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

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.

Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the XI Olympiad
Venue	Olympiapark Schwimmstadion Berlin
Date	8–9 August
Competitors	45 from 23 nations
Medalists
Ferenc Csik  Hungary Masanori Yusa  Japan Shigeo Arai  Japan

Forty-five swimmers from 23 nations competed.

Records

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

World Record	56.4	Peter Fick	New Haven (USA)	11 February 1936
Olympic Record	58.0	Yasuji Miyazaki	Los Angeles (USA)	6 August 1932

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 semi-final with 57.5 seconds.

Competition format

The 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.

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	Peter Fick	United States	57.6	Q, OR
2	Ferenc Csik	Hungary	58.3	Q
3	Romund Gabrielsen	Great Britain	1:01.2
4	Bob Hamerton	Canada	1:02.1
5	Paulo Tarrto	Brazil	1:02.6
6	Mahmoud Kadri	Egypt	1:03.8
7	Arturo Álvarez	Peru	1:04.9
8	Charlie Chan	Republic of China	1:06.5

Heat 2

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Masanori Yusa	Japan	57.8	Q
2	Arthur Highland	United States	59.9	Q
3	William Kendall	Australia	1:01.0	q
4	Egon Roolaid	Estonia	1:01.5
5	René Cavalero	France	1:02.2
6	Sjoerd Mooi Wilten	Netherlands	1:03.4
7	Alberto Conrad	Bolivia	1:17.5

Heat 3

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mostyn Ffrench-Williams	Great Britain	1:00.7	Q
2	Jikirum Adjaluddin	Philippines	1:01.0	Q
3	Heiko Schwartz	Germany	1:01.8
4	Munroe Bourne	Canada	1:02.4
5	Isaac Morais	Brazil	1:03.5
6	Günther Zobernig	Austria	1:03.9

Heat 4

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Shigeo Arai	Japan	57.7	Q
2	Helmuth Fischer	Germany	57.9	Q
3	Ödön Gróf	Hungary	1:01.3
4	Leonard Spence	Bermuda	1:01.9
5	Claude Desusclade	France	1:07.2
6	Rikhardos Brousalis	Greece	1:07.5

Heat 5

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Masaharu Taguchi	Japan	57.5	Q, OR
2	John Christensen	Denmark	1:01.1	Q
3	George Larson	Canada	1:01.5
4	Zaki Saad al-Dine	Egypt	1:03.7
5	Juan Paz	Peru	1:05.6
6	Spyridon Mavrogiorgos	Greece	1:08.2

Heat 6

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Draško Vilfan	Yugoslavia	1:00.5	Q
2	Hermann Heibel	Germany	1:01.4	Q
3	Frederick Dove	Great Britain	1:01.6
4	José Obial	Philippines	1:01.7
5	Leônidas da Silva	Brazil	1:03.3
6	John Young	Bermuda	1:07.8

Heat 7

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Arthur Lindegren	United States	58.3	Q
2	Oszkár Abay-Nemes	Hungary	1:00.2	Q
3	Heikki Hietanen	Finland	1:01.0	q
4	Piet Stam	Netherlands	1:01.3
5	Poul Petersen	Denmark	1:01.6
6	Roger Zirilli	Switzerland	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	Masaharu Taguchi	Japan	57.9	Q
2	Ferenc Csik	Hungary	58.1	Q
3	Peter Fick	United States	58.2	Q
4	Helmuth Fischer	Germany	58.7	q
5	Heikki Hietanen	Finland	1:00.5
	Draško Vilfan	Yugoslavia	1:00.5
	Jikirum Adjaluddin	Philippines	1:00.5
8	Mostyn Ffrench-Williams	Great Britain	1:01.0

Semifinal 2

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Masanori Yusa	Japan	57.5	Q, =OR
2	Shigeo Arai	Japan	57.9	Q
3	Arthur Lindegren	United States	58.7	Q
4	Arthur Highland	United States	59.4
5	William Kendall	Australia	59.9
6	Hermann Heibel	Germany	1:00.3
7	Oszkár Abay-Nemes	Hungary	1:01.1
8	John Christensen	Denmark	1:01.6

Final

Sunday 9 August 1936:

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
	Ferenc Csik	Hungary	57.6
	Masanori Yusa	Japan	57.9
	Shigeo Arai	Japan	58.0
4	Masaharu Taguchi	Japan	58.1
5	Helmuth Fischer	Germany	59.3
6	Peter Fick	United States	59.7
7	Arthur Lindegren	United States	59.9

References

1. "Swimming at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2016.

External links

• Olympic Report
• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Retrieved 12 November 2008.