# Swimming at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke

The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2004 Olympic Games was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 15 and 16.
U.S. swimmer Aaron Peirsol won a gold medal in this event, outside an Olympic record time of 54.06 seconds. Markus Rogan captured Austria's first ever medal in swimming after a hundred years, earning the silver at 54.35. Japan's Tomomi Morita, on the other hand, edged out defending Olympic champion and world record holder Lenny Krayzelburg to take a bronze by two hundredths of a second (0.02), breaking an Asian record time of 54.36 seconds.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
| World record | Lenny Krayzelburg (USA) | 53.60 | Sydney, Australia | 22 August 1999 |
| Olympic record | Lenny Krayzelburg (USA) | 53.72 | Sydney, Australia | 17 September 2000 |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 6 | 3 | Tomomi Morita | Japan | 54.41 | Q |
| 2 | 6 | 4 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 54.65 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | 6 | László Cseh | Hungary | 54.80 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 3 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 54.87 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 5 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 54.87 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 5 | Steffen Driesen | Germany | 54.92 | Q |
| 7 | 4 | 4 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 55.17 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | 6 | Alex Lim | Malaysia | 55.22 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 4 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 55.35 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | Ouyang Kunpeng | China | 55.50 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 3 | Marco di Carli | Germany | 55.58 | Q |
| 12 | 5 | 1 | Gerhard Zandberg | South Africa | 55.62 | Q |
| 13 | 6 | 7 | Simon Dufour | France | 55.76 | Q |
| 14 | 5 | 6 | Gregor Tait | Great Britain | 55.77 | Q |
| 14 | 6 | 1 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 55.77 | Q |
| 16 | 3 | 5 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 55.80 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | 2 | Aristeidis Grigoriadis | Greece | 55.85 | |
| 17 | 5 | 2 | Josh Watson | Australia | 55.85 | |
| 19 | 4 | 2 | Yevgeny Aleshin | Russia | 55.91 | |
| 20 | 3 | 6 | Ryan Pini | Papua New Guinea | 55.97 | |
| 21 | 5 | 8 | Pierre Roger | France | 56.07 | |
| 22 | 4 | 7 | Cameron Gibson | New Zealand | 56.14 | |
| 23 | 4 | 1 | Adam Mania | Poland | 56.20 | |
| 24 | 3 | 3 | Darius Grigalionis | Lithuania | 56.21 | |
| 25 | 2 | 5 | Nicholas Neckles | Barbados | 56.32 | |
| 26 | 3 | 7 | Derya Büyükuncu | Turkey | 56.34 | |
| 27 | 2 | 6 | Ľuboš Križko | Slovakia | 56.62 | |
| 27 | 4 | 8 | Volodymyr Nikolaychuk | Ukraine | 56.62 | |
| 27 | 5 | 7 | Matthew Rose | Canada | 56.62 | |
| 30 | 2 | 4 | Sung Min | South Korea | 56.78 | |
| 31 | 3 | 4 | Ahmed Hussein | Egypt | 56.86 | |
| 32 | 3 | 1 | Paulo Machado | Brazil | 57.07 | |
| 33 | 3 | 8 | Eduardo German Otero | Argentina | 57.28 | |
| 34 | 6 | 8 | Péter Horváth | Hungary | 57.29 | |
| 35 | 6 | 2 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | 57.35 | |
| 36 | 2 | 2 | Matti Mäki | Finland | 57.57 | |
| 37 | 2 | 3 | George Gleason | Virgin Islands | 57.64 | |
| 38 | 1 | 3 | Chris Vythoulkas | Bahamas | 58.31 | NR |
| 39 | 2 | 1 | Brendan Ashby | Zimbabwe | 58.91 | |
| 40 | 2 | 7 | Igor Beretić | Serbia and Montenegro | 59.38 | |
| 41 | 1 | 4 | Stanislav Osinsky | Kazakhstan | 59.92 | |
| 42 | 1 | 5 | Alexandru Ivlev | Moldova | 1:00.13 | |
| 43 | 2 | 8 | Danil Bugakov | Uzbekistan | 1:02.28 | |
| 44 | 1 | 6 | Omar Abu Fares | Jordan | 1:02.36 | |
| | 1 | 2 | Donnie Defreitas | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 54.34 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 54.42 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Steffen Driesen | Germany | 54.64 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Ouyang Kunpeng | China | 55.28 | |
| 5 | 1 | Gregor Tait | Great Britain | 55.31 | |
| 6 | 7 | Gerhard Zandberg | South Africa | 55.76 | |
| 7 | 8 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 56.02 | |
| 8 | 6 | Alex Lim | Malaysia | 56.08 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Tomomi Morita | Japan | 54.62 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 54.63 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 54.69 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | László Cseh | Hungary | 54.86 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Marco di Carli | Germany | 55.03 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 55.20 | |
| 7 | 8 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 55.27 | |
| 8 | 1 | Simon Dufour | France | 56.15 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 54.06 | |
| | 5 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 54.35 | |
| | 3 | Tomomi Morita | Japan | 54.36 | AS |
| 4 | 6 | Lenny Krayzelburg | United States | 54.38 | |
| 5 | 7 | Matt Welsh | Australia | 54.52 | |
| 6 | 1 | László Cseh | Hungary | 54.61 | |
| 7 | 2 | Steffen Driesen | Germany | 54.63 | |
| 8 | 8 | Marco di Carli | Germany | 55.27 | |