# Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre butterfly

The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place between 20–21 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Pablo Morales (USA) | 52.84 | Orlando, United States | 23 June 1986 |
| Olympic record | Michael Gross (FRG) | 53.08 | Los Angeles, United States | 30 July 1984 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nation | Time | Record |
| 21 September | Final A | Anthony Nesty | Suriname | 53.00 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Andy Jameson | Great Britain | 53.34 | Q |
| 2 | 7 | Matt Biondi | United States | 53.46 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Anthony Nesty | Suriname | 53.50 | Q, NR |
| 4 | 7 | Michael Gross | West Germany | 53.78 | Q |
| 5 | 7 | Jon Sieben | Australia | 53.85 | Q |
| 6 | 6 | Vadim Yaroshchuk | Soviet Union | 54.17 | Q |
| 7 | 5 | Tom Ponting | Canada | 54.31 | Q |
| 8 | 6 | Jay Mortenson | United States | 54.44 | Q |
| 9 | 7 | Benny Nielsen | Denmark | 54.52 | q |
| 10 | 5 | Anthony Mosse | New Zealand | 54.63 | q |
| 11 | 5 | Vlastimil Černý | Canada | 54.66 | q |
| 12 | 5 | Zheng Jian | China | 54.69 | q |
| 13 | 6 | Neil Cochran | Great Britain | 54.75 | q |
| 14 | 7 | Hiroshi Miura | Japan | 54.82 | q |
| 15 | 5 | Rafał Szukała | Poland | 54.83 | q |
| 16 | 5 | Shen Jianqiang | China | 54.86 | q |
| 17 | 7 | Martin Herrmann | West Germany | 55.20 | |
| 18 | 6 | José Luis Ballester | Spain | 55.27 | |
| 19 | 7 | Frank Drost | Netherlands | 55.38 | |
| 20 | 4 | David Wilson | Australia | 55.54 | |
| 21 | 7 | Robert Wolf | Czechoslovakia | 55.73 | |
| 22 | 6 | Leonardo Michelotti | Italy | 55.83 | |
| 23 | 6 | Konstantin Petrov | Soviet Union | 55.84 | |
| 24 | 4 | Yukinori Tanaka | Japan | 56.19 | |
| 25 | 4 | Ross Anderson | New Zealand | 56.31 | |
| 26 | 4 | Eduardo de Poli | Brazil | 56.37 | |
| 27 | 6 | Ludovic Depickère | France | 56.47 | |
| 28 | 5 | Valerio Giambalvo | Italy | 56.57 | |
| 29 | 2 | Reinhold Leitner | Austria | 56.72 | |
| 30 | 4 | Théophile David | Switzerland | 56.77 | |
| 31 | 3 | Joseph Eric Buhain | Philippines | 57.17 | |
| 32 | 3 | Wladimir Ribeiro | Brazil | 57.25 | |
| 33 | 2 | Mabílio Albuquerque | Portugal | 57.30 | |
| 34 | 1 | Paul Yelle | Barbados | 57.36 | |
| 35 | 4 | Ang Peng Siong | Singapore | 57.41 | |
| 36 | 3 | Theodoros Griniazakis | Greece | 57.56 | |
| 37 | 3 | Paulo Camacho | Portugal | 57.62 | |
| 38 | 3 | Park Yeong-cheol | South Korea | 57.74 | |
| 39 | 3 | Tsang Yi Ming | Hong Kong | 57.84 | |
| 40 | 2 | Urbano Zea | Mexico | 57.89 | |
| 41 | 4 | Carlos Romo | Mexico | 58.04 | |
| 42 | 2 | Pedro Lima | Angola | 59.21 | |
| 43 | 2 | Graham Thompson | Zimbabwe | 1:00.13 | |
| 44 | 2 | Kristan Singleton | Virgin Islands | 1:00.97 | |
| 45 | 2 | William Cleveland | Virgin Islands | 1:01.10 | |
| 46 | 1 | Sergio Fafitine | Mozambique | 1:01.15 | |
| 47 | 1 | Plutarco Castellanos | Honduras | 1:02.69 | |
| 48 | 1 | Salam Mohamed Abdul Salam | Bangladesh | 1:03.69 | |
| 49 | 1 | Mohamed Bin Abid | United Arab Emirates | 1:06.25 | |
| 50 | 1 | Trevor Ncala | Swaziland | 1:06.85 | |
| 51 | 1 | Jorge Gomes | Angola | 1:09.60 | |
| | 1 | Salvador Vassallo | Puerto Rico | DNS | |
| | 2 | Oon Jin Gee | Singapore | DNS | |
| | 3 | Matjaž Kozelj | Yugoslavia | DNS | |
| | 4 | Michael Adam | Austria | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| 9 | 8 | Shen Jianqiang | China | 54.52 |
| 10 | 5 | Anthony Mosse | New Zealand | 54.63 |
| 11 | 4 | Benny Nielsen | Denmark | 54.77 |
| 12 | 3 | Vlastimil Černý | Canada | 54.79 |
| 13 | 1 | Rafał Szukała | Poland | 54.80 |
| 14 | 7 | Hiroshi Miura | Japan | 54.98 |
| 15 | 6 | Zheng Jian | China | 55.00 |
| 16 | 2 | Neil Cochran | Great Britain | 55.22 |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 3 | Anthony Nesty | Suriname | 53.00 | OR |
| | 5 | Matt Biondi | United States | 53.01 | |
| | 4 | Andy Jameson | Great Britain | 53.30 | |
| 4 | 2 | Jon Sieben | Australia | 53.33 | |
| 5 | 6 | Michael Gross | West Germany | 53.44 | |
| 6 | 8 | Jay Mortenson | United States | 54.07 | |
| 7 | 1 | Tom Ponting | Canada | 54.09 | |
| 8 | 7 | Vadim Yaroshchuk | Soviet Union | 54.60 | |