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	September 24, 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

Swimming events at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women

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.

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.^[1][2] 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.^[1]

Records

The existing World and Olympic records at the time of the competition were:

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
September 24	Heat 8	Matt Biondi	United States	22.39	OR
September 24	Final	Matt Biondi	United States	22.14	WR

Results

Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).^[3]

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
3	9	Tom Jager	United States	22.61	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	7	Stéphan Caron	France	23.22	q, WD
11	9	Stephan Güsgen	West Germany	23.22	q
13	9	Tsvetan Golomeev	Bulgaria	23.41	q, WD
13	9	Shen Jianqiang	China	23.41	q
15	4	Mark Andrews	Canada	23.44	q, NR
16	8	Goran Titus	Sweden	23.44	q
17	8	Hilton Woods	Netherlands Antilles	23.46	q
18	6	Feng Qiangbiao	China	23.47	qSO
18	6	Christophe Kalfayan	France	23.47	qSO
20	7	Vagn Høgholm	Denmark	23.50
20	9	Hans Kroes	Netherlands	23.50
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	Tom 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	Sergio Esteves	Portugal	24.24
32	1	Garvin Ferguson	Bahamas	24.25	NR
33	7	José Moreira	Brazil	24.26
33	4	Joseph Eric Buhain	Philippines	24.26	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-Azoui	Egypt	24.64
42	4	Murat Tahir	Turkey	24.64
44	4	Hans Foerster	Virgin Islands	24.72
45	6	Urbano Zea	Mexico	24.86
45	3	Oon Jin Gee	Singapore	24.86
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 Lewis Thompson	Zimbabwe	25.38
54	3	Song Kwang-Sun	South Korea	25.40
55	3	Wirmandi Sugriat	Indonesia	25.55
56	3	Bruno Ndiaye	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
63	2	Ahmad Faraj	United Arab Emirates	26.60
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
070	4	Pedro Lima	Angola	DSQ
070	4	Mouhamed Diop	Senegal	DSQ

Qualification swim-off

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

Finals

^[4]

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. 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.
2. Husar, John (25 September 1988). "Biondi, Evans Stay On Gold Standard". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
3. "Seoul 2000: Swimming – Men's 50m Freestyle Heats" (PDF). Seoul 1988. LA84 Foundation. p. 400. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
4. "Seoul 2000: Swimming – Men's 50m Freestyle Finals" (PDF). Seoul 1988. LA84 Foundation. p. 401. Retrieved 19 August 2013.

External links

• Official Olympic Report