# Swimming at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1992 Summer Olympics took place on 28 July at the Piscines Bernat Picornell in Barcelona, Spain. There were 75 competitors from 52 nations. Nations had been limited to two swimmers each since the 1984 Games. The event was won by Alexander Popov of the Unified Team. Gustavo Borges's silver was Brazil's first medal in the men's 100 metre freestyle since 1960. Stéphan Caron of France repeated as bronze medalist, the eighth man to win multiple medals in the event. It was the first time since 1968 that the United States had competed and not won the event and the first time since 1956 that the Americans had competed and not taken any medal, as Jon Olsen finished fourth and defending champion Matt Biondi came in fifth.

## Background

This was the 21st 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.
Five of the eight finalists from the 1988 Games returned: gold medalist Matt Biondi of the United States, bronze medalist Stéphan Caron of France, fourth-place finisher Gennadiy Prigoda of the Soviet Union (now competing for the Unified Team), sixth-place finisher Andrew Baildon of Australia, and eighth-place finisher Tommy Werner of Sweden.
Biondi was the favorite, having also won the 1991 World Championship and his 1988 world record still standing. Caron and 1991 European Champion Alexander Popov were also contenders.
Albania, Lithuania, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and the Seychelles each made their debut in the event; some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team and competitors from Yugoslavia competed as Independent Olympic Participants. The United States made its 20th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

## Competition format

This freestyle swimming competition used the A/B final format instituted in 1984. The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the A final, competing for medals through 8th place. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the semifinals competed in the B final for 9th through 16th place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Matt Biondi (USA) | 48.42 | Austin, United States | 10 August 1988 |
| Olympic record | Matt Biondi (USA) | 48.63 | Seoul, South Korea | 22 September 1988 |
No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition. Gustavo Borges set a new South American area record, and two national records were set: the Russian record by Alexander Popov and the Puerto Rican record by Ricardo Busquets.

## Schedule

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Tuesday, 28 July 1992 | 10:30 18:30 | Heats Finals |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 10 | 3 | Alexander Popov | Unified Team | 49.29 | QA |
| 2 | 10 | 5 | Gustavo Borges | Brazil | 49.49 | QA |
| 3 | 8 | 4 | Jon Olsen | United States | 49.63 | QA |
| 4 | 10 | 4 | Matt Biondi | United States | 49.75 | QA |
| 5 | 9 | 4 | Stéphan Caron | France | 49.82 | QA |
| 6 | 8 | 6 | Tommy Werner | Sweden | 50.00 | QA |
| 6 | 10 | 2 | Gennadiy Prigoda | Unified Team | 50.00 | QA |
| 8 | 9 | 7 | Christian Tröger | Germany | 50.05 | QA |
| 9 | 9 | 3 | Raimundas Mažuolis | Lithuania | 50.17 | QB |
| 10 | 8 | 3 | Chris Fydler | Australia | 50.26 | QB |
| 11 | 9 | 5 | Nils Rudolph | Germany | 50.29 | QB |
| 12 | 9 | 6 | Christophe Kalfayan | France | 50.30 | QB |
| 13 | 7 | 3 | Ricardo Busquets | Puerto Rico | 50.31 | QB |
| 14 | 10 | 1 | John Steel | New Zealand | 50.59 | QB |
| 14 | 10 | 7 | Andrew Baildon | Australia | 50.59 | QB |
| 16 | 8 | 5 | Giorgio Lamberti | Italy | 50.65 | QB, WD |
| 17 | 10 | 6 | Roberto Gleria | Italy | 50.66 | QB |
| 18 | 8 | 2 | Håkan Karlsson | Sweden | 50.73 | |
| 18 | 8 | 8 | Stephen Clarke | Canada | 50.73 | |
| 20 | 8 | 1 | Béla Szabados | Hungary | 50.78 | |
| 21 | 9 | 2 | Mike Fibbens | Great Britain | 50.93 | |
| 22 | 7 | 4 | Rodrigo González | Mexico | 51.04 | |
| 23 | 6 | 1 | Stéfan Voléry | Switzerland | 51.05 | |
| 24 | 10 | 8 | Paul Howe | Great Britain | 51.12 | |
| 25 | 9 | 1 | Emanuel Nascimento | Brazil | 51.17 | |
| 26 | 9 | 8 | Franz Mortensen | Denmark | 51.29 | |
| 27 | 8 | 7 | Uğur Taner | Turkey | 51.34 | |
| 28 | 7 | 5 | Jarl Inge Melberg | Norway | 51.39 | |
| 29 | 7 | 6 | Seddon Keyter | South Africa | 51.42 | |
| 30 | 1 | 2 | Mladen Kapor | Independent Olympic Participants | 51.44 | |
| 31 | 7 | 1 | Yoav Bruck | Israel | 51.46 | |
| 32 | 6 | 6 | Indrek Sei | Estonia | 51.47 | |
| 32 | 7 | 2 | Yves Clausse | Luxembourg | 51.47 | |
| 34 | 7 | 8 | Tsutomu Nakano | Japan | 51.63 | |
| 35 | 6 | 5 | Krzysztof Cwalina | Poland | 51.70 | |
| 36 | 6 | 7 | Nicholas Sanders | New Zealand | 51.77 | |
| 37 | 6 | 2 | Giovanni Linscheer | Suriname | 51.82 | |
| 38 | 5 | 7 | Janne Blomqvist | Finland | 51.86 | |
| 39 | 6 | 8 | Michael Wright | Hong Kong | 51.88 | |
| 40 | 6 | 4 | Xie Jun | China | 51.94 | |
| 41 | 6 | 3 | Darren Ward | Canada | 52.05 | |
| 42 | 5 | 4 | Arthur Li Kai Yien | Hong Kong | 52.22 | |
| 43 | 5 | 1 | Allan Murray | Bahamas | 52.43 | |
| 44 | 5 | 2 | Stavros Michaelides | Cyprus | 52.54 | |
| 45 | 4 | 8 | Shigeo Ogata | Japan | 52.74 | |
| 46 | 5 | 5 | Ivor Le Roux | Zimbabwe | 52.92 | |
| 47 | 4 | 6 | Enrico Linscheer | Suriname | 52.94 | |
| 48 | 5 | 6 | Marc Verbeeck | Belgium | 52.97 | |
| 49 | 5 | 3 | Sebastián Lasave | Argentina | 53.07 | |
| 50 | 4 | 5 | Geribryan Mewett | Bermuda | 53.14 | |
| 51 | 3 | 4 | Ian Steed Raynor | Bermuda | 53.16 | |
| 52 | 4 | 4 | Mohamed El-Azoul | Egypt | 53.31 | |
| 53 | 4 | 3 | Nikos Paleokrassas | Greece | 53.47 | |
| 54 | 3 | 5 | Rhoderick McGown | Zimbabwe | 53.65 | |
| 55 | 5 | 8 | Patrick Sagisi | Guam | 53.90 | |
| 56 | 4 | 1 | Kenneth Yeo | Singapore | 54.44 | |
| 57 | 3 | 3 | Plutarco Castellanos | Honduras | 54.66 | |
| 58 | 3 | 7 | Gustavo Bucaro | Guatemala | 54.74 | |
| 59 | 2 | 6 | Adrian Romero | Guam | 54.77 | |
| 60 | 3 | 6 | Laurent Alfred | Virgin Islands | 54.89 | |
| 61 | 3 | 1 | Helder Torres | Guatemala | 55.38 | |
| 62 | 4 | 7 | Frank Leskaj | Albania | 55.50 | |
| 63 | 2 | 4 | Émile Lahoud | Lebanon | 55.51 | |
| 64 | 1 | 1 | Mouhamed Diop | Senegal | 55.82 | |
| 65 | 2 | 3 | Hussein Al-Sadiq | Saudi Arabia | 55.96 | |
| 66 | 2 | 2 | Ahmad Faraj | United Arab Emirates | 56.05 | |
| 67 | 2 | 5 | Ivan Roberts | Seychelles | 56.15 | |
| 68 | 1 | 7 | Bruno N'Diaye | Senegal | 56.39 | |
| 69 | 3 | 2 | Jarrah Al-Asmawi | Kuwait | 56.72 | |
| 70 | 2 | 1 | Mohamed Bin Abid | United Arab Emirates | 56.82 | |
| 71 | 2 | 7 | Carl Probert | Fiji | 57.25 | |
| 72 | 1 | 4 | Kenny Roberts | Seychelles | 58.86 | |
| 73 | 1 | 5 | Foy Gordon Chung | Fiji | 1:03.96 | |
| 74 | 1 | 3 | Ahmed Imthiyaz | Maldives | 1:04.96 | |
| 75 | 1 | 6 | Mohamed Rasheed | Maldives | 1:08.12 | |
| — | 4 | 2 | Nayef Al-Hasawi | Kuwait | DNS | |
| — | 7 | 7 | Peter Williams | South Africa | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 9 | 2 | Ricardo Busquets | Puerto Rico | 49.92 | NR |
| 10 | 4 | Raimundas Mažuolis | Lithuania | 50.13 | |
| 11 | 6 | Christophe Kalfayan | France | 50.49 | |
| 12 | 3 | Nils Rudolph | Germany | 50.62 | |
| 13 | 7 | John Steel | New Zealand | 50.69 | |
| 14 | 5 | Chris Fydler | Australia | 50.78 | |
| 15 | 8 | Roberto Gleria | Italy | 50.81 | |
| 16 | 1 | Andrew Baildon | Australia | 50.93 | |

#### Final A

Popov won, well ahead of everyone else. An equipment error resulted in the scoreboard initially displaying Caron as the second-place swimmer and Borges as last. Borges last was an obvious mistake to anyone watching; he had been fighting for second. His touchpad had malfunctioned. Officials reviewed film of "his" finish, assigning him a time of 49.53—equal to Biondi; they then realized that the film had been of Biondi. Looking at the correct finish, the officials gave Borges a time of 49.43, good for the silver medal.
| Rank | Lane | Swimmer | Nation | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Alexander Popov | Unified Team | 49.02 | NR |
| | 5 | Gustavo Borges | Brazil | 49.43 | SA |
| | 2 | Stéphan Caron | France | 49.50 | |
| 4 | 3 | Jon Olsen | United States | 49.51 | |
| 5 | 6 | Matt Biondi | United States | 49.53 | |
| 6 | 1 | Tommy Werner | Sweden | 49.63 | |
| 7 | 8 | Christian Tröger | Germany | 49.84 | |
| 8 | 7 | Gennadiy Prigoda | Unified Team | 50.25 | |