Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre freestyle

Men's 50 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Venue	Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool
Date	24 September 1988 (heats & finals)
Competitors	71 from 44 nations
Winning time	22.14 WR
Medalists
Matt Biondi   United States Tom Jager   United States Gennadiy Prigoda   Soviet Union
←  1904 (50 yd) 1992  →

The inaugural men's 50-metre freestyle event at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place on 24 September at the Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool in Seoul, South Korea. ^[1]

U.S. swimmer Matt Biondi demolished a new world record to become the event's first ever Olympic champion. He threw down a scorching time in 22.14 to add a fourth gold and sixth medal to his Olympic hardware, and to slice 0.04 seconds off the record set by South Africa's Peter Williams. ^{[2] [3]} Starting the race with a fastest reaction, Biondi's rival and teammate Tom Jager faded down the stretch to pick up the silver in 22.36. Meanwhile, Soviet Union's Gennadiy Prigoda edged out Swiss swimmer Dano Halsall by 12-hundredths of a second to take home the bronze in 22.71. ^[2]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Peter Williams  (RSA)	22.18	Indianapolis, United States	10 April 1988
Olympic record	Inaugural event	—	—	—

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Round	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
24 September	Heat 8	Matt Biondi	United States	22.39	OR
24 September	Final A	Matt Biondi	United States	22.14	WR

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to final A, where they competed for the top 8 places. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the heats swam in final B, for ninth through the sixteenth place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A, while the next eight to final B. ^[4]

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	8	Matt Biondi	United States	22.39	Q, OR
2	9	Gennadiy Prigoda	Soviet Union	22.57	Q
3	7	Dano Halsall	Switzerland	22.61	Q, NR
	9	Tom Jager	United States		Q
5	7	Volodymyr Tkachenko	Soviet Union	22.81	Q
6	7	Frank Henter	West Germany	22.98	Q
7	8	Andrew Baildon	Australia	22.99	Q
8	8	Stéfan Voléry	Switzerland	23.04	Q
9	9	Ang Peng Siong	Singapore	23.08	q, NR
10	8	Per Johansson	Sweden	23.12	q
11	9	Stephan Güsgen	West Germany	23.22	q
	7	Stéphan Caron	France		q, WD
13	9	Shen Jianqiang	China	23.41	q
	9	Tsvetan Golomeev	Bulgaria		q, WD
15	4	Mark Andrews	Canada	23.44	q, NR
16	8	Göran Titus	Sweden	23.44	q
17	8	Hilton Woods	Netherlands Antilles	23.46	q
18	6	Feng Qiangbiao	China	23.47	qSO
	6	Christophe Kalfayan	France		qSO
20	7	Vagn Høgholm	Denmark	23.50
	9	Hans Kroes	Netherlands
22	7	Mark Foster	Great Britain	23.51
23	7	Petr Kladiva	Czechoslovakia	23.53
24	5	Manuel Guzmán	Puerto Rico	23.61
25	6	Mike Fibbens	Great Britain	23.67
26	8	Peter Rohde	Denmark	23.70
27	6	Thomas Stachewicz	Australia	23.72
28	6	Yves Clausse	Luxembourg	23.99
29	8	Rodrigo González	Mexico	24.01
30	6	Paulo Trindade	Portugal	24.02
31	5	Sérgio Esteves	Portugal	24.24
32	1	Garvin Ferguson	Bahamas	24.25	NR
33	7	José Moreira	Brazil	24.26
	4	Joseph Eric Buhain	Philippines		NR
35	5	Li Khai Kam	Hong Kong	24.30
36	6	Markus Opatril	Austria	24.32
37	5	Jorge Fernandes	Brazil	24.40
38	6	Alexander Pilhatsch	Austria	24.42
39	5	Michael Wright	Hong Kong	24.47
40	5	Magnús Ólafsson	Iceland	24.50
41	4	Richard Sam Bera	Indonesia	24.63	NR
42	5	Mohamed El-Azoul	Egypt	24.64
	4	Murat Tahir	Turkey
44	4	Hans Foerster	Virgin Islands	24.72
45	6	Urbano Zea	Mexico	24.86
	3	Oon Jin Gee	Singapore
47	3	Ronald Pickard	Virgin Islands	25.01
48	5	Mohamed Hassan	Egypt	25.11
49	1	Paul Yelle	Barbados	25.15
50	4	Hakan Eskioğlu	Turkey	25.24
51	3	Chiang Chi-li	Chinese Taipei	25.26
52	3	Vaughan Smith	Zimbabwe	25.29
53	3	Graham Thompson	Zimbabwe	25.38
54	3	Song Kwang-sun	South Korea	25.40
55	3	Wirmandi Sugriat	Indonesia	25.55
56	3	Bruno N'Diaye	Senegal	25.63
57	2	Warren Sorby	Fiji	25.64
58	2	Pablo Barahona	Honduras	25.79
59	1	Sergio Fafitine	Mozambique	25.97
60	2	Plutarco Castellanos	Honduras	26.00
61	2	Hasan Al-Shammari	Kuwait	26.27
62	2	Jason Chute	Fiji	26.46
63	2	Michele Piva	San Marino	26.60
	2	Ahmad Faraj	United Arab Emirates
65	2	Trevor Ncala	Swaziland	26.88
66	1	Filippo Piva	San Marino	26.96
67	1	Amine El-Domyati	Lebanon	27.34
68	1	Mubarak Faraj Bilal	United Arab Emirates	27.60
69	1	Yul Mark Du Pont	Swaziland	27.93
	4	Pedro Lima	Angola	DSQ
	4	Mouhamed Diop	Senegal	DSQ

Swimoff

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Feng Qiangbiao	China	23.28	q, WD
2	5	Christophe Kalfayan	France	23.37	q

Finals

^[5]

Final B

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
9	7	Goran Titus	Sweden	23.28
10	5	Per Johansson	Sweden	23.37
11	4	Ang Peng Siong	Singapore	23.39
12	6	Shen Jianqiang	China	23.40
13	8	Christophe Kalfayan	France	23.45
14	3	Stephan Güsgen	West Germany	23.55
15	2	Mark Andrews	Canada	23.64
16	1	Hilton Woods	Netherlands Antilles	23.65

Final A

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Matt Biondi	United States	22.14	WR
	6	Tom Jager	United States	22.36
	5	Gennadiy Prigoda	Soviet Union	22.71
4	3	Dano Halsall	Switzerland	22.83
5	8	Stéfan Voléry	Switzerland	22.84
6	2	Volodymyr Tkachenko	Soviet Union	22.88
7	7	Frank Henter	West Germany	23.03
8	1	Andrew Baildon	Australia	23.15

References

1. "Swimming at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games: Men's 50 metres Freestyle". Sports Reference . Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
2. Dodds, Tracy (24 September 1988). "The Seoul Games / Day 9 : Biondi, the Underdog, Ends Up Top Dog Again". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 19 August 2013.
3. Husar, John (25 September 1988). "Biondi, Evans Stay on Gold Standard". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 19 August 2013.
4. "Seoul 2000: Swimming – Men's 50m Freestyle Heats" (PDF). Seoul 1988 . LA84 Foundation. p. 400. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
5. "Seoul 2000: Swimming – Men's 50m Freestyle Finals" (PDF). Seoul 1988 . LA84 Foundation. p. 401. Retrieved 19 August 2013.

External links

• Official Report
• USA Swimming