# Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke

The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Aaron Peirsol established a new world record of 52.54 to defend his Olympic title in the event. His teammate Matt Grevers earned a silver in 53.11, giving the United States a one-two finish. Meanwhile, Australia's Hayden Stoeckel and Russia's Arkady Vyatchanin, who both finished behind Grevers by 0.07 of a second, tied for the bronze medal in a matching time of 53.18.
Stoeckel's teammate Ashley Delaney finished fifth in 53.31, while Great Britain's Liam Tancock, who led a field in the first 50 metres, faded only to sixth place in 53.39. Spain's Aschwin Wildeboer (53.51) and Japan's Junichi Miyashita (53.99) rounded out the finale. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight swimmers went faster than a winning time of 54.09, previously set by Peirsol in Athens four years earlier.
Earlier, Grevers erased Peirsol's 2004 Olympic record of 53.45 to pick up a top seed in the prelims, until Stoeckel broke a 53-second barrier, and eventually lowered the record to 52.97 in the semifinals.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Aaron Peirsol (USA) | 52.89 | Omaha, United States | 1 July 2008 |
| Olympic record | Aaron Peirsol (USA) | 53.45 | Athens, Greece | 21 August 2004 |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 10 | Heat 4 | Matt Grevers | United States | 53.41 | OR |
| August 11 | Semifinal 1 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 53.06 | OR |
| August 11 | Semifinal 2 | Hayden Stoeckel | Australia | 52.97 | OR |
| August 12 | Final | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 52.54 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | 4 | Matt Grevers | United States | 53.41 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 4 | 5 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 53.64 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 4 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 53.65 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 7 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | 53.67 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | 5 | Gerhard Zandberg | South Africa | 53.75 | Q, AF |
| 6 | 6 | 5 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 53.85 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | 3 | Hayden Stoeckel | Australia | 53.93 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | 8 | Ľuboš Križko | Slovakia | 54.07 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 5 | 5 | Ashley Delaney | Australia | 54.08 | Q |
| 10 | 5 | 2 | Junichi Miyashita | Japan | 54.12 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | 2 | Stanislav Donets | Russia | 54.18 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 3 | Tomomi Morita | Japan | 54.21 | Q |
| 13 | 6 | 3 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 54.22 | Q |
| 14 | 6 | 1 | Mirco Di Tora | Italy | 54.39 | Q |
| 15 | 5 | 1 | Guy Barnea | Israel | 54.50 | Q |
| 16 | 5 | 6 | Gregor Tait | Great Britain | 54.62 | Q |
| 17 | 4 | 6 | Aristeidis Grigoriadis | Greece | 54.71 | |
| 18 | 3 | 4 | Damiano Lestingi | Italy | 54.78 | |
| 19 | 5 | 4 | Helge Meeuw | Germany | 54.88 | |
| 20 | 6 | 2 | Guilherme Guido | Brazil | 54.89 | |
| 20 | 6 | 8 | Răzvan Florea | Romania | 54.89 | |
| 22 | 4 | 8 | George Du Rand | South Africa | 54.90 | |
| 23 | 3 | 7 | Sung Min | South Korea | 54.99 | |
| 24 | 4 | 1 | Gordan Kožulj | Croatia | 55.05 | |
| 25 | 3 | 3 | Benjamin Stasiulis | France | 55.08 | |
| 26 | 2 | 6 | Omar Pinzón | Colombia | 55.11 | |
| 27 | 3 | 6 | Jonathan Massacand | Switzerland | 55.21 | NR |
| 28 | 4 | 7 | Nick Driebergen | Netherlands | 55.31 | |
| 29 | 2 | 5 | Pavel Sankovich | Belarus | 55.39 | |
| 30 | 3 | 1 | Derya Büyükuncu | Turkey | 55.43 | |
| 31 | 5 | 8 | Jake Tapp | Canada | 55.54 | |
| 32 | 3 | 2 | Vytautas Janušaitis | Lithuania | 55.65 | |
| 33 | 6 | 6 | Thomas Rupprath | Germany | 55.77 | |
| 34 | 5 | 7 | Marko Strahija | Croatia | 55.89 | |
| 35 | 2 | 4 | Örn Arnarson | Iceland | 56.15 | |
| 36 | 2 | 3 | Roland Rudolf | Hungary | 56.25 | |
| 37 | 2 | 2 | Sun Xiaolei | China | 56.44 | |
| 38 | 2 | 8 | Oleksandr Isakov | Ukraine | 56.55 | |
| 39 | 1 | 4 | Danil Bugakov | Uzbekistan | 56.59 | |
| 40 | 2 | 7 | Eduardo Germán Otero | Argentina | 56.74 | |
| 41 | 2 | 1 | Tomáš Fučík | Czech Republic | 57.29 | |
| 42 | 1 | 5 | Stanislav Osinsky | Kazakhstan | 57.42 | |
| 43 | 1 | 3 | Jared Heine | Marshall Islands | 58.86 | |
| 44 | 1 | 2 | Souhaib Kalala | Syria | 1:00.24 | |
| 45 | 1 | 6 | Rubel Mohammad Rana | Bangladesh | 1:04.82 | |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 6 | Hayden Stoeckel | Australia | 52.97 | Q, OR, OC |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | Matt Grevers | United States | 52.99 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 53.06 | Q, ER |
| 4 | 1 | 5 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | 53.51 | Q, NR |
| 5 | 2 | 5 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 53.56 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | 3 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 53.61 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | 2 | Junichi Miyashita | Japan | 53.69 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 2 | Ashley Delaney | Australia | 53.76 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | 1 | Markus Rogan | Austria | 53.80 | |
| 10 | 1 | 7 | Tomomi Morita | Japan | 53.95 | |
| 11 | 2 | 3 | Gerhard Zandberg | South Africa | 53.98 | |
| 12 | 1 | 8 | Gregor Tait | Great Britain | 54.37 | |
| 13 | 1 | 6 | Ľuboš Križko | Slovakia | 54.38 | |
| 14 | 2 | 7 | Stanislav Donets | Russia | 54.57 | |
| 15 | 1 | 1 | Mirco Di Tora | Italy | 54.92 | |
| 16 | 2 | 8 | Guy Barnea | Israel | 54.93 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 2 | Aaron Peirsol | United States | 52.54 | WR |
| | 5 | Matt Grevers | United States | 53.11 | |
| | 3 | Arkady Vyatchanin | Russia | 53.18 | |
| | 4 | Hayden Stoeckel | Australia | 53.18 | |
| 5 | 8 | Ashley Delaney | Australia | 53.31 | |
| 6 | 7 | Liam Tancock | Great Britain | 53.39 | NR |
| 7 | 6 | Aschwin Wildeboer | Spain | 53.51 | |
| 8 | 1 | Junichi Miyashita | Japan | 53.99 | |