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Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

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Men's 100 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
Jörg Woithe (1979)
VenueSwimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex
Date26 July (heats, semifinals)
27 July (final)
Competitors39 from 26 nations
Winning time50.40
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Jörg Woithe
 East Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Per Holmertz
 Sweden
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Per Johansson
 Sweden
← 1976
1984 →

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1980 Summer Olympics was held on 26 and 27 July at the Swimming Pool at the Olimpiysky Sports Complex.[1] There were 39 competitors from 26 nations.[2] 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 Jörg Woithe of East Germany, the nation's first medal in the men's 100 metre freestyle. Sweden earned its first medals in the event since 1952 with Per Holmertz's silver and Per Johansson's bronze.

Background

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This was the 18th 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.[2]

None of the eight finalists from the 1976 Games returned. The top sprinters of the time were absent, Rowdy Gaines due to the American-led boycott and Jonty Skinner due to the ban on apartheid South Africa.[2]

Algeria, Angola, Cyprus, Libya, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event. Great Britain and Hungary each made their 16th appearance, most of the nations competing in 1980, but behind the absent United States' 17 appearances.

Competition format

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The competition used a three-round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952, though with 2 semifinals. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties. 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 6 heats, with between 6 and 8 swimmers each. The top 16 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final.

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

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Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record  Jonty Skinner (RSA) 49.44 Philadelphia, United States 14 August 1976
Olympic record  Jim Montgomery (USA) 49.99 Montreal, Canada 25 July 1976

Schedule

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All times are Moscow Time (UTC+3)

Date Time Round
Saturday, 26 July 1980 10:00
18:30
Heats
Semifinals
Sunday, 27 July 1980 20:00 Final

Results

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Heats

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Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 5 Jörg Woithe  East Germany 50.49 Q
2 5 Martin Smith  Great Britain 51.88 Q
3 4 Per Holmertz  Sweden 52.01 Q
4 5 Mark Tonelli  Australia 52.04 Q
5 1 Sergey Krasyuk  Soviet Union 52.08 Q
2 Sergey Kopliakov  Soviet Union Q
7 4 René Écuyer  France 52.09 Q
8 3 Per Johansson  Sweden 52.11 Q
3 Neil Brooks  Australia Q
10 4 Sergey Smiryagin  Soviet Union 52.21 Q
11 3 Raffaele Franceschi  Italy 52.26 Q
12 1 Per Wikström  Sweden 52.29 Q
13 2 David López-Zubero  Spain 52.43 Q
14 4 Jorge Fernandes  Brazil 52.51 Q
15 5 Cees Vervoorn  Netherlands 52.57 Q
16 3 Graeme Brewer  Australia 52.59 Q
17 4 Alberto Mestre  Venezuela 52.62
18 2 Mark Taylor  Great Britain 52.65
19 1 Stéfan Voléry  Switzerland 52.68
20 1 Fabrizio Rampazzo  Italy 52.71
21 2 Paolo Revelli  Italy 52.74
22 5 Herwig Bayer  Austria 52.79
23 1 Rui Abreu  Portugal 52.85
24 2 Guy Goosen  Zimbabwe 52.87
25 5 Frank Kühne  East Germany 52.93
26 4 Cyro Delgado  Brazil 53.00
27 3 Ramón Lavín  Spain 53.45
28 3 Tsvetan Golomeev  Bulgaria 53.50
29 2 Yulyan Vasilev  Bulgaria 53.61
30 1 Gábor Mészáros  Hungary 54.41
31 3 Mohamed Halimi  Algeria 55.16
32 5 Tô Văn Vệ  Vietnam 56.75
33 2 Lakis Fylaktou  Cyprus 57.41
34 4 Adham Hemdan  Kuwait 58.33
35 2 Jorge Lima  Angola 59.39
36 1 Abdulwahab Werfeli  Libya 1:01.55
37 1 Bilall Yamouth  Lebanon 1:03.48
38 3 Zoë Andrianifaha  Madagascar 1:04.92
39 5 Edgar Martins  Mozambique 1:06.17
4 David Cummins  Ireland DNS

Semifinals

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Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 2 Jörg Woithe  East Germany 50.21 Q
2 2 Per Holmertz  Sweden 51.19 Q
3 1 Per Johansson  Sweden 51.42 Q
4 2 Sergey Kopliakov  Soviet Union 51.51 Q
5 2 René Écuyer  France 51.62 Q
6 1 Sergey Krasyuk  Soviet Union 51.81 Q
7 2 Raffaele Franceschi  Italy 51.87 Q
8 1 Graeme Brewer  Australia 51.91 Q
9 1 Per Wikström  Sweden 52.15
10 1 Mark Tonelli  Australia 52.17
11 1 Sergey Smiryagin  Soviet Union 52.18
2 David López-Zubero  Spain
13 1 Martin Smith  Great Britain 52.41
14 2 Neil Brooks  Australia 52.70
15 2 Cees Vervoorn  Netherlands 52.73
16 1 Jorge Fernandes  Brazil 52.91

Final

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Rank Swimmer Nation Time
1st place, gold medalist(s) Jörg Woithe  East Germany 50.40
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Per Holmertz  Sweden 50.91
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Per Johansson  Sweden 51.29
4 Sergey Kopliakov  Soviet Union 51.34
5 Raffaele Franceschi  Italy 51.69
6 Sergey Krasyuk  Soviet Union 51.80
7 René Écuyer  France 52.01
8 Graeme Brewer  Australia 52.22

References

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  1. ^ "Games of the XXII Olympiad Moscow 1980 – Volume 3: Participants and Results". Fizkultura i sport. pp. 450, 460. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "100 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 17 December 2020.