Swimming at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1908 Summer Olympics.

World Record	?	?
Olympic Record	1:16.8(*)	Walter Brack	St. Louis (USA)	September 6, 1904

(*) 100 yards (= 91.44 m)

In the first heat Arno Bieberstein set the first Olympic record with 1:25.6 minutes. In the first semi-final he equalized his time and in the final he bettered his own record with 1:24.6 minutes. The time set in the final was the first official world record for this distance.

With a much larger field than in 1904, the 1908 competition expanded to three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The 1908 Games also restored the wild-card system from 1900, allowing the fastest swimmers who did not win their heat to advance. The nine heats consisted of between 1 and 6 swimmers, with the winner of the heat advancing along with the fastest loser from across the heats (all tied swimmers advanced in the case of equal times). There were two semifinals, intended to be of 5 swimmers each but one of which actually had 6 due to a tie in the heats; the top 2 finishers in each semifinal (regardless of overall time) advanced to the 4-person final.[3]

Each race involved a single length of the 100 metre pool, with no turns. There was little regulation of the stroke, other than that the swimmer had to remain on his back and turns had to be made with both hands touching the wall.[4]

• Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
• De Wael, Herman (2001). "Swimming 1908". Herman's Full Olympians. Retrieved 13 May 2006.