Swimming at the 1948 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 30 and 31 July at the Empire Pool. There were 41 competitors from 19 nations. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by Wally Ris, returning the United States to the podium in the event after a one-Games absence broke a seven-Games streak. It was the sixth victory for an American in the 100 metre freestyle, most of any nation. Another American, Alan Ford, took silver. Géza Kádas of Hungary earned bronze, the nation's third medal in four Games. Japan's three-Games medal streak in the event ended with no Japanese swimmers competing due to the nation not being invited after World War II.

Background

This was the 10th appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1900 (when the shortest freestyle was the 200 metres), though the 1904 version was measured in yards rather than metres.

None of the seven finalists from the pre-World War II 1936 Games returned. Alex Jany, a teenager from France, was the favorite in the event. The American team, including world record holder Alan Ford, was also strong. Ford had beaten Jany's record a month before the Games.

Cuba, Iceland, India, and Mexico each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 10th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

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 four fastest swimmers would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal plus the next two fastest swimmers would move on to the final. There were 6 heats of between 6 and 8 swimmers, allowing 16 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 8 swimmers each; 8 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.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Wally Ris equaled the Olympic record in the second semifinal with 57.5 seconds, then beat it with 57.3 seconds in the final.

Schedule

Date Time Round Friday, 30 July 1948 14:0020:30 HeatsSemifinals Saturday, 31 July 1948 15:30 Final

Results

Heats

Heat 1

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Alex Jany 58.1 2 Bruce Bourke 59.1 3 Elemér Szathmáry 59.7 4 Olle Johansson 1:01.0 5 Plauto Guimarães 1:03.7 6 Isidoro Pérez 1:04.0 7 Isaac Mansoor 1:06.4

Heat 2

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Keith Carter 58.7 2 Per-Olof Olsson 59.0 3 Zoltán Szilárd 59.8 4 Manuel Guerra 1:00.7 5 Augusto Cantón 1:01.8 6 Nicasio Silverio 1:02.0 7 Pat Kendall 1:02.1 8 Dilip Mitra 1:06.9

Heat 3

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Géza Kádas 58.2 2 Alberto Isaac 1:00.1 3 Warren Boyd 1:00.4 4 Ali Ahmed Bagdadi 1:02.4 5 Eric Jubb 1:02.8 6 Sachin Nag 1:03.8

Heat 4

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Horacio White 1:00.2 2 Aram Boghossian 1:00.9 3 Jesús Domínguez 1:01.3 4 Dorri El-Said 1:02.5 5 Fernand Martinaux 1:04.2 6 Panagiotis Khatzikyriakakis 1:07.4

Heat 5

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Wally Ris 58.1 2 Ronald Stedman 1:01.3 3 Henri Padou, Jr. 1:01.5 4 Sérgio Rodrigues 1:01.6 5 Wu Chuanyu 1:03.5 6 Derek Oatway 1:08.6

Heat 6

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Alan Ford 59.2 2 Taha Youssef El-Gamal 59.7 3 Martin Lundén 1:00.2 4 Peter Salmon 1:01.0 5 Ari Guðmundsson 1:01.6 6 Trevor Harrop 1:02.3 7 Raúl García 1:02.5 8 Walter Schneider 1:05.1

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Keith Carter 57.6 2 Alex Jany 57.9 3 Zoltán Szilárd 59.6 4 Taha Youssef El-Gamal 59.9 5 Bruce Bourke 1:00.0 6 Martin Lundén 1:00.2 7 Alberto Isaac 1:00.4 8 Aram Boghossian 1:01.0

Semifinal 2

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 Wally Ris 57.5 , 2 Alan Ford 57.8 3 Géza Kádas 58.0 4 Per-Olof Olsson 59.1 5 Horacio White 1:00.4 6 Elemér Szathmáry 1:00.5 7 Ronald Stedman 1:01.0 8 Warren Boyd 1:01.1

Final

Jany led at halfway but fell back into the pack after the turn. Ford led until the 80 metre point, when Ris passed him. Kádas, in a tight race with Ford for second place, crashed into the lane divider just before the end of the race.

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes Wally Ris 57.3 Alan Ford 57.8 Géza Kádas 58.1 4 Keith Carter 58.3 5 Alex Jany 58.3 6 Per-Olof Olsson 59.3 7 Zoltán Szilárd 59.6 8 Taha Youssef El-Gamal 1:00.5

Results summary

Rank Swimmer Nation Heats Semifinals Final Notes Wally Ris 58.1 57.5 57.3 Alan Ford 59.2 57.8 57.8 Géza Kádas 58.2 58.0 58.1 4 Keith Carter 58.7 57.6 58.3 5 Alex Jany 58.1 57.9 58.3 6 Per-Olof Olsson 59.0 59.1 59.3 7 Zoltán Szilárd 59.8 59.6 59.6 8 Taha Youssef El-Gamal 59.7 59.9 1:00.5 9 Bruce Bourke 59.1 1:00.0 Did not advance 10 Martin Lundén 1:00.2 1:00.2 Did not advance 11 Alberto Isaac 1:00.1 1:00.4 Did not advance Horacio White 1:00.2 1:00.4 Did not advance 13 Elemér Szathmáry 59.7 1:00.5 Did not advance 14 Aram Boghossian 1:00.9 1:01.0 Did not advance Ronald Stedman 1:01.3 1:01.0 Did not advance 16 Warren Boyd 1:00.4 1:01.1 Did not advance 17 Manuel Guerra 1:00.7 Did not advance 18 Olle Johansson 1:01.0 Did not advance Peter Salmon 1:01.0 Did not advance 20 Jesús Domínguez 1:01.3 Did not advance 21 Henri Padou, Jr. 1:01.5 Did not advance 22 Ari Guðmundsson 1:01.6 Did not advance Sérgio Rodrigues 1:01.6 Did not advance 24 Augusto Cantón 1:01.8 Did not advance 25 Nicasio Silverio 1:02.0 Did not advance 26 Pat Kendall 1:02.1 Did not advance 27 Trevor Harrop 1:02.3 Did not advance 28 Ali Ahmed Bagdadi 1:02.4 Did not advance 29 Dorri El-Said 1:02.5 Did not advance Raúl García 1:02.5 Did not advance 31 Eric Jubb 1:02.8 Did not advance 32 Wu Chuanyu 1:03.5 Did not advance 33 Plauto Guimarães 1:03.7 Did not advance 34 Sachin Nag 1:03.8 Did not advance 35 Isidoro Pérez 1:04.0 Did not advance 36 Fernand Martinaux 1:04.2 Did not advance 37 Walter Schneider 1:05.1 Did not advance 38 Isaac Mansoor 1:06.4 Did not advance 39 Dilip Mitra 1:06.9 Did not advance 40 Panagiotis Khatzikyriakakis 1:07.4 Did not advance 41 Derek Oatway 1:08.6 Did not advance

References