Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics

The 1988 Summer Olympics took place in Seoul, South Korea. The swimming competition, held from September 18 to September 25, was notable for the seven medals, including five golds, won by Matt Biondi, the six golds won by Kristin Otto, and the three individual golds won by Janet Evans. 633 participants from 77 countries were competing.

Medal table

1	East Germany (GDR)	11	8	9	28
2	United States (USA)	8	6	4	18
3	Hungary (HUN)	4	2	0	6
4	Soviet Union (URS)	2	2	5	9
5	Australia (AUS)	1	1	1	3
	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	1	1	3
	Great Britain (GBR)	1	1	1	3
	West Germany (FRG)	1	1	1	3
9	Japan (JPN)	1	0	0	1
	Suriname (SUR)	1	0	0	1
11	China (CHN)	0	3	1	4
12	Canada (CAN)	0	1	1	2
	Romania (ROU)	0	1	1	2
14	Costa Rica (CRC)	0	1	0	1
	Denmark (DEN)	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands (NED)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
18	France (FRA)	0	0	2	2
	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	2	2
20	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1
	Poland (POL)	0	0	1	1
	Spain (ESP)	0	0	1	1

Events

The swimming program for 1988 was expanded from 1984, with the addition of the 50 m freestyle, bringing the total number of events to 31. The following events were contested:

• Freestyle: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m (women), 1500 m (men),
• Backstroke: 100 m, 200 m
• Breaststroke: 100 m, 200 m
• Butterfly: 100 m, 200 m
• Individual Medley: 200 m, 400 m
• Relay: 4×100 m free, 4×200 m free; 4×100 m medley

For the order of events, please see

Main article: Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Event order

Medal summary

Men’s events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle	Matt Biondi  United States	22.14 (WR)	Tom Jager  United States	22.36	Gennadiy Prigoda  Soviet Union	22.71
100 m freestyle	Matt Biondi  United States	48.63 (OR)	Chris Jacobs  United States	49.08	Stéphan Caron  France	49.62
200 m freestyle	Duncan Armstrong  Australia	1:47.25 (WR)	Anders Holmertz  Sweden	1:47.89	Matt Biondi  United States	1:47.99
400 m freestyle	Uwe Daßler  East Germany	3:46.95 (WR)	Duncan Armstrong  Australia	3:47.15	Artur Wojdat  Poland	3:47.34
1500 m freestyle	Vladimir Salnikov  Soviet Union	15:00.40	Stefan Pfeiffer  West Germany	15:02.69	Uwe Daßler  East Germany	15:06.15
100 m backstroke	Daichi Suzuki  Japan	55.05	David Berkoff  United States	55.18	Igor Polyansky  Soviet Union	55.20
200 m backstroke	Igor Polyansky  Soviet Union	1:59.37	Frank Baltrusch  East Germany	1:59.60	Paul Kingsman  New Zealand	2:00.48
100 m breaststroke	Adrian Moorhouse  Great Britain	1:02.04	Károly Güttler  Hungary	1:02.05	Dmitry Volkov  Soviet Union	1:02.20
200 m breaststroke	József Szabó  Hungary	2:13.52	Nick Gillingham  Great Britain	2:14.12	Sergio López Miró  Spain	2:15.21
100 m butterfly	Anthony Nesty  Suriname	53.00 (OR)	Matt Biondi  United States	53.01	Andy Jameson  Great Britain	53.30
200 m butterfly	Michael Groß  West Germany	1:56.94	Benny Nielsen  Denmark	1:58.24 (OR)	Anthony Mosse  New Zealand	1:58.28
200 m individual medley	Tamás Darnyi  Hungary	2:00.17 (WR)	Patrick Kühl  East Germany	2:01.61	Vadim Yaroshchuk  Soviet Union	2:02.40
400 m individual medley	Tamás Darnyi  Hungary	4:14.75 (WR)	David Wharton  United States	4:17.36	Stefano Battistelli  Italy	4:18.01
4×100 m freestyle relay	United States (USA) Chris Jacobs Troy Dalbey Tom Jager Matt Biondi Doug Gjertsen* Brent Lang* Shaun Jordan*	3:16.53	Soviet Union (URS) Gennadiy Prigoda Yuri Bashkatov Nikolai Yevseyev Vladimir Tkacenko Raimundas Mažuolis* Oleksiy Boryslavskiy*	3:18.33	East Germany (GDR) Dirk Richter Thomas Flemming Lars Hinneburg Steffen Zesner	3:19.82
4×200 m freestyle relay	United States (USA) Troy Dalbey Matt Cetlinski Doug Gjertsen Matt Biondi Craig Oppel* Dan Jorgensen*	7:12.51	East Germany (GDR) Uwe Daßler Sven Lodziewski Thomas Flemming Steffen Zesner Lars Hinneburg*	7:13.68	West Germany (FRG) Erik Hochstein Thomas Fahrner Rainer Henkel Michael Groß Peter Sitt* Stefan Pfeiffer*	7:14.35
4×100 m medley relay	United States (USA) David Berkoff Richard Schroeder Matt Biondi Chris Jacobs Jay Mortenson* Tom Jager*	3:36.93	Canada (CAN) Mark Tewksbury Victor Davis Tom Ponting Sandy Goss	3:39.28	Soviet Union (URS) Igor Polyansky Dmitry Volkov Vadim Yaroshchuk Gennadiy Prigoda Sergey Zabolotnov* Valeriy Lozik* Konstantin Petrov* Nikolay Yevseyev*	3:39.96

* Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Women’s events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle	Kristin Otto  East Germany	25.49 (OR)	Yang Wenyi  China	25.64	Jill Sterkel  United States	25.71
					Katrin Meißner  East Germany
100 m freestyle	Kristin Otto  East Germany	54.93	Zhuang Yong  China	55.47	Catherine Plewinski  France	55.49
200 m freestyle	Heike Friedrich  East Germany	1:57.65 (OR)	Silvia Poll  Costa Rica	1:58.67	Manuela Stellmach  East Germany	1:59.01
400 m freestyle	Janet Evans  United States	4:03.85 (WR)	Heike Friedrich  East Germany	4:05.94	Anke Möhring  East Germany	4:06.62
800 m freestyle	Janet Evans  United States	8:20.20 (OR)	Astrid Strauß  East Germany	8:22.09	Julie McDonald  Australia	8:22.93
100 m backstroke	Kristin Otto  East Germany	1:00.89	Krisztina Egerszegi  Hungary	1:01.56	Cornelia Sirch  East Germany	1:01.57
200 m backstroke	Krisztina Egerszegi  Hungary	2:09.29 (OR)	Katrin Zimmermann  East Germany	2:10.61	Cornelia Sirch  East Germany	2:11.45
100 m breaststroke	Tanya Dangalakova  Bulgaria	1:07.95 (OR)	Antoaneta Frenkeva  Bulgaria	1:08.74	Silke Hörner  East Germany	1:08.83
200 m breaststroke	Silke Hörner  East Germany	2:26.71 (WR)	Huang Xiaomin  China	2:27.49	Antoaneta Frenkeva  Bulgaria	2:28.34
100 m butterfly	Kristin Otto  East Germany	59.00 (OR)	Birte Weigang  East Germany	59.45	Hong Qian  China	59.52
200 m butterfly	Kathleen Nord  East Germany	2:09.51	Birte Weigang  East Germany	2:09.91	Mary T. Meagher  United States	2:10.80
200 m individual medley	Daniela Hunger  East Germany	2:12.59 (OR)	Yelena Dendeberova  Soviet Union	2:13.31	Noemi Lung  Romania	2:14.85
400 m individual medley	Janet Evans  United States	4:37.76	Noemi Lung  Romania	4:39.46	Daniela Hunger  East Germany	4:39.76
4×100 m freestyle relay	East Germany (GDR) Kristin Otto Katrin Meißner Daniela Hunger Manuela Stellmach Sabina Schulze* Heike Friedrich*	3:40.63	Netherlands (NED) Marianne Muis Mildred Muis Conny van Bentum Karin Brienesse Diana van der Plaats*	3:43.39	United States (USA) Mary Wayte Mitzi Kremer Laura Walker Dara Torres Paige Zemina* Jill Sterkel*	3:44.25
4×100 m medley relay	East Germany (GDR) Kristin Otto Silke Hörner Birte Weigang Katrin Meißner Cornelia Sirch* Manuela Stellmach*	4:03.74	United States (USA) Beth Barr Tracey McFarlane Janel Jorgensen Mary Wayte Betsy Mitchell* Mary T. Meagher* Dara Torres*	4:07.90	Canada (CAN) Lori Melien Allison Higson Jane Kerr Andrea Nugent Keltie Duggan* Patricia Noall*	4:10.49

* Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

References

• 1988 Summer Olympics results: swimming, from http://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2009-12-29.