Swimming at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1964 Olympic Games took place between October 11 and 12.[1] There were 66 competitors from 33 nations.[2] Nations were again able to bring up to three swimmers each after a one-Games limit of two in 1960. The event was won by Don Schollander of the United States, the nation's first victory in the event since 1952 and eighth overall (most of any nation). Great Britain (Bobby McGregor's silver) and the United Team of Germany (Hans-Joachim Klein's bronze) both earned their first medal in the men's 100 metre freestyle.

Men's 100 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XVIII Olympiad
Gold medalist Don Schollander and finalists Gary Ilman and Mike Austin with relay teammate Steve Clark
VenueYoyogi National Gymnasium
Dates11–12 October
Competitors66 from 33 nations
Winning time53.4 OR
Medalists
Don Schollander
 United States
Bobby McGregor
 Great Britain
Hans-Joachim Klein
 United Team of Germany

Background

This was the 14th 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 eight finalists from the 1960 Games returned: fifth-place finisher Gyula Dobay of Hungary and eighth-place finisher Per-Ola Lindberg of Sweden. John Devitt of Australia, the winner of a controversial finish in 1960, had retired, as had silver medalist Lance Larson of the United States. The American team in Tokyo was led by Don Schollander, who was expected to vie with Scotsman Bobby McGregor.[2]

Iran, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and Thailand each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 14th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

Competition format

The competition used a three-round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952. 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 9 heats of 7 or 8 swimmers each. The top 24 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 3 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

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

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1964 Summer Olympics.

World record Alain Gottvallès (FRA)52.9Budapest, Hungary13 September 1964
Olympic record John Devitt (AUS)
 Lance Larson (USA)
55.2Rome, Italy27 August 1960

Gary Ilman dropped more than a second off the Olympic record in the very first heat, recording a time of 54.0 seconds. Seven swimmers beat the old record in the heats, with two more tying it. Ilman shaved off another tenth in the first semifinal, finishing in 53.9 seconds. Ten swimmers beat the old recod in that round, with another matching it. The new record fell again in the final, with Don Schollander swimming 53.4 seconds and Bobby McGregor 53.5 seconds.

Schedule

Date Time Round
Sunday, 11 October 196411:50
19:45
Heats
Semifinals
Monday, 12 October 196420:40Final

Results

Heats

Nine heats were held; the fastest 24 swimmers advanced to the semifinals.

RankHeatSwimmerNationTimeNotes
11Gary Ilman United States54.0Q, OR
25Don Schollander United States54.3Q
35Yukiaki Okabe Japan54.4Q
49Bobby McGregor Great Britain54.7Q
52Mike Austin United States54.9Q
62David Dickson Australia55.1Q
3Per-Ola Lindberg Sweden55.1Q
86Alain Gottvallès France55.2Q
6Daniel Sherry Canada55.2Q
104Hans-Joachim Klein United Team of Germany55.3Q
118Ron Kroon Netherlands55.5Q
6John Ryan Australia55.5Q
8Jindřich Vágner Czechoslovakia55.5Q
145Uwe Jacobsen United Team of Germany55.6Q
6Horst Löffler United Team of Germany55.6Q
9Bengt Nordwall Sweden55.6Q
178Bob Lord Great Britain55.7Q
183Pietro Boscaini Italy55.8Q
7Gyula Dobay Hungary55.8Q
7Tatsuo Fujimoto Japan55.8Q
7Sandy Gilchrist Canada55.8Q
3Tadaharu Goto Japan55.8Q
1Gérard Gropaiz France55.8Q
246Vladimir Shuvalov Soviet Union55.9Q
251Athos de Oliveira Brazil56.0
263Luis Nicolao Argentina56.1
4Peter Phelps Australia56.1
282Jean-Pascal Curtillet France56.2
4Lester Eriksson Sweden56.2
9Viktor Semchenkov Soviet Union56.2
318József Gulrich Hungary56.3
2Matti Kasvio Finland56.3
4Yury Sumtsov Soviet Union56.3
345Petr Lohnický Czechoslovakia56.4
357Gert Kölli Austria56.5
361Bruno Bianchi Italy56.8
9Sergio De Gregorio Italy56.8
2Álvaro Pires Brazil56.8
4François Simons Belgium56.8
9Antal Száll Hungary56.8
1Vinus van Baalen Netherlands56.8
5Gerhard Wieland Austria56.8
432Téodoro Capriles Venezuela57.2
443José Miguel Espinosa Spain57.4
454Carlos van der Maath Argentina57.5
468Tuomo Hämäläinen Finland57.6
477David Haller Great Britain57.7
1Ralph Hutton Canada57.7
495Antonio Pérez Spain57.8
507Bert Sitters Netherlands58.1
517Luis Paz Peru58.5
526Georges Welbes Luxembourg58.6
532Tan Thuan Heng Malaysia58.7
6Hannu Vaahtoranta Finland58.7
558Salvador Ruiz Mexico58.8
568Pano Capéronis Switzerland58.9
576Gudmunður Gíslason Iceland59.0
3Herlander Ribeiro Portugal59.0
595Mauri Fonseca Brazil59.6
603Somchai Limpichat Thailand59.8
617Robert Loh Hong Kong1:00.4
624Nguyễn Ðình Lê Vietnam1:01.1
9Phan Hữu Dong Vietnam1:01.1
641Kim Bong-jo South Korea1:01.2
659Celestino Pérez Puerto Rico1:01.3
669Haydar Shonjani Iran1:02.1

Semifinals

Three heats were held; the fastest eight swimmers advanced to the final.

RankHeatSwimmerNationTimeNotes
11Gary Ilman United States53.9Q, OR
22Don Schollander United States54.0Q
31Mike Austin United States54.3Q
2Alain Gottvallès France54.3Q
3Bobby McGregor Great Britain54.3Q
63Hans-Joachim Klein United Team of Germany54.4Q
73Gyula Dobay Hungary54.8Q
2Uwe Jacobsen United Team of Germany54.8Q
93David Dickson Australia54.9
102Per-Ola Lindberg Sweden55.1
111Yukiaki Okabe Japan55.2
121Daniel Sherry Canada55.5
2Jindřich Vágner Czechoslovakia55.5
141Tadaharu Goto Japan55.6
152Gérard Gropaiz France55.7
1Ron Kroon Netherlands55.7
173Tatsuo Fujimoto Japan55.8
3Vladimir Shuvalov Soviet Union55.8
191Horst Löffler United Team of Germany56.0
201Pietro Boscaini Italy56.1
212Sandy Gilchrist Canada56.4
3Bengt Nordwall Sweden56.4
232Bob Lord Great Britain56.5
3John Ryan Australia56.5

Final

The officials used unofficial electronic scoring to determine which swimmer won the bronze medal - Klein had finished one one-thousandth of a second sooner than Ilman.[3]

RankSwimmerNationTimeNotes
Don Schollander United States53.4OR
Bobby McGregor Great Britain53.5
Hans-Joachim Klein United Team of Germany54.0
4Gary Ilman United States54.0
5Alain Gottvallès France54.2
6Mike Austin United States54.5
7Gyula Dobay Hungary54.9
8Uwe Jacobsen United Team of Germany56.1

References

  1. "Swimming at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  2. "100 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  3. Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book of the Olympics. England: Penguin Books. p. 395. ISBN 0140066322.
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