Swimming at the 1928 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

This was the seventh 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]

Two of the five finalists from 1924 returned: gold medalist Johnny Weissmuller of the United States and fifth-place finisher Katsuo Takaishi of Japan. Weismuller, as in 1924, was a heavy favorite in the event. He held the world record and had not been beaten in seven years.[2]

Chile, Panama, and Poland each made their debut in the event. The United States made its seventh appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

This freestyle swimming competition used a three-round (quarterfinals, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was the one used since 1912; for each round before the final, the top two in each heat plus the fastest third-place swimmer would advance. There were 7 heats of between 3 and 5 swimmers, allowing 15 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 3 semifinals had 5 swimmers each; 7 advanced to the final.

Each race involved two lengths of the 50-metre pool.

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1928 Summer Olympics.

World record	Johnny Weissmuller (USA)	57.4	Miami, United States	17 February 1924
Olympic record	Johnny Weissmuller (USA)	59.0	Paris, France	20 July 1924

Johnny Weissmuller improved his own Olympic record in the semifinals with 58.6 seconds and equalized this time again in the final.

• Olympic Report
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 29 September 2008.