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

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Men's 100 metre freestyle
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Medal ceremony
VenueBeijing National Aquatics Centre
DatesAugust 12, 2008 (heats)
August 13, 2008 (semifinals)
August 14, 2008 (final)
Competitors64 from 55 nations
Winning time47.21
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Alain Bernard
 France
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Eamon Sullivan
 Australia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) César Cielo
 Brazil
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Jason Lezak
 United States
← 2004
2012 →

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 12–14 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.[1] There were 64 competitors from 55 nations.[2]

Summary

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Alain Bernard stormed home on the final lap to claim France's first ever gold medal in the event with a time of 47.21.[3] Australia's world record holder Eamon Sullivan enjoyed a great start in the first 50 metres, but ended up with a silver in 47.32, just 0.11 of a second behind Bernard. U.S. swimmer Jason Lezak and Brazil's César Cielo tied for the bronze medal in a matching time of 47.67.[4][5]

Two-time defending champion Pieter van den Hoogenband finished the race in fifth place at 47.75. Although he missed an opportunity to attain a third straight triumph in the same event, Van den Hoogenband became the first ever swimmer to reach the final at his fourth Olympics. Four months later, he announced his retirement from the sport, ending an Olympic career with a total of seven medals, including three golds.[4][6][7]

Van den Hoogenband was followed in sixth by South Africa's Lyndon Ferns (48.04), and in seventh by Sullivan's teammate Matt Targett (48.20). After missing out the semifinals in Athens four years earlier, Sweden's Stefan Nystrand rounded out the finale to eighth place in 48.33.[4]

Earlier in the semifinals, Bernard and Sullivan exchanged world-record performances to set up a battle race for the final. Swimming in the first heat, Bernard delivered a time of 47.20 to erase a 0.04-second standard set by Sullivan during his lead-off leg in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. A few minutes later, Sullivan had taken back the record in the second semifinal at 47.05.[8][9] In addition, 2007 World Champions Brent Hayden and Filippo Magnini failed to advance to the final, despite swimming times faster than their World Championship-winning time.

Background

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This was the 25th 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]

Four of the eight finalists from the 2004 Games returned: two-time gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands, fourth-place finisher Ryk Neethling of South Africa, fifth-place finisher Filippo Magnini of Italy, and sixth-place finisher Duje Draganja of Croatia.

While van den Hoogenband was the returning champion, the clear favorites in the event were Frenchman Alain Bernard and Australian Eamon Sullivan. Bernard had broken the Dutch swimmer's world record, with Sullivan coming within 0.02 seconds of Bernard's new record.[2]

Armenia, Aruba, the Cayman Islands, Kenya, and Serbia each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 24th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

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Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to two swimmers if both met the A qualifying standard, or one swimmer if he met the B standard. For 2008, the A standard was 49.23 seconds while the B standard was 50.95 seconds. The qualifying window was 15 March 2007 to 15 July 2008; only approved meets (generally international competitions and national Olympic trials) during that period could be used to meet the standards. There were also universality places available; if no male swimmer from a nation qualified in any event, the NOC could enter one male swimmer in an event.

The two swimmers per NOC limit had been in place since the 1984 Games.

Competition format

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This freestyle swimming competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

Records

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

World record  Alain Bernard (FRA) 47.50 Eindhoven, Netherlands 22 March 2008
Olympic record  Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED) 47.84 Sydney, Australia 19 September 2000

The following records were set during this competition:

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record
10 August Heat 2* Amaury Leveaux  France 47.76 OR
11 August Final* Eamon Sullivan  Australia 47.24 WR
13 August Semifinal 1 Alain Bernard  France 47.20 WR
13 August Semifinal 2 Eamon Sullivan  Australia 47.05 WR

* World and Olympic record split from the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay

Schedule

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The competition moved to a three-day schedule, rather than two days as in the past.

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)

Date Time Round
Tuesday, 12 August 2008 18:30 Heats
Wednesday, 13 August 2008 10:00 Semifinals
Thursday, 14 August 2008 10:51 Final

Results

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Heats

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Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 8 4 Eamon Sullivan  Australia 47.80 Q
2 8 5 Stefan Nystrand  Sweden 47.83 Q
3 7 6 Brent Hayden  Canada 47.84 Q
4 9 4 Alain Bernard  France 47.85 Q
5 8 6 Pieter van den Hoogenband  Netherlands 47.97 Q
6 7 8 Milorad Čavić  Serbia 48.15 Q, NR, WD
7 8 3 César Cielo  Brazil 48.16 Q
8 9 5 Garrett Weber-Gale  United States 48.19 Q
9 9 7 Lyndon Ferns  South Africa 48.26 Q
10 7 3 Filippo Magnini  Italy 48.30 Q
11 7 4 Jason Lezak  United States 48.33 Q
12 9 6 Matt Targett  Australia 48.40 Q
13 7 5 Fabien Gilot  France 48.42 Q
14 8 2 Andrey Grechin  Russia 48.50 Q
15 9 8 Jonas Persson  Sweden 48.51 Q
16 7 7 Dominik Meichtry  Switzerland 48.55 Q, NR
8 8 Christian Galenda  Italy 48.55 Q
18 9 3 Yevgeny Lagunov  Russia 48.59
19 7 1 Yoris Grandjean  Belgium 48.82
20 6 8 George Bovell  Trinidad and Tobago 48.83
21 5 6 Martin Verner  Czech Republic 48.95
22 6 5 Albert Subirats  Venezuela 48.97 NR
23 8 1 Joel Greenshields  Canada 49.04
24 4 4 Jason Dunford  Kenya 49.06
25 6 1 Chen Zuo  China 49.08
26 4 5 Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or  Israel 49.10
27 9 1 Jakob Andkjær  Denmark 49.25
28 5 5 Balázs Makány  Hungary 49.27
5 7 Paulius Viktoravicius  Lithuania 49.27
30 8 7 Ryk Neethling  South Africa 49.28
31 4 6 Peter Mankoč  Slovenia 49.33
32 6 3 Nabil Kebbab  Algeria 49.38
33 9 2 Steffen Deibler  Germany 49.39
34 7 2 Duje Draganja  Croatia 49.49
35 6 2 José Meolans  Argentina 49.50
36 5 1 Shaune Fraser  Cayman Islands 49.56
6 7 Yuriy Yegoshin  Ukraine 49.56
38 6 4 Mitja Zastrow  Netherlands 49.61
39 4 1 Ryan Pini  Papua New Guinea 49.72 NR
40 6 6 Hisayoshi Sato  Japan 49.85
41 4 3 Matti Rajakylä  Finland 49.91
42 3 4 Virdhawal Khade  India 50.07
43 5 2 Martín Kutscher  Uruguay 50.08
44 5 3 Stanislau Neviarouski  Belarus 50.14
45 5 4 Tiago Venâncio  Portugal 50.30
46 3 2 Romāns Miloslavskis  Latvia 50.40
47 3 3 Terrence Haynes  Barbados 50.50 NR
48 4 8 Aristeidis Grigoriadis  Greece 50.62
49 5 8 Örn Arnarson  Iceland 50.68
50 4 2 Norbert Trandafir  Romania 50.74
51 4 7 Danil Haustov  Estonia 50.92
52 3 7 Alexandr Sklyar  Kazakhstan 51.24
53 2 6 Jan Roodzant  Aruba 51.69
54 3 6 Lim Nam-gyun  South Korea 51.80
55 3 1 Petr Romashkin  Uzbekistan 51.83
56 2 3 Mikael Koloyan  Armenia 51.89
57 2 2 Gael Adam  Mauritius 52.35
58 2 5 Carl Probert  Fiji 52.37
59 3 8 Christopher Duenas  Guam 52.64
60 2 4 Roy-Allan Burch  Bermuda 52.65
61 2 7 Obaid Al-Jasmi  United Arab Emirates 53.29 NR
62 1 3 Emile Bakale  Republic of the Congo 55.08
63 1 4 Miguel Angel Navarro  Bolivia 56.96
64 1 5 Sofyan El Gadi  Libya 57.89

Semifinals

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Bernard held the world record only briefly, setting it in the first semifinal heat before Sullivan broke it in the second heat.

Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1 2 4 Eamon Sullivan  Australia 47.05 Q, WR
2 1 5 Alain Bernard  France 47.20 Q, WR
3 2 3 Pieter van den Hoogenband  Netherlands 47.68 Q, NR
4 2 7 Matt Targett  Australia 47.88 Q
5 1 4 Stefan Nystrand  Sweden 47.91 Q
6 1 2 Jason Lezak  United States 47.98 Q
7 1 6 Lyndon Ferns  South Africa 48.00 Q
8 1 3 César Cielo  Brazil 48.07 Q
9 2 2 Filippo Magnini  Italy 48.11
10 2 6 Garrett Weber-Gale  United States 48.12
11 2 5 Brent Hayden  Canada 48.20
12 1 8 Christian Galenda  Italy 48.47
13 1 1 Jonas Persson  Sweden 48.59
14 2 1 Andrey Grechin  Russia 48.71
15 1 7 Fabien Gilot  France 49.00
16 2 8 Dominik Meichtry  Switzerland 49.58

Final

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Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) 5 Alain Bernard  France 47.21
2nd place, silver medalist(s) 4 Eamon Sullivan  Australia 47.32
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 Jason Lezak  United States 47.67
8 César Cielo  Brazil 47.67 SA
5 3 Pieter van den Hoogenband  Netherlands 47.75
6 1 Lyndon Ferns  South Africa 48.04
7 6 Matt Targett  Australia 48.20
8 2 Stefan Nystrand  Sweden 48.33

References

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  1. ^ "Olympic Swimming Schedule". USA Today. 9 August 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  2. ^ a b c "100 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  3. ^ "France's Alain Bernard clinches 100m freestyle gold". France 24. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  4. ^ a b c Lohn, John (13 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Alain Bernard Captures 100 Free Gold". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  5. ^ "Bernard pips Sullivan for 100m gold". ABC News. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  6. ^ Linden, Julian (13 August 2008). "Van den Hoogenband hangs up his goggles". Reuters. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  7. ^ "Ian Thorpe honours Pieter van den Hoogenband". Herald Sun. 9 December 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  8. ^ Lohn, John (12 August 2008). "Olympics, Swimming: Flash Alain Bernard Reclaims World Record in Semifinal 1 of 100 Free, Eamon Sullivan Says Give Me That Back". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 18 May 2013. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  9. ^ Johanson, Simon (13 August 2008). "Sullivan smashes world record – again". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
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