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

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1972 Olympic Games took place between September 2 and 3.[1]

Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Olympia Schwimmhalle
Date	2–3 September
Competitors	48 from 29 nations
Medalists
Mark Spitz  United States Jerry Heidenreich  United States Vladimir Bure  Soviet Union

Competition format

The competition used a three-round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule mostly followed the format introduced in 1952, though the number of semifinals was reduced from 3 to 2 and qualification for the final was done via place with wild cards in the semifinals. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 7 heats scheduled, with 7 or 8 swimmers each. Due to withdrawals, some heats had as few as 6 swimmers. The top 16 swimmers advanced to the semifinals.

There were 2 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 3 swimmers in each semifinal as well as the next 2 fastest swimmers advanced to the final.

This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

For the first time at the Olympics, times were reported to the hundredths of a second.

Results

Heats

16 fastest swimmer from seven heats advanced to semifinal.

Rank	Heat	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	7	Mike Wenden	Australia	52.34	Q
2	6	Jerry Heidenreich	United States	52.38	Q
3	7	Mark Spitz	United States	52.46	Q
4	3	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	52.87	Q
5	7	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	52.91	Q
6	4	Michel Rousseau	France	52.93	Q
7	5	John Murphy	United States	53.07	Q
8	2	Igor Grivennikov	Soviet Union	53.64	Q
9	3	Jorge Comas	Spain	53.70	Q
10	6	Brian Phillips	Canada	53.75	Q
11	5	Georgijs Kuļikovs	Soviet Union	53.78	Q
12	4	Kersten Meier	West Germany	53.96	Q
13	4	Greg Rogers	Australia	53.98	Q
14	3	José Aranha	Brazil	54.06	Q
15	6	Bob Kasting	Canada	54.07	Q
16	5	Peter Bruch	East Germany	54.25	Q
17	1	Ruy de Oliveira	Brazil	54.26
18	6	Gerhard Schiller	West Germany	54.28
19	1	Gilles Vigne	France	54.34
20	4	Hartmut Flöckner	East Germany	54.36
21	1	Wilfried Hartung	East Germany	54.37
22	2	Colin Herring	New Zealand	54.41
	7	Fritz Warncke	Norway	54.41
24	2	Alain Hermitte	France	54.57
25	1	Malcolm Windeatt	Great Britain	54.70
26	2	István Szentirmay	Hungary	54.71
27	7	Roberto Pangaro	Italy	54.74
28	4	Bruce Robertson	Canada	54.76
29	5	Paulo Zanetti	Brazil	54.97
30	5	Brian Brinkley	Great Britain	55.06
31	3	Hanspeter Würmli	Switzerland	55.08
32	3	Neil Rogers	Australia	55.32
33	7	Marian Slavic	Romania	55.35
34	6	Attila Császári	Hungary	55.37
35	6	Finnur Garðarsson	Iceland	55.97
	5	Zbigniew Pacelt	Poland	55.97
37	5	Andrew Hunter	Ireland	56.09
38	1	Geoffrey Ferreira	Trinidad and Tobago	56.27
39	6	Salvador Vilanova	El Salvador	56.57
40	2	Antonio Ferracuti	El Salvador	56.69
41	1	Roberto Strauss	Mexico	56.78
42	2	Sandro Rudan	Yugoslavia	56.91
43	7	Jorge van Balen	Venezuela	57.20
44	6	Wong Ronnie	Hong Kong	57.53
45	3	Samnang Prak	Cambodia	59.18
46	4	Feridun Aybars	Turkey	59.32
47	2	Bruno Bassoul	Lebanon	1:00.8
48	5	Abdullah Abdulrahman	Kuwait	1:03.94

Semifinals

Top three swimmers in each heat and next two fastest advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Jerry Heidenreich	United States	52.31	Q
2	Igor Grivennikov	Soviet Union	52.55	Q
3	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	52.60	Q
4	Michel Rousseau	France	52.82	q
5	José Aranha	Brazil	53.47
6	Brian Phillips	Canada	53.73
7	Peter Bruch	East Germany	53.97
8	Kersten Meier	West Germany	54.35

Semifinal 2

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mike Wenden	Australia	52.32	Q
2	Mark Spitz	United States	52.43	Q
3	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	52.87	Q
4	John Murphy	United States	53.17	q
5	Bob Kasting	Canada	53.62
6	Georgijs Kuļikovs	Soviet Union	53.68
7	Jorge Comas	Spain	53.92
8	Greg Rogers	Australia	54.26

Final

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
	Mark Spitz	United States	51.22	WR
	Jerry Heidenreich	United States	51.65
	Vladimir Bure	Soviet Union	51.77
4	John Murphy	United States	52.08
5	Mike Wenden	Australia	52.41
6	Igor Grivennikov	Soviet Union	52.44
7	Michel Rousseau	France	52.90
8	Klaus Steinbach	West Germany	52.92

References

1. "Swimming at the 1972 Munich Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2016.