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

The men's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 9–11 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Japan's Kosuke Kitajima set a new world record of 58.91 to defend his Olympic title in the event. Alexander Dale Oen powered home with a silver in 59.20, earning a first Olympic medal for Norway in swimming. Coming from seventh place in the final turn, France's Hugues Duboscq managed to repeat a bronze from Athens four years earlier, in a time of 59.37. U.S. swimmer and defending silver medalist Brendan Hansen pulled off a fourth-place effort in 59.57, two-tenths of a second (0.20) behind Duboscq.
Australia's Brenton Rickard finished fifth with a time of 59.74, and was followed in sixth spot by Russia's Roman Sloudnov, bronze medalist in Sydney (2000), in a national record of 59.87. Ukraine's Igor Borysik (1:00.20) and American Mark Gangloff (1:00.24) rounded out the finale.
Earlier, Dale Oen set a new Olympic record of 59.41 in the prelims, and eventually lowered it to 59.16 in the semifinals by the next morning's session. He continued to claim the title at the 2011 FINA World Championships, but his life came to a tragic end on April 30, 2012. Shortly after training at altitude in Arizona, Dale Oen was found unconscious in his apartment shower, and died suddenly from a cardiac arrest at Flagstaff Medical Centre.

## Controversy

Iran's Mohammad Alirezaei was due to race against Israel's Tom Be'eri in the fourth heat of the 100 metre breaststroke, but pulled out, apparently under the orders from officials of the Iranian delegation. Efraim Zinger, Olympic Committee of Israel General Secretary, criticized the withdrawal saying "Politics takes precedence over sport with the Iranians and the Olympic spirit is as far from them as east is far from west". Giselle Davies, director of communications for the IOC, said that Alirezaei withdrew because of sickness and submitted his case in writing to his Federation. At the 2004 Games in Athens, Iran's Arash Miresmaeili, a two-time world judo champion, refused to compete against Israel's Ehud Vaks in the opening round of the 66 kg competition, later admitting that he made his decision to show solidarity for the Palestinian cause.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Brendan Hansen (USA) | 59.13 | Irvine, United States | 1 August 2006 | |
| Olympic record | Brendan Hansen (USA) | 1:00.01 | Athens, Greece | 14 August 2004 | - |
The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| August 9 | Heat 7 | Alexander Dale Oen | Norway | 59.41 | OR |
| August 10 | Semifinal 2 | Alexander Dale Oen | Norway | 59.16 | OR |
| August 11 | Final | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 58.91 | WR |

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 7 | 4 | Alexander Dale Oen | Norway | 59.41 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 8 | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 59.52 | Q |
| 3 | 9 | 5 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 59.67 | Q |
| 4 | 7 | 5 | Brenton Rickard | Australia | 59.89 | Q, OC |
| 5 | 7 | 7 | Cameron van der Burgh | South Africa | 59.96 | Q, AF |
| 6 | 9 | 7 | Giedrius Titenis | Lithuania | 1:00.11 | Q |
| 7 | 9 | 3 | Roman Sloudnov | Russia | 1:00.20 | Q |
| 8 | 8 | 2 | Igor Borysik | Ukraine | 1:00.31 | Q |
| 9 | 6 | 3 | Damir Dugonjič | Slovenia | 1:00.35 | Q |
| 10 | 7 | 3 | Christian Sprenger | Australia | 1:00.36 | Q |
| 11 | 9 | 4 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 1:00.65 | Q |
| 12 | 7 | 6 | Oleg Lisogor | Ukraine | 1:00.65 | Q |
| 13 | 9 | 2 | Yuta Suenaga | Japan | 1:00.67 | Q |
| 14 | 8 | 7 | Mihail Alexandrov | Bulgaria | 1:00.69 | Q |
| 15 | 8 | 5 | Chris Cook | Great Britain | 1:00.70 | Q |
| 16 | 8 | 3 | Mark Gangloff | United States | 1:00.71 | Q |
| 17 | 6 | 5 | Vladislav Polyakov | Kazakhstan | 1:00.80 | |
| 18 | 4 | 4 | Hunor Mate | Austria | 1:00.93 | NR |
| 19 | 8 | 8 | Richárd Bodor | Hungary | 1:00.97 | |
| 20 | 5 | 5 | Mike Brown | Canada | 1:00.98 | |
| 20 | 8 | 6 | Glenn Snyders | New Zealand | 1:00.98 | |
| 22 | 7 | 1 | Felipe França Silva | Brazil | 1:01.04 | |
| 23 | 7 | 2 | Henrique Barbosa | Brazil | 1:01.11 | |
| 24 | 6 | 7 | Matjaž Markič | Slovenia | 1:01.31 | |
| 24 | 7 | 8 | Dániel Gyurta | Hungary | 1:01.31 | |
| 26 | 9 | 8 | Thijs van Valkengoed | Netherlands | 1:01.32 | |
| 27 | 9 | 1 | Kristopher Gilchrist | Great Britain | 1:01.34 | |
| 28 | 6 | 1 | Mathieu Bois | Canada | 1:01.45 | |
| 29 | 6 | 6 | Jiří Jedlička | Czech Republic | 1:01.56 | |
| 30 | 5 | 2 | Andrew Bree | Ireland | 1:01.76 | |
| 31 | 5 | 1 | Valentin Preda | Romania | 1:01.77 | |
| 31 | 5 | 3 | Jonas Andersson | Sweden | 1:01.77 | |
| 33 | 3 | 1 | Daniel Velez | Puerto Rico | 1:01.80 | NR |
| 34 | 8 | 1 | Dmitry Komornikov | Russia | 1:01.82 | |
| 35 | 5 | 4 | Yevgeniy Ryzhkov | Kazakhstan | 1:01.83 | |
| 35 | 6 | 4 | Borja Iradier | Spain | 1:01.83 | |
| 37 | 6 | 2 | Melquíades Álvarez | Spain | 1:01.89 | |
| 38 | 3 | 2 | Sandeep Sejwal | India | 1:02.19 | |
| 39 | 4 | 5 | Demir Atasoy | Turkey | 1:02.25 | |
| 40 | 4 | 2 | Čaba Silađi | Serbia | 1:02.31 | |
| 41 | 3 | 3 | Genaro Prono | Paraguay | 1:02.32 | |
| 42 | 4 | 7 | Tom Be'eri | Israel | 1:02.42 | NR |
| 42 | 5 | 6 | Vanja Rogulj | Croatia | 1:02.42 | |
| 44 | 5 | 7 | Sofiane Daid | Algeria | 1:02.45 | |
| 45 | 4 | 6 | Martti Aljand | Estonia | 1:02.46 | NR |
| 46 | 4 | 8 | Xue Ruipeng | China | 1:02.48 | |
| 47 | 4 | 3 | Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson | Iceland | 1:02.50 | |
| 48 | 3 | 6 | Malick Fall | Senegal | 1:02.51 | |
| 49 | 5 | 8 | Viktar Vabishchevich | Belarus | 1:03.29 | |
| 50 | 9 | 6 | Romanos Alyfantis | Greece | 1:03.39 | |
| 51 | 3 | 5 | Alwin de Prins | Luxembourg | 1:03.64 | |
| 52 | 3 | 4 | Sergio Andres Ferreyra | Argentina | 1:03.65 | |
| 53 | 2 | 3 | Édgar Crespo | Panama | 1:03.72 | |
| 54 | 2 | 4 | Sergiu Postica | Moldova | 1:03.83 | |
| 55 | 3 | 8 | Andrei Cross | Barbados | 1:04.57 | |
| 56 | 3 | 7 | Ivan Demyanenko | Uzbekistan | 1:05.14 | |
| 57 | 2 | 6 | Wael Koubrousli | Lebanon | 1:06.22 | |
| 58 | 2 | 5 | Nguyen Huu Viet | Vietnam | 1:06.36 | |
| 59 | 2 | 2 | Erik Rajohnson | Madagascar | 1:08.42 | |
| 60 | 2 | 7 | Boldbaataryn Bütekh-Uils | Mongolia | 1:10.80 | |
| 61 | 1 | 4 | Osama Mohammed Ye Alarag | Qatar | 1:10.83 | |
| 62 | 1 | 5 | Mohammed Al-Habsi | Oman | 1:12.28 | |
| 63 | 1 | 3 | Petero Okotai | Cook Islands | 1:20.20 | |
| | 6 | 8 | Alessandro Terrin | Italy | DSQ | |
| | 4 | 1 | Mohammad Alirezaei | Iran | DNS | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 59.55 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Brenton Rickard | Australia | 59.65 | Q, OC |
| 3 | 8 | Mark Gangloff | United States | 1:00.44 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Igor Borysik | Ukraine | 1:00.55 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Oleg Lisogor | Ukraine | 1:00.56 | |
| 6 | 1 | Mihail Alexandrov | Bulgaria | 1:00.61 | NR |
| 7 | 3 | Giedrius Titenis | Lithuania | 1:00.66 | |
| 8 | 2 | Christian Sprenger | Australia | 1:00.76 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Alexander Dale Oen | Norway | 59.16 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 5 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 59.83 | Q |
| 3 | 7 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 59.94 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Roman Sloudnov | Russia | 1:00.10 | Q |
| 5 | 3 | Cameron van der Burgh | South Africa | 1:00.57 | |
| 6 | 1 | Yuta Suenaga | Japan | 1:00.67 | |
| 7 | 8 | Chris Cook | Great Britain | 1:00.81 | |
| 8 | 2 | Damir Dugonjič | Slovenia | 1:00.92 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 5 | Kosuke Kitajima | Japan | 58.91 | WR |
| | 4 | Alexander Dale Oen | Norway | 59.20 | |
| | 6 | Hugues Duboscq | France | 59.37 | |
| 4 | 2 | Brendan Hansen | United States | 59.57 | |
| 5 | 3 | Brenton Rickard | Australia | 59.74 | |
| 6 | 7 | Roman Sloudnov | Russia | 59.87 | NR |
| 7 | 8 | Igor Borysik | Ukraine | 1:00.20 | |
| 8 | 1 | Mark Gangloff | United States | 1:00.24 | |