Swimming at the 1932 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

This was the eighth 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 seven finalists from 1928 returned: silver medalist István Bárány of Hungary and sixth-place finisher Walter Spence of Canada. Two-time gold medalist Johnny Weissmuller of the United States had retired to focus on his acting career; Tarzan the Ape Man was released earlier in 1932. The American swimming team remained strong. Japan, however, also had an impressive team, led by 15-year-old Yasuji Miyazaki.[2]

The Philippines made its debut in the event. The United States made its eighth 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 a modification of the one used since 1912, allowing the top swimmers in each race plus one or more wild cards to advance. For this event, the top two in each preliminary heat plus the fastest third-place swimmer would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal would move on to the final. There were 4 heats of between 5 and 6 swimmers, allowing 9 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 4 or 5 swimmers each; 6 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 1932 Summer Olympics.

World record	Johnny Weissmuller (USA)	57.4	Miami, United States	17 February 1924
Olympic record	Johnny Weissmuller (USA)	58.6	Amsterdam, Netherlands	11 August 1928

Saturday August 6, 1932: In the first semifinal Yasuji Miyazaki set a new Olympic record with 58.0 seconds.

• Olympic Report
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 9 November 2008.