Swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle explained

Event:	Men's 100 metre freestyle
Games:	1936 Summer
Venue:	Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin
Dates:	8–9 August
Competitors:	45
Nations:	23
Longnames:	yes
Win Value:	57.6
Gold:	Ferenc Csik
Goldnoc:	HUN
Silver:	Masanori Yusa
Silvernoc:	JPN
Bronze:	Shigeo Arai
Bronzenoc:	JPN
Prev:	1932
Next:	1948

The men's 100 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1936 Summer Olympics programme.^[1] It was the ninth appearance of the event, which had not been featured only at the 1900 Games. The competition was held on Saturday and Sunday, 8 and 9 August 1936. Forty-five swimmers from 23 nations competed. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by Ferenc Csik of Hungary, the nation's first victory in the event since 1904 and third overall (second all-time behind the United States with 5). For the second consecutive Games, Japan took two medals in the 100 metre freestyle, this time silver (Masanori Yusa) and bronze (Shigeo Arai). The United States' seven-Games medal streak in the event ended as the nation's best result was sixth place by Peter Fick.

Background

This was the ninth 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 six finalists from 1932 returned. American Peter Fick, the world record holder, was a slight favorite. The Japanese team was strong once again. European champion Ferenc Csik of Hungary was considered a tier below the Americans and Japanese.^[2]

Bermuda, Bolivia, the Republic of China, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, and Peru each made their debut in the event. The United States made its ninth appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

Competition format

This freestyle swimming competition used a three-round (quarterfinals, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was a modification of the one used since 1912, allowing the top swimmers in each race plus one or more wild cards to advance. For this event, the top two in each preliminary heat plus the next two fastest swimmers would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal plus the fastest fourth-place swimmer would move on to the final. There were 7 heats of between 6 and 8 swimmers, allowing 16 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 8 swimmers each; 7 advanced to the final.

Each race involved two lengths of the 50-metre pool.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Peter Fick set a new Olympic record in the first heat with 57.6 seconds. In the fifth heat Masaharu Taguchi bettered the Olympic record with 57.5 seconds. Masanori Yusa equalized this record in the second semifinal with 57.5 seconds.

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 8 August 1936	9:00 15:00	Heats Semifinals
Sunday, 9 August 1936	15:20	Final

Results

Heats

Saturday 8 August 1936: The fastest two in each heat and the next two fastest from across the heats advanced to the semi-finals.

Heat 1

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			data-sort-value=0:57.6	57.6	,
2			data-sort-value=0:58.3	58.3
3			1:01.2
4			1:02.1
5			1:02.6
6			1:03.8
7			1:04.9
8			1:06.5

Heat 2

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			data-sort-value=0:57.8	57.8
2			data-sort-value=0:59.9	59.9
3			1:01.0
4			1:01.5
5			1:02.2
6			1:03.4
7			1:17.5

Heat 3

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			1:00.7
2			1:01.0
3			1:01.8
4			1:02.4
5			1:03.5
6			1:03.9

Heat 4

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			data-sort-value=0:57.8	57.7
2			data-sort-value=0:57.9	57.9
3			1:01.3
4			1:01.9
5			1:07.2
6			1:07.5

Heat 5

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			data-sort-value=0:57.5	57.5	,
2			1:01.1
3			1:01.5
4			1:03.7
5			1:05.6
6			1:08.2

Heat 6

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			1:00.5
2			1:01.4
3			1:01.6
4			1:01.7
5			1:03.3
6			1:07.8

Heat 7

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			data-sort-value=0:58.3	58.3
2			1:00.2
3			1:01.0
4			1:01.3
5			1:01.6
6			1:04.1

Semifinals

Saturday 8 August 1936: The fastest three in each semi-final and the fastest fourth-placed from across the heats advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			57.9
2			58.1
3			58.2
4			58.7
5			data-sort-value=60.5	1:00.5
			data-sort-value=60.5	1:00.5
			data-sort-value=60.5	1:00.5
8			data-sort-value=61.0	1:01.0

Semifinal 2

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1			57.5	,
2			57.9
3			58.7
4			59.4
5			59.9
6			data-sort-value=60.3	1:00.3
7			data-sort-value=61.1	1:01.1
8			data-sort-value=61.6	1:01.6

Final

Sunday 9 August 1936:

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
			57.6
			57.9
			58.0
4			58.1
5			59.3
6			59.7
7			59.9

Results summary

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Heats	Semifinals	Final	Notes
			data-sort-value=0:58.3	58.3	58.1	57.6
			data-sort-value=0:57.8	57.8	57.5	57.9
			data-sort-value=0:57.7	57.7	57.9	58.0
4			data-sort-value=0:57.5	57.5	57.9	58.1
5			data-sort-value=0:57.9	57.9	58.7	59.3
6			data-sort-value=0:57.6	57.6	58.2	59.7
7			data-sort-value=0:58.3	58.3	58.7	59.9
8			data-sort-value=0:59.9	59.9	59.4	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
9			1:01.0	59.9	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
10			1:01.4	data-sort-value=60.3	1:00.3	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
11			1:01.0	data-sort-value=60.5	1:00.5	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
			1:00.5	data-sort-value=60.5	1:00.5	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
			1:01.0	1:00.5	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
14			1:00.7	1:01.0	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
15			1:00.2	data-sort-value=61.1	1:01.1	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
16			1:01.1	data-sort-value=61.6	1:01.6	data-sort-value=99.9	Did not advance
17			1:01.2	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
18			1:01.3	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
18			1:01.3	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
20			1:01.5	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
20			1:01.5	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
22			1:01.6	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
22			1:01.6	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
24			1:01.7	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
25			1:01.8	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
26			1:01.9	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
27			1:02.1	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
28			1:02.2	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
29			1:02.4	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
30			1:02.6	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
31			1:03.3	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
32			1:03.4	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
33			1:03.5	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
34			1:03.7	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
35			1:03.8	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
36			1:03.9	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
37			1:04.1	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
38			1:04.9	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
39			1:05.6	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
40			1:06.5	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
41			1:07.2	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
42			1:07.5	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
43			1:07.8	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
44			1:08.2	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance
45			1:17.5	data-sort-value=99.9 colspan=2	did not advance

External links

Olympic Report
Web site: Wudarski . Pawel . 1999 . Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich . 12 November 2008. pl.

Notes and References

Web site: Swimming at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Freestyle . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417165716/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1936/SWI/mens-100-metres-freestyle.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 11 September 2016 . Sports Reference.
Web site: 100 metres Freestyle, Men . Olympedia . 17 December 2020.