Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Venue	Helsinki Swimming Stadium
Date	26–27 July
Competitors	61 from 33 nations
Medalists
Clarke Scholes  United States Hiroshi Suzuki  Japan Göran Larsson  Sweden

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between 26 and 27 July at the Swimming Stadium.

Competition format

The competition used a three-round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was new, introducing a major change from the format used from 1912 to 1948. A swimmer's place in the heat was no longer used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 9 heats of 6 or 7 swimmers each. The top 24 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 3 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

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.

Results

Heats

24 fastest swimmer from nine heats advanced to semifinal.

Heat 1

Rank	Heat	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	6	Göran Larsson	Sweden	57.5	Q
2	4	Dick Cleveland	United States	57.8	Q
3	5	Ronald Gora	United States	58.0	Q
	1	Yoshihiro Hamaguchi	Japan	58.0	Q
	4	Hiroshi Suzuki	Japan	58.0	Q
6	3	Rex Aubrey	Australia	58.2	Q
	1	Aldo Eminente	France	58.2	Q
8	8	Toru Goto	Japan	58.3	Q
	6	Clarke Scholes	United States	58.3	Q
10	9	Géza Kádas	Hungary	58.4	Q
11	4	Carlo Pedersoli	Italy	58.8	Q
12	3	Lev Balandin	Soviet Union	58.9	Q
	3	Alex Jany	France	58.9	Q
	7	Jack Wardrop	Great Britain	58.9	Q
15	5	György Ipacs	Hungary	59.1	Q
	8	Joris Tjebbes	Netherlands	59.1	Q
17	2	Ronald Roberts	Great Britain	59.5	Q
	9	Thomas Welsh	Great Britain	59.5	Q
19	3	John Durr	South Africa	1:00.0	Q
	6	Nicasio Silverio	Cuba	1:00.0	Q
	9	Vladimir Skomarovsky	Soviet Union	1:00.0	Q
22	8	Endel Edasi	Soviet Union	1:00.1	Q
23	3	Cheung Kin Man	Hong Kong	1:00.3	Q
24	7	Lucien Beaumont	Canada	1:00.4	Q
25	2	Olle Johansson	Sweden	1:00.5
	1	René Muñiz	Mexico	1:00.5
	1	Iosif Novac	Romania	1:00.5
28	2	Neo Chwee Kok	Singapore	1:00.6
	2	Frank O'Neill	Australia	1:00.6
30	5	Juan Lanz	Mexico	1:00.9
	5	Michel Vandamme	France	1:00.9
32	9	Peter Salmon	Canada	1:01.0
33	5	Pentti Ikonen	Finland	1:01.1
34	4	Haroldo Lara	Brazil	1:01.2
	4	Federico Zwanck	Argentina	1:01.2
36	8	Dennis Ford	South Africa	1:01.3
37	7	Alberto Isaac	Mexico	1:01.4
	9	Lars Svantesson	Sweden	1:01.4
39	7	Marcello Trabucco	Argentina	1:01.5
40	6	Roberto Queralt	Spain	1:01.6
41	5	Oscar Saiz	Venezuela	1:01.7
42	6	Aram Boghossian	Brazil	1:02.0
	5	Abdel Aziz El-Shafei	Egypt	1:02.0
	1	Leo Telivuo	Finland	1:02.0
45	8	Per Olsen	Norway	1:02.1
46	8	Alfonso Buonocore	Italy	1:02.3
	7	Dorri El-Said	Egypt	1:02.3
48	6	Mauno Valkeinen	Finland	1:02.5
49	1	Ricardo Conde	Spain	1:02.6
	4	Fernando Madeira	Portugal	1:02.6
51	3	Hernán Avilés	Chile	1:02.8
52	2	Francisco Monteiro	Hong Kong	1:03.1
53	7	Guilherme Patroni	Portugal	1:03.7
54	2	Robert Cook	Bermuda	1:04.1
	8	Geoffrey Marks	Ceylon	1:04.1
56	3	Walter Bardgett	Bermuda	1:04.4
57	9	José Valdes	Guatemala	1:04.5
58	6	Nguyễn Văn Phan	Vietnam	1:05.0
59	1	Nahum Buch	Israel	1:05.6
60	7	Michel Currat	Switzerland	1:07.2
61	4	Isaac Mansoor	India	1:10.8

Semifinals

8 fastest swimmers advanced to final.

Rank	Heat	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	1	Clarke Scholes	United States	57.1	Q, OR
2	3	Ronald Gora	United States	57.7	Q
3	3	Rex Aubrey	Australia	57.8	Q
	2	Géza Kádas	Hungary	57.8	Q
	1	Göran Larsson	Sweden	57.8	Q
6	2	Hiroshi Suzuki	Japan	58.0	Q
7	1	Aldo Eminente	France	58.3	QSO
	3	Toru Goto	Japan	58.3	QSO
	1	Yoshihiro Hamaguchi	Japan	58.3	QSO
10	2	Dick Cleveland	United States	58.6
11	2	Lev Balandin	Soviet Union	58.8
12	3	Alex Jany	France	58.9
	1	Carlo Pedersoli	Italy	58.9
14	3	Lucien Beaumont	Canada	59.3
15	3	György Ipacs	Hungary	59.4
	1	Jack Wardrop	Great Britain	59.4
17	3	Ronald Roberts	Great Britain	59.5
18	1	Endel Edasi	Soviet Union	59.8
	2	Joris Tjebbes	Netherlands	59.8
20	1	Nicasio Silverio	Cuba	59.9
21	2	John Durr	South Africa	1:00.2
22	2	Thomas Welsh	Great Britain	1:00.3
23	2	Cheung Kin Man	Hong Kong	1:00.9
24	3	Vladimir Skomarovsky	Soviet Union	1:01.1

Swim-off

Because there were 3 swimmers with the same swim time, a tie-breaking heat was held. Two fastest swimmer advanced to the final.

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Toru Goto	Japan	58.5	Q
2	Aldo Eminente	France	58.8	Q
3	Yoshihiro Hamaguchi	Japan	59.1

Final

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time	Notes
	Clarke Scholes	United States	57.4
	Hiroshi Suzuki	Japan	57.4
	Göran Larsson	Sweden	58.2
4	Toru Goto	Japan	58.5
5	Géza Kádas	Hungary	58.6
6	Rex Aubrey	Australia	58.7
7	Aldo Eminente	France	58.7
8	Ronald Gora	United States	58.8

External links

• Men 100m Freestyle Swimming Olympic Games 1952 Helsinki