rasmussen   Sweden 53.34

Final

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Rank Swimmer Nation 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

References

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  1. ^ "Swimming at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "100 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 17 December 2020.