# Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke

The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 28 to 29 July 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.
Italy's Thomas Ceccon, the USA's Ryan Murphy, and Hunter Armstrong, also of the US, were the favourites going into the event. Ceccon ended up winning with at time of 52.00 seconds, ahead of China's Xu Jiayu in second and Murphy in third. His win gave Italy their first gold medal in the event.
The African record was broken twice by South Africa's Pieter Coetze in his semifinal and final, while Hungary's Hubert Kós broke his national record in the heats.

## Background

Italy's Thomas Ceccon won the event at the 2022 World Championships with a world record of 51.60, which had stood since. At the 2023 World Championships, the USA's Ryan Murphy won gold ahead of Ceccon in second. Hunter Armstrong of the USA placed on the podium at the 2022 and 2023 Championships, and won the event at the 2024 Championships in Ceccon and Murphy's absence. Other contenders included Xu Jiayu, the 2016 Olympic silver medallist and a double world champion; Hugo González of Spain, who swam a personal best of 52.70 at the 2024 Championships; and Apostolos Christou of Greece, who won the 2024 European Championships with a time of 52.23. SwimSwam predicted Ceccon would win the gold, while Swimming World predicted Murphy would take it. Defending Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov and defending Olympic silver medallist Kliment Kolesnikov, both from Russia, did not return to compete.

## Qualification

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 53.74 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 54.01 for this event. In total, 30 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 14 athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT.
Top 10 fastest qualification times :
| Swimmer | Country | Time | Competition |
| Ryan Murphy | United States | 00:52:04 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Xu Jiayu | China | 00:52:05 | 2022 Asian Games |
| Thomas Ceccon | Italy | 00:52:16 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Apostolos Christou | Greece | 00:52:23 | 2024 European Championships |
| Hunter Armstrong | United States | 00:52:33 | 2023 United States National Championships |
| Hugo González | Spain | 00:52:70 | 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
| Oliver Morgan | Great Britain | 00:52:70 | 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships |
| Evangelos Makrygiannis | Greece | 00:52:83 | 2024 European Championships |
| Yohann Ndoye-Brouard | France | 00:52:84 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |
| Mewen Tomac | France | 00:52:86 | 2023 World Aquatics Championships |

## Heats

Six heats took place on 28 July 2024, starting at 11:43. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. Hungary's Hubert Kós swam the fastest qualifying time of 52.78, which broke his own national record.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 2 | Hubert Kós | Hungary | 52.78 | Q, NR |
| 2 | 5 | 6 | Pieter Coetze | South Africa | 52.90 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | 5 | Apostolos Christou | Greece | 52.95 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | Ryan Murphy | United States | 53.06 | Q |
| 5 | 4 | 6 | Ksawery Masiuk | Poland | 53.08 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | Yohann Ndoye-Brouard | France | 53.20 | Q |
| 6 | 5 | 4 | Xu Jiayu | China | 53.20 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | 3 | Evangelos Makrygiannis | Greece | 53.24 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 5 | Hunter Armstrong | United States | 53.34 | Q |
| 10 | 4 | 2 | Miroslav Knedla | Czech Republic | 53.41 | Q |
| 11 | 6 | 3 | Oliver Morgan | Great Britain | 53.44 | Q |
| 12 | 4 | 4 | Thomas Ceccon | Italy | 53.45 | Q |
| 13 | 6 | 6 | Mewen Tomac | France | 53.51 | Q |
| 14 | 4 | 5 | Hugo González | Spain | 53.68 | Q |
| 15 | 6 | 8 | Blake Tierney | Canada | 53.89 | Q |
| 16 | 6 | 2 | Jonathon Marshall | Great Britain | 53.93 | Q |
| 17 | 6 | 7 | Roman Mityukov | Switzerland | 53.94 | |
| 18 | 4 | 1 | Ole Braunschweig | Germany | 53.95 | |
| 19 | 5 | 7 | Ádám Jászó | Hungary | 53.97 | |
| 20 | 4 | 8 | Javier Acevedo | Canada | 54.19 | |
| 21 | 3 | 1 | Kai van Westering | Netherlands | 54.21 | |
| 21 | 5 | 1 | Isaac Cooper | Australia | 54.21 | |
| 23 | 4 | 7 | Michele Lamberti | Italy | 54.22 | |
| 24 | 3 | 7 | Oleksandr Zheltyakov | Ukraine | 54.32 | |
| 25 | 6 | 1 | Bradley Woodward | Australia | 54.34 | |
| 26 | 3 | 5 | Thierry Bollin | Switzerland | 54.35 | |
| 27 | 2 | 8 | Maximillian Wilson | Virgin Islands | 54.49 | |
| 28 | 3 | 4 | Adam Maraana | Israel | 54.61 | |
| 29 | 3 | 6 | Marek Ulrich | Germany | 54.63 | |
| 30 | 5 | 8 | Lee Ju-ho | South Korea | 54.65 | |
| 31 | 3 | 2 | Riku Matsuyama | Japan | 54.71 | |
| 32 | 3 | 3 | João Costa | Portugal | 54.90 | |
| 33 | 2 | 3 | Srihari Nataraj | India | 55.01 | |
| 33 | 2 | 4 | Kane Follows | New Zealand | 55.01 | |
| 35 | 3 | 8 | Ulises Saravia | Argentina | 55.03 | |
| 36 | 2 | 6 | Bernhard Reitshammer | Austria | 55.13 | |
| 37 | 2 | 2 | Anthony Rincón | Colombia | 55.42 | |
| 38 | 2 | 1 | Yeziel Morales | Puerto Rico | 55.76 | |
| 39 | 1 | 4 | Jack Harvey | Bermuda | 55.78 | |
| 40 | 2 | 5 | Berke Saka | Turkey | 55.85 | |
| 41 | 2 | 7 | Noe Pantskhava | Georgia | 56.46 | |
| 42 | 1 | 3 | Alexis Kpadi | Benin | 57.61 | |
| 43 | 1 | 5 | Yazan Al-Bawwab | Palestine | 58.26 | |
| 44 | 1 | 6 | Zackary Gresham | Grenada | 58.92 | |
| 45 | 1 | 7 | Zeke Chan | Brunei | 1:00.38 | |
| 46 | 1 | 2 | Alan Uhi | Tonga | 1:00.62 | |

## Semifinals

Two semifinals took place on 28 July, starting at 21:32. The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Ceccon won the first heat with 52.58, qualifying second, while Jiayu won the second heat and qualified with the fastest time of 52.02. Jiayu's swim was on pace with Ceccon's world record at the turn, but he lost pace with the record on the final 50 metres. Armstrong and Kós both did not qualify. South Africa's Pieter Coetze qualified with a new African record of 52.63 which beat his previous record by 0.15 seconds.
Results :
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 6 | Xu Jiayu | China | 52.02 | Q |
| 2 | 1 | 7 | Thomas Ceccon | Italy | 52.58 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | Yohann Ndoye-Brouard | France | 52.63 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | 4 | Pieter Coetze | South Africa | 52.63 | Q, AF |
| 5 | 1 | 5 | Ryan Murphy | United States | 52.72 | Q |
| 6 | 2 | 5 | Apostolos Christou | Greece | 52.77 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 7 | Oliver Morgan | Great Britain | 52.85 | Q |
| 8 | 1 | 1 | Hugo González | Spain | 52.95 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | 6 | Evangelos Makrygiannis | Greece | 52.97 | |
| 10 | 2 | 4 | Hubert Kós | Hungary | 52.98 | |
| 11 | 2 | 2 | Hunter Armstrong | United States | 53.11 | |
| 12 | 1 | 2 | Miroslav Knedla | Czech Republic | 53.44 | |
| 13 | 2 | 3 | Ksawery Masiuk | Poland | 53.44 | |
| 14 | 1 | 8 | Jonathon Marshall | Great Britain | 53.46 | |
| 15 | 2 | 1 | Mewen Tomac | France | 53.63 | |
| 16 | 2 | 8 | Blake Tierney | Canada | 53.71 | |

## Final

The final took place at 21:32 on 29 July. Jiayu swam the fastest opening 50 metre split of 24.88, which was the only sub-25 second split of the field. His closing 50 metre split was the slowest in the field, but he held on to win the silver medal with a time of 52.32. Ceccon was third at the 50 metre mark, but swam the fastest closing 50 metres to win gold with 52.00. Murphy won bronze with 52.39, which was 0.02 seconds ahead of Christou in fourth. Coetze broke his African record again with 52.58, placing him in fifth.
After the swim Ceccon said he had changed his "tactical approach" since losing to Murphy at the 2023 Championships, and that his swim was "proof that sometimes you can lose, but you can learn from that". His win gave Italy their first gold medal in the event.
Results :
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 5 | Thomas Ceccon | Italy | 52.00 | |
| | 4 | Xu Jiayu | China | 52.32 | |
| | 2 | Ryan Murphy | United States | 52.39 | |
| 4 | 7 | Apostolos Christou | Greece | 52.41 | |
| 5 | 6 | Pieter Coetze | South Africa | 52.58 | AF |
| 6 | 8 | Hugo González | Spain | 52.73 | |
| 7 | 3 | Yohann Ndoye-Brouard | France | 52.77 | |
| 8 | 1 | Oliver Morgan | Great Britain | 52.84 | |
Statistics :
| Name | 15 metre split (s) | 50 metre split (s) | 50–65 metre split (s) | Time (s) | Stroke rate (strokes/min) |
| Thomas Ceccon | 6.00 | 25.10 | 7.05 | 52.00 | 45.1 |
| Xu Jiayu | 5.68 | 24.88 | 6.92 | 52.32 | 48.1 |
| Ryan Murphy | 5.69 | 25.04 | 6.71 | 52.39 | 48.7 |
| Apostolos Christou | 6.08 | 25.21 | 6.93 | 52.41 | 47.0 |
| Pieter Coetze | 6.09 | 25.37 | 7.34 | 52.58 | 50.5 |
| Hugo González | 6.21 | 25.52 | 7.34 | 52.73 | 49.8 |
| Yohann Ndoye-Brouard | 5.98 | 25.37 | 6.92 | 52.77 | 51.3 |
| Oliver Morgan | 6.16 | 25.50 | 7.22 | 52.84 | 50.3 |