Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre breaststroke

Men's 100 metre breaststroke at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Venue	London Aquatics Centre
Date	July 28, 2012 (heats & semifinals) July 29, 2012 (final)
Competitors	44 from 36 nations
Winning time	58.46 WR
Medalists
Cameron van der Burgh   South Africa   Christian Sprenger   Australia   Brendan Hansen   United States

Swimming at the 2012 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		women
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women
Marathon
10 km		men		women

The men's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 28–29 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.^[1]

Cameron van der Burgh smashed a new world record to end South Africa's medal drought for an Olympic gold in the event. He blasted out to a 27.07 split on the first length, and pulled strongly ahead of the field to touch the wall first in 58.46, slashing 0.12 seconds off the record set by Australia's Brenton Rickard in a high-tech bodysuit from the 2009 World Championships.^[2][3] An underwater camera footage also showed him executing three illegal butterfly kicks on the pullout, but the champion later admitted that he was not doing it, "you are falling behind or giving yourself a disadvantage."^[4][5] Rickard's teammate Christian Sprenger ripped off a sterling time of 58.93 to snatch the silver, moving him to sixth all time in the event's history.^[6] Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Brendan Hansen ended his three-year retirement to take the bronze in 59.49.^[7][8]

Hungary's Dániel Gyurta finished off the podium with a fourth-place time and a national record in 59.53. Japan's defending Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima witnessed his three-peat bid come to an end with a fifth-place time in 59.79.^[9] Rickard, the former world record holder, earned a sixth spot in 59.87, while Italy's Fabio Scozzoli (59.97) and Lithuania's Giedrius Titenis (1:00.84) closed out the field.^[8]

Earlier in the semifinals, Van der Burgh cleared a 59-second barrier for the second time in his career and the first in textile to pick up a final top seed in 58.83, erasing Kitajima's 2008 Olympic record by eight-hundredths of a second.^[10][11]

Records

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

World record	Brenton Rickard (AUS)	58.58	Rome, Italy	27 July 2009	[12][13]
Olympic record	Kosuke Kitajima (JPN)	58.91	Beijing, China	11 August 2008	[14]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
July 28	Semifinal 1	Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa	58.83	OR
July 29	Final	Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa	58.46	WR

Results

Heats

^[15]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	6	3	Christian Sprenger	Australia	59.62	Q
2	6	4	Kosuke Kitajima	Japan	59.63	Q
3	6	2	Giedrius Titenis	Lithuania	59.68	Q
4	4	6	Dániel Gyurta	Hungary	59.76	Q, NR
5	5	3	Glenn Snyders	New Zealand	59.78	Q, NR
6	4	4	Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa	59.79	Q
7	5	2	Scott Dickens	Canada	59.85	Q, NR
8	6	5	Ryo Tateishi	Japan	59.86	Q
9	5	7	Michael Jamieson	Great Britain	59.89	Q
10	4	5	Brendan Hansen	United States	59.93	Q
11	5	6	Eric Shanteau	United States	59.96	Q
12	5	4	Fabio Scozzoli	Italy	59.99	Q
13	4	2	Craig Benson	Great Britain	1:00.04	Q
14	4	3	Brenton Rickard	Australia	1:00.07	Q
15	5	5	Felipe França Silva	Brazil	1:00.38	Q
16	6	6	Felipe Lima	Brazil	1:00.57	Q
17	3	4	Giacomo Perez d'Ortona	France	1:00.59
18	5	1	Damir Dugonjic	Slovenia	1:00.77
19	6	1	Christian vom Lehn	Germany	1:00.78
20	4	7	Lennart Stekelenburg	Netherlands	1:00.96
21	6	7	Hendrik Feldwehr	Germany	1:01.00
22	3	6	Panagiotis Samilidis	Greece	1:01.20
23	4	1	Valeriy Dymo	Ukraine	1:01.27
23	5	8	Mattia Pesce	Italy	1:01.27
25	3	1	Carlos Almeida	Portugal	1:01.40
26	2	3	Laurent Carnol	Luxembourg	1:01.46
27	6	8	Roman Sloudnov	Russia	1:01.47
28	3	3	Li Xiayan	China	1:01.55
29	3	8	Martin Liivamägi	Estonia	1:01.57
29	4	8	Barry Murphy	Ireland	1:01.57
31	2	6	Čaba Silađi	Serbia	1:01.95
32	3	2	Dawid Szulich	Poland	1:02.07
32	3	5	Imri Ganiel	Israel	1:02.07
34	2	4	Vladislav Polyakov	Kazakhstan	1:02.15
35	2	2	Edgar Crespo	Panama	1:02.18
36	2	5	Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson	Iceland	1:02.65
37	2	1	Malick Fall	Senegal	1:02.93
37	3	7	Dragos Agache	Romania	1:02.93
39	2	8	Azad Al-Barazi	Syria	1:03.48	NR
40	2	7	Danila Artiomov	Moldova	1:03.57
41	1	4	Amini Fonua	Tonga	1:03.65
42	1	3	Mubarak Al Besher	United Arab Emirates	1:05.26
43	1	5	Diguan Pigot	Suriname	1:05.55
44	1	6	Wael Koubrousli	Lebanon	1:07.06

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa	58.83	Q, OR
2	7	Fabio Scozzoli	Italy	59.44	Q
3	1	Brenton Rickard	Australia	59.50	Q
4	4	Kosuke Kitajima	Japan	59.69	Q
5	5	Dániel Gyurta	Hungary	59.74	Q, NR
6	2	Brendan Hansen	United States	59.78	Q
7	6	Ryo Tateishi	Japan	59.93
8	8	Felipe Lima	Brazil	1:00.08

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Christian Sprenger	Australia	59.61	Q
2	5	Giedrius Titenis	Lithuania	59.66	Q
3	2	Michael Jamieson	Great Britain	59.89
4	7	Eric Shanteau	United States	59.96
5	8	Felipe França Silva	Brazil	1:00.01
6	1	Craig Benson	Great Britain	1:00.13
7	3	Glenn Snyders	New Zealand	1:00.15
8	6	Scott Dickens	Canada	1:00.16

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Cameron van der Burgh	South Africa	58.46	WR*
	6	Christian Sprenger	Australia	58.93
	8	Brendan Hansen	United States	59.49
4	1	Dániel Gyurta	Hungary	59.53	NR
5	7	Kosuke Kitajima	Japan	59.79
6	3	Brenton Rickard	Australia	59.87
7	5	Fabio Scozzoli	Italy	59.97
8	2	Giedrius Titenis	Lithuania	1:00.84

* Also an Olympic, African, and South African record.

References

1. "Swimming: Results & Schedules". London 2012. NBC Olympics. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
2. "Vollmer, van der Burgh break world records at finals". London 2012 (NBC Olympics). 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
3. Ferreira-Marques, Clara (29 July 2012). "Swimming: Van der Burgh ends South African men's gold drought". Reuters. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
4. Jeffery, Nicole (4 August 2012). "South African Cameron van der Burgh admits using illegal dolphin kicks to win gold medal". The Australian. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
5. Gleeson, Scott (7 August 2012). "Gold medal swimmer admits to cheating at Games". USA Today. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
6. Cowley, Michael (30 July 2012). "South African Cameron van der Burgh admits using illegal dolphin kicks to win gold medal". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
7. "Van der Burgh wins 100 breast; Hansen gets bronze". Fox News. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
8. "2012 London Olympics: Cameron van der Burgh's World Record Ends Kosuke Kitajima's Threepeat Bid in 100 Breast; Hansen Medals". Swimming World Magazine. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
9. "Cameron van der Burgh sets mark". ESPN. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
10. "Van der Burgh breaks record". Sport24. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
11. "2012 London Olympics: Cameron van der Burgh Downs Olympic Record in 100 Breast Semis". Swimming World Magazine. 28 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
12. Jeffery, Nicole (28 July 2009). "Brenton Rickard wins breaststroke gold for Australia at world swimming championships". Herald Sun. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
13. "FINA World Championships, Swimming: Australia's Brenton Rickard Smashes World Record in 100 Breast". Swimming World Magazine. 27 July 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
14. "Kitajima wins 100m breaststroke in WR time". ABC News Australia. 11 August 2008. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
15. "Men's 100m Breaststroke – Heats". London 2012. Retrieved 27 July 2012.

External links

• NBC Olympics Coverage