# Swimming at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1968 Olympic Games took place between 18 and 19 October. There were 64 competitors from 34 nations. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games (except in 1960, when the limit was two). The event was won by Michael Wenden of Australia, the nation's third victory in four Games (tied for second-most all-time with Hungary behind the United States' eight). Americans Ken Walsh and Mark Spitz took silver and bronze, respectively.

## Background

This was the 15th 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.
One of the eight finalists from the 1964 Games returned: silver medalist Bobby McGregor of Great Britain. The favorite coming into the Games was Zac Zorn, who had matched the world record at the U.S. trials. However, Zorn had struggled the week before the competition with illness. His teammates, Ken Walsh (whose record it was that Zorn had tied) and young butterfly specialist Mark Spitz, were strong contenders, as was McGregor (who had won the European championship).
Barbados, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ireland, Jamaica, Lebanon, and Trinidad and Tobago each made their debut in the event; West Germany competed separately for the first time. The United States made its 15th 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 between 6 and 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 1968 Summer Olympics.
| World record | Ken Walsh (USA) | 52.6 | Winnipeg, Canada | 27 July 1967 |
| Olympic record | Don Schollander (USA) | 53.4 | Tokyo, Japan | 12 October 1964 |
Zac Zorn matched the Olympic record in the second semifinal; Michael Wenden beat it in the third with 52.9 seconds. Wenden dropped the record again, to 52.2 seconds, in the final; all three medalists beat the old record time.

## Schedule

All times are Central Standard Time (UTC-6)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Friday, 18 October 1968 | 10:00 17:00 | Heats Semifinals |
| Saturday, 19 October 1968 | 17:00 | Final |

## Results
### Heats

There were 9 heats in this category. The 24 fastest swimmers from the heats advanced to the semifinals.
| Rank | Heat | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 8 | Mike Wenden | Australia | 53.6 | Q |
| 2 | 4 | Zac Zorn | United States | 54.2 | Q |
| 3 | 7 | Georgijs Kuļikovs | Soviet Union | 54.3 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | Luis Nicolao | Argentina | 54.6 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | Mark Spitz | United States | 54.6 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | Sergey Gusev | Soviet Union | 54.8 | Q |
| 6 | 8 | Bob Windle | Australia | 54.8 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | José Antonio Chicoy | Spain | 54.9 | Q |
| 8 | 3 | Leonid Ilyichov | Soviet Union | 54.9 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | Michel Rousseau | France | 54.9 | Q |
| 11 | 4 | Wolfgang Kremer | West Germany | 55.0 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | Gábor Kucsera | Hungary | 55.1 | Q |
| 12 | 2 | Bobby McGregor | Great Britain | 55.1 | Q |
| 14 | 1 | Lester Eriksson | Sweden | 55.2 | Q |
| 15 | 6 | John Gilchrist | Canada | 55.4 | Q |
| 15 | 2 | Greg Rogers | Australia | 55.4 | Q |
| 17 | 3 | Kunihiro Iwasaki | Japan | 55.5 | Q |
| 17 | 5 | François Simons | Belgium | 55.5 | Q |
| 19 | 7 | Pietro Boscaini | Italy | 55.7 | Q |
| 19 | 3 | Gary Goodner | Puerto Rico | 55.7 | Q |
| 19 | 9 | Ken Walsh | United States | 55.7 | Q |
| 22 | 5 | Roosevelt Abdulgafur | Philippines | 55.8 | Q |
| 22 | 8 | Michael Turner | Great Britain | 55.8 | Q |
| 22 | 7 | Olaf, Baron von Schilling | West Germany | 55.8 | Q |
| 25 | 8 | Glen Finch | Canada | 56.0 | |
| 26 | 8 | José Ferraioli | Puerto Rico | 56.1 | |
| 27 | 7 | Luis Ayesa | Philippines | 56.2 | |
| 27 | 1 | Bernard Gruener | France | 56.2 | |
| 27 | 1 | Pano Capéronis | Switzerland | 56.2 | |
| 30 | 1 | Ørjan Madsen | Norway | 56.3 | |
| 31 | 7 | Salvador Ruiz | Mexico | 56.4 | |
| 31 | 5 | Carlos van der Maath | Argentina | 56.4 | |
| 33 | 3 | Rafaél Cal | Mexico | 56.5 | |
| 33 | 9 | Anthony Jarvis | Great Britain | 56.5 | |
| 33 | 9 | Masayuki Osawa | Japan | 56.5 | |
| 36 | 4 | Csaba Csatlós | Hungary | 56.6 | |
| 37 | 2 | José Aranha | Brazil | 56.8 | |
| 38 | 9 | Peter Schorning | West Germany | 56.9 | |
| 39 | 8 | Ricardo González | Colombia | 57.0 | |
| 39 | 2 | Mario Santibáñez | Mexico | 57.0 | |
| 41 | 3 | Peter Schmid | Austria | 57.1 | |
| 42 | 9 | Amnon Krauz | Israel | 57.2 | |
| 42 | 9 | Gérard Letast | France | 57.2 | |
| 44 | 6 | Michele D'Oppido | Italy | 57.3 | |
| 45 | 4 | Herman Verbauwen | Belgium | 57.5 | |
| 46 | 3 | Ronnie Wong | Hong Kong | 58.0 | |
| 47 | 5 | Angus Edghill | Barbados | 58.1 | |
| 48 | 6 | Gregorio Fiallo | Cuba | 58.2 | |
| 48 | 5 | Michael Goodner | Puerto Rico | 58.2 | |
| 50 | 9 | Guðmundur Gíslason | Iceland | 58.6 | |
| 50 | 3 | Fernando González | Costa Rica | 58.6 | |
| 52 | 6 | Geoffrey Ferreira | Trinidad and Tobago | 58.9 | |
| 53 | 7 | Paul Nash | Jamaica | 59.0 | |
| 53 | 4 | Federico Sicard | Colombia | 59.0 | |
| 55 | 1 | Donnacha O'Dea | Ireland | 59.5 | |
| 56 | 5 | Salvador Vilanova | El Salvador | 59.6 | |
| 57 | 7 | José Martínez | Cuba | 1:00.4 | |
| 58 | 4 | Yacoub Masboungi | Lebanon | 1:00.5 | |
| 59 | 2 | Andrew Loh | Hong Kong | 1:00.7 | |
| 60 | 1 | Lee Tong-shing | Taiwan | 1:01.0 | |
| 61 | 6 | Robert Loh | Hong Kong | 1:01.1 | |
| 62 | 1 | José Alvarado | El Salvador | 1:02.0 | |
| 63 | 9 | Ernesto Durón | El Salvador | 1:03.8 | |
| 64 | 2 | Luis Aguilar | Costa Rica | 1:04.5 | |

### Semifinals

The 8 fastest swimmers advanced to the final. Zorn matched the previous Olympic record of 53.4 seconds in semifinal 2 before Wenden broke that record with a 52.9 second time in semifinal 3.
| Rank | Heat | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Mike Wenden | Australia | 52.9 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 2 | Zac Zorn | United States | 53.4 | Q, =OR |
| 3 | 1 | Leonid Ilyichov | Soviet Union | 53.8 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Bobby McGregor | Great Britain | 53.8 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | Luis Nicolao | Argentina | 53.8 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Mark Spitz | United States | 53.8 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | Ken Walsh | United States | 53.9 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | Georgijs Kuļikovs | Soviet Union | 54.1 | Q |
| 9 | 2 | Wolfgang Kremer | West Germany | 54.3 | |
| 10 | 3 | Michel Rousseau | France | 54.5 | |
| 11 | 3 | Bob Windle | Australia | 54.6 | |
| 12 | 3 | John Gilchrist | Canada | 54.8 | |
| 12 | 1 | Greg Rogers | Australia | 54.8 | |
| 14 | 2 | José Antonio Chicoy | Spain | 54.9 | |
| 15 | 3 | Gábor Kucsera | Hungary | 55.0 | |
| 16 | 2 | Lester Eriksson | Sweden | 55.2 | |
| 16 | 1 | Sergey Gusev | Soviet Union | 55.2 | |
| 18 | 2 | François Simons | Belgium | 55.3 | |
| 19 | 3 | Pietro Boscaini | Italy | 55.6 | |
| 19 | 3 | Michael Turner | Great Britain | 55.6 | |
| 21 | 1 | Gary Goodner | Puerto Rico | 55.8 | |
| 21 | 1 | Kunihiro Iwasaki | Japan | 55.8 | |
| 23 | 2 | Roosevelt Abdulgafur | Philippines | 55.9 | |
| 23 | 1 | Olaf, Baron von Schilling | West Germany | 55.9 | |

### Final

Zorn lead the field at the 50 metre turn, but weakened by a week long illness, faded and finished last.
| Rank | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | Mike Wenden | Australia | 52.2 | WR |
| | Ken Walsh | United States | 52.8 | |
| | Mark Spitz | United States | 53.0 | |
| 4 | Bobby McGregor | Great Britain | 53.5 | |
| 5 | Leonid Ilyichov | Soviet Union | 53.8 | |
| 6 | Georgijs Kuļikovs | Soviet Union | 53.8 | |
| 7 | Luis Nicolao | Argentina | 53.9 | |
| 8 | Zac Zorn | United States | 53.9 | |