# Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke

The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held on 20 and 21 July at the Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | John Naber (USA) | 55.49 | Montreal, Canada | 19 July 1976 |
| Olympic record | John Naber (USA) | 55.49 | Montreal, Canada | 19 July 1976 |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Michael Söderlund | Sweden | 57.75 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | Vladimir Dolgov | Soviet Union | 57.87 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Rômulo Arantes | Brazil | 57.90 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Zoltán Verrasztó | Hungary | 57.92 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | Dietmar Göhring | East Germany | 58.02 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | Sándor Wladár | Hungary | 58.07 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | Mark Kerry | Australia | 58.08 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | Miloslav Roľko | Czechoslovakia | 58.15 | Q |
| 9 | 4 | Glenn Patching | Australia | 58.30 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | Paul Marshall | Great Britain | 58.35 | Q |
| 11 | 5 | Bengt Baron | Sweden | 58.46 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | Viktor Kuznetsov | Soviet Union | 58.47 | Q |
| 13 | 3 | Fred Eefting | Netherlands | 58.59 | Q |
| 14 | 2 | Mark Tonelli | Australia | 58.66 | Q |
| 15 | 3 | Douglas Campbell | Great Britain | 58.75 | Q |
| 16 | 2 | Gary Abraham | Great Britain | 58.79 | Q |
| 17 | 2 | Jörg Stingl | East Germany | 58.98 | |
| 18 | 4 | Vladimir Shemetov | Soviet Union | 59.01 | |
| 19 | 2 | Frédéric Delcourt | France | 59.16 | |
| 20 | 2 | Herwig Bayer | Austria | 1:00.04 | |
| 21 | 1 | Branimir Popov | Bulgaria | 1:00.06 | |
| 22 | 5 | Mihai Mandache | Romania | 1:00.26 | |
| 23 | 4 | Franky De Groote | Belgium | 1:00.35 | |
| 24 | 1 | Nenad Miloš | Yugoslavia | 1:00.41 | |
| 25 | 3 | Rui Abreu | Portugal | 1:00.62 | |
| 26 | 1 | Róbert Rudolf | Hungary | 1:00.85 | |
| 27 | 5 | Moisés Gosálvez | Spain | 1:00.90 | |
| 28 | 2 | Ricardo Prado | Brazil | 1:01.03 | |
| 29 | 1 | Daniel Ayora | Peru | 1:03.93 | |
| 30 | 5 | Lâm Văn Hoành | Vietnam | 1:07.29 | |
| 31 | 2 | Lakis Fylaktou | Cyprus | 1:08.92 | |
| 32 | 4 | Jorge Lima | Angola | 1:14.33 | |
| 33 | 3 | Pedro Cruz | Mozambique | 1:15.25 | |
| | 3 | David Cummins | Ireland | DNS | |
| | 4 | Alberto Mestre | Venezuela | DNS | |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Viktor Kuznetsov | Soviet Union | 56.75 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Bengt Baron | Sweden | 57.51 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Mark Tonelli | Australia | 57.89 | Q |
| 4 | 1 | Gary Abraham | Great Britain | 57.90 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Fred Eefting | Netherlands | 57.91 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | Miloslav Roľko | Czechoslovakia | 57.97 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | Vladimir Dolgov | Soviet Union | 58.04 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | Sándor Wladár | Hungary | 58.05 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | Mark Kerry | Australia | 58.07 | |
| 10 | 2 | Michael Söderlund | Sweden | 58.20 | |
| 11 | 2 | Rômulo Arantes | Brazil | 58.21 | |
| 12 | 1 | Zoltán Verrasztó | Hungary | 58.57 | |
| 13 | 2 | Douglas Campbell | Great Britain | 58.61 | |
| 14 | 1 | Paul Marshall | Great Britain | 58.82 | |
| 15 | 2 | Dietmar Göhring | East Germany | 58.85 | |
| 16 | 2 | Glenn Patching | Australia | 1:00.31 | |

### Final

| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | Bengt Baron | Sweden | 56.53 |
| | Viktor Kuznetsov | Soviet Union | 56.99 |
| | Vladimir Dolgov | Soviet Union | 57.63 |
| 4 | Miloslav Roľko | Czechoslovakia | 57.74 |
| 5 | Sándor Wladár | Hungary | 57.84 |
| 6 | Fred Eefting | Netherlands | 57.95 |
| 7 | Mark Tonelli | Australia | 57.98 |
| 8 | Gary Abraham | Great Britain | 58.38 |