Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre butterfly explained

The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between August 30 and 31.^[1] This swimming event used the butterfly stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

The winning margin was 1.29 seconds which as of 2023 remains the only time this event for men was won by more than one second at the Olympics.

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			57.30	Q
2			57.98	Q
3			58.97
4			1:00.22
5			1:00.23
6			1:01.25
7			1:01:29
8			1:05.45

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			56.45	Q
2			58.07	Q
3			58.37	Q
4			59.71
5			1:00.14
6			1:04:46
7			1:05.12
8			1:07.50

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			57.16	Q
2			57.40	Q
3			58.28	Q
4			58.40
5			59.22
6			59.28
7			1:00.06
8			1:02.24

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			56.86	Q
2			57.50	Q
3			57.65	Q
4			58.26	Q
5			58.77
6			59.83
7			1:02.11

Key: Q = Qualified

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			56.45	Q
2			57.41	Q
3			57.54	Q
4			57.56	Q
5			59.00
6			59.50
7			1:00.07
8			1:00.29

Key: Q = Qualified

Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			56.51	Q
2			56.86	Q
3			57.06	Q
4			57.28	Q
5			57.69
6			58.07
7			58.33
8			58.54

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1			55.98	Q
2			56.18	Q
3			56.88	Q
4			56.96	Q
5			57.51
6			57.67
7			58.13
8			58.25

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
			54.27	WR
			55.56
			55.74
4			55.87
5			56.11
6			57.27
7			57.40
8			57.90

Key: WR = World record

Notes and References

1. Web site: Swimming at the 1972 Munich Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Butterfly . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417055316/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1972/SWI/mens-100-metres-butterfly.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 25 November 2016 . Sports Reference.