| Event: | Men's 100 metre butterfly |
| Games: | 2012 Summer |
| Venue: | London Aquatics Centre |
| Dates: | August 2, 2012 (heats &<br />semifinals) August 3, 2012 (final) |
| Competitors: | 43 |
| Nations: | 35 |
| Win Value: | 51.21 |
| Gold: | Michael Phelps |
| Goldnoc: | USA |
| Silver: | Chad le Clos |
| Silvernoc: | RSA |
| Silver2: | Yevgeny Korotyshkin |
| Silvernoc2: | RUS |
| Prev: | 2008 |
| Next: | 2016 |
The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 2–3 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.[1]
As the most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps continued to ramp up his already astonishing resume with an unprecedented second Olympic three-peat and another title defense. Rallying from seventh at the halfway turn, he produced a remarkable swim over the rest of the field to claim his seventeenth gold and twenty-first career medal in 51.21.[2] [3] Trailing behind Phelps by 0.23 seconds, South Africa's Chad le Clos and Russia's Yevgeny Korotyshkin tied for the silver in a matching time of 51.44.[4] [5]
Leading early at the turn, Serbia's Milorad Čavić, who famously lost to Phelps in Beijing four years earlier by a fingertip, faded down the stretch to match Germany's Steffen Deibler with a fourth-place time in 51.81.[6] Netherlands' Joeri Verlinden (51.82), U.S. swimmer Tyler McGill (51.88), and Poland's Konrad Czerniak (52.05) also vied for an Olympic medal to round out a historic finish.[5]
Austria's Dinko Jukic (51.99), fourth-place finalist in the 200 m butterfly few days earlier; and Kenya's Jason Dunford (52.16), fifth in Beijing, missed the final roster after placing ninth and sixteenth respectively in the semifinals.[7] Other notable swimmers featured Japan's Takeshi Matsuda, who elected not to do a swimoff with Germany's Benjamin Starke (a matching time of 52.36) on the morning prelims; his teammate Takuro Fujii (52.49) and Papua New Guinea's Ryan Pini (52.68), both of whom finished sixth and eighth in Beijing; and Sweden's 2000 champion Lars Frölander, who posted a twentieth-place time of 52.47 in his sixth Olympics.[8] [9]
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 7 | 51.54 | Q, NR | |||
| 2 | 6 | 4 | 51.72 | Q | |||
| 3 | 4 | 3 | 51.84 | Q | |||
| 4 | 5 | 4 | 51.85 | Q | |||
| 5 | 6 | 5 | 51.90 | Q | |||
| 6 | 5 | 6 | 51.92 | Q | |||
| 7 | 4 | 4 | 51.95 | Q | |||
| 8 | 4 | 7 | 52.03 | Q | |||
| 9 | 6 | 6 | 52.07 | Q | |||
| 10 | 6 | 3 | 52.11 | Q | |||
| 11 | 6 | 2 | 52.12 | Q | |||
| 12 | 3 | 6 | 52.19 | Q | |||
| 13 | 6 | 1 | 52.22 | Q, NR | |||
| 3 | 7 | Q | |||||
| 15 | 5 | 5 | 52.23 | Q | |||
| 16 | 4 | 5 | 52.36 | Q | |||
| 6 | 8 | ||||||
| 18 | 5 | 1 | 52.40 | ||||
| 19 | 3 | 5 | 52.44 | ||||
| 20 | 4 | 1 | 52.47 | ||||
| 21 | 5 | 3 | 52.49 | ||||
| 22 | 4 | 8 | 52.50 | ||||
| 23 | 5 | 2 | 52.52 | ||||
| 24 | 4 | 6 | 52.56 | ||||
| 25 | 3 | 2 | 52.68 | ||||
| 26 | 3 | 4 | 52.69 | ||||
| 27 | 3 | 1 | 53.09 | ||||
| 28 | 4 | 2 | 53.14 | ||||
| 29 | 5 | 8 | 53.18 | ||||
| 30 | 3 | 3 | 53.22 | ||||
| 31 | 3 | 8 | 53.23 | ||||
| 32 | 6 | 7 | 53.25 | ||||
| 33 | 2 | 7 | 53.40 | NR | |||
| 34 | 2 | 4 | 53.47 | ||||
| 35 | 2 | 5 | 53.61 | ||||
| 36 | 2 | 3 | 53.65 | ||||
| 37 | 2 | 1 | 53.76 | ||||
| 38 | 2 | 8 | 53.86 | ||||
| 39 | 2 | 6 | 54.17 | ||||
| 40 | 2 | 2 | 54.20 | ||||
| 41 | 1 | 3 | 56.99 | NR | |||
| 42 | 1 | 4 | 1:00.71 | ||||
| 43 | 1 | 5 | 1:04.05 |
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 50.86 | Q | |||
| 2 | 3 | 51.76 | Q | |||
| 3 | 5 | 51.78 | Q | |||
| 4 | 2 | 52.11 | ||||
| 5 | 6 | 52.30 | ||||
| 6 | 7 | 52.40 | ||||
| 8 | ||||||
| 8 | 1 | 52.71 |
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 51.42 | Q, NR | |||
| 2 | 6 | 51.61 | Q | |||
| 3 | 3 | 51.66 | Q | |||
| 4 | 2 | 51.75 | Q, NR | |||
| 5 | 5 | 51.85 | Q | |||
| 6 | 1 | 51.99 | NR | |||
| 7 | 7 | 52.03 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | 52.16 |
| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 51.21 | |||||
| 5 | 51.44 | |||||
| 8 | ||||||
| 4 | 6 | 51.81 | ||||
| 7 | ||||||
| 6 | 2 | 51.82 | ||||
| 7 | 3 | 51.88 | ||||
| 8 | 1 | 52.05 |