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

The men's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 14 and 15.
After finishing fourth in Sydney (2000), Japan's Kosuke Kitajima edged out U.S. swimmer and world-record holder Brendan Hansen to claim the gold medal by 0.17 of a second, in a time of 1:00.08. Katajima used an illegal dolphin kick during a pull-out, however he was not disqualified, and the rules were changed less than a year later to allow for a single dolphin kick after the start and after each wall. Hansen, who turned 23 on the final day, earned a silver in 1:00.25, while France's Hugues Duboscq held off onrushing American Mark Gangloff to take the bronze in 1:00.88.
Earlier in the semifinals Hansen lowered an Olympic record to 1:00.01 that had been set by his archrival Kitajima in the preliminaries by just 0.02 of a second.
Russia's Roman Sloudnov, the third-fastest man in Olympic history and the first to swim under one minute, missed the top 8 final by 0.18 seconds (1:01.54).

## Records

Prior to this competition the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Brendan Hansen (USA) | 59.30 | Long Beach, United States | 8 July 2004 |
| Olympic record | Domenico Fioravanti (ITA) | 1:00.46 | Sydney, Australia | 17 September 2000 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 14 | Heat 7 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 1:00.03 | OR |
| August 14 | Semifinal 1 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 1:00.01 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 1:00.03 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 8 | 4 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 1:00.25 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 5 | Mark Gangloff | United States | 1:00.81 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | Darren Mew | Great Britain | 1:00.89 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | 3 | James Gibson | Great Britain | 1:00.99 | Q |
| 6 | 7 | 5 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 1:01.15 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | 1 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 1:01.16 | Q |
| 8 | 8 | 7 | Jens Kruppa | Germany | 1:01.19 | Q |
| 9 | 8 | 3 | Oleg Lisogor | Ukraine | 1:01.21 | Q |
| 10 | 6 | 3 | Roman Sloudnov | Russia | 1:01.65 | Q |
| 11 | 8 | 1 | Eduardo Fischer | Brazil | 1:01.84 | Q |
| 12 | 6 | 6 | Richárd Bodor | Hungary | 1:01.91 | Q |
| 13 | 7 | 7 | Jarno Pihlava | Finland | 1:01.99 | Q |
| 14 | 7 | 6 | Thijs van Valkengoed | Netherlands | 1:02.03 | Q |
| 15 | 6 | 2 | Dmitry Komornikov | Russia | 1:02.05 | Q |
| 16 | 7 | 1 | René Kolonko | Germany | 1:02.09 | Q |
| 17 | 7 | 2 | Emil Tahirovic | Slovenia | 1:02.12 | |
| 18 | 8 | 5 | Morgan Knabe | Canada | 1:02.13 | |
| 19 | 8 | 6 | Scott Dickens | Canada | 1:02.16 | |
| 19 | 8 | 2 | Jim Piper | Australia | 1:02.16 | |
| 21 | 8 | 8 | Alexander Dale Oen | Norway | 1:02.25 | |
| 22 | 6 | 7 | Martin Gustavsson | Sweden | 1:02.53 | |
| 23 | 4 | 4 | Jakob Johann Sveinsson | Iceland | 1:02.97 | |
| 24 | 5 | 6 | Terence Parkin | South Africa | 1:03.05 | |
| 25 | 5 | 2 | Maxim Podoprigora | Austria | 1:03.08 | |
| 26 | 7 | 8 | Vanja Rogulj | Croatia | 1:03.16 | |
| 27 | 5 | 1 | Alwin de Prins | Luxembourg | 1:03.32 | |
| 28 | 5 | 3 | Daniel Málek | Czech Republic | 1:03.35 | |
| 29 | 5 | 8 | Mladen Tepavčević | Serbia and Montenegro | 1:03.52 | |
| 30 | 6 | 8 | Wang Haibo | China | 1:03.54 | |
| 31 | 3 | 4 | You Seung-hun | South Korea | 1:03.56 | |
| 32 | 5 | 7 | Sofiane Daid | Algeria | 1:03.63 | |
| 33 | 5 | 5 | José Couto | Portugal | 1:03.72 | |
| 34 | 5 | 4 | Remo Lütolf | Switzerland | 1:03.82 | |
| 35 | 3 | 6 | Chen Cho-yi | Chinese Taipei | 1:03.94 | |
| 36 | 3 | 5 | Ben Labowitch | New Zealand | 1:03.99 | |
| 36 | 4 | 7 | Arsenio López | Puerto Rico | 1:03.99 | |
| 38 | 3 | 7 | Aurimas Valaitis | Lithuania | 1:04.11 | |
| 39 | 4 | 1 | Christos Papadopoulos | Greece | 1:04.43 | |
| 40 | 4 | 3 | Malick Fall | Senegal | 1:04.50 | |
| 41 | 4 | 2 | Bradley Ally | Barbados | 1:04.71 | |
| 42 | 4 | 8 | Wickus Nienaber | Swaziland | 1:04.74 | |
| 43 | 4 | 6 | Cristian Mauro Soldano | Argentina | 1:05.05 | |
| 44 | 2 | 4 | Tam Chi Kin | Hong Kong | 1:05.11 | |
| 45 | 3 | 2 | Alvaro Fortuny | Guatemala | 1:05.41 | |
| 46 | 3 | 1 | Kyriakos Dimosthenous | Cyprus | 1:05.54 | |
| 47 | 2 | 7 | Ahmed Al-Kudmani | Saudi Arabia | 1:05.65 | |
| 47 | 2 | 1 | Andrei Capitanciuc | Moldova | 1:05.65 | |
| 49 | 3 | 3 | Aleksander Baldin | Estonia | 1:06.04 | |
| 50 | 2 | 6 | Raphael Matthew Chua | Philippines | 1:06.37 | |
| 51 | 2 | 2 | Pāvels Murāns | Latvia | 1:06.45 | |
| 52 | 3 | 8 | Nguyen Huu Viet | Vietnam | 1:06.70 | |
| 53 | 1 | 5 | Eric Williams | Nigeria | 1:07.69 | |
| 54 | 2 | 8 | Jean Luc Razakarivony | Madagascar | 1:07.74 | |
| 55 | 2 | 5 | Yevgeny Petrashov | Kyrgyzstan | 1:07.78 | |
| 56 | 2 | 3 | Oleg Sidorov | Uzbekistan | 1:08.30 | |
| 57 | 1 | 4 | Chisela Kanchela | Zambia | 1:09.95 | |
| 58 | 1 | 3 | Amar Shah | Kenya | 1:10.17 | |
| 59 | 1 | 6 | Alice Shrestha | Nepal | 1:12.25 | |
| | 4 | 5 | Ratapong Sirisanont | Thailand | DSQ | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 1:00.01 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 5 | Darren Mew | Great Britain | 1:00.83 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 1:01.17 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Roman Sloudnov | Russia | 1:01.54 | |
| 5 | 6 | Jens Kruppa | Germany | 1:01.68 | |
| 6 | 8 | René Kolonko | Germany | 1:01.82 | |
| 7 | 7 | Richárd Bodor | Hungary | 1:01.88 | |
| 8 | 1 | Thijs van Valkengoed | Netherlands | 1:02.36 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 1:00.27 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | James Gibson | Great Britain | 1:01.07 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | Oleg Lisogor | Ukraine | 1:01.07 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Mark Gangloff | United States | 1:01.07 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 1:01.36 | Q |
| 6 | 8 | Dmitry Komornikov | Russia | 1:01.83 | |
| 7 | 1 | Jarno Pihlava | Finland | 1:01.86 | |
| 8 | 7 | Eduardo Fischer | Brazil | 1:02.07 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| | 5 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 1:00.08 |
| | 4 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 1:00.25 |
| | 1 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 1:00.88 |
| 4 | 6 | Mark Gangloff | United States | 1:01.17 |
| 5 | 8 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 1:01.34 |
| 6 | 7 | James Gibson | Great Britain | 1:01.36 |
| 7 | 3 | Darren Mew | Great Britain | 1:01.66 |
| 8 | 2 | Oleg Lisogor | Ukraine | 1:02.42 |