Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle

Swimming at the 1952 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
1500 m	men
Backstroke
100 m	men	women
Breaststroke
200 m	men	women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		women
4×200 m	men

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Olympic Games took place between July 26 and 27 at the Swimming Stadium. 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.

Medalists

Gold	Clarke Scholes United States
Silver	Hiroshi Suzuki Japan
Bronze	Göran Larsson Sweden

Results

Heats

24 fastest swimmer from nine heats advanced to semifinal.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Yoshihiro Hamaguchi	Japan	58.0
2	Aldo Eminente	France	58.2
3	Iosif Novac	Romania	1:00.5
4	René Muñiz	Mexico	1:00.5
5	Leo Telivuo	Finland	1:02.0
6	Ricardo Conde	23x15px Spain	1:02.6
7	David Buch	Israel	1:05.6

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Ronald Roberts	Great Britain	59.5
2	Olle Johansson	Sweden	1:00.5
3	Neo Chwee Kok	Singapore	1:00.6
4	Frank O’Neill	Australia	1:00.6
5	Fransisco Monteiro	23x15px Hong Kong	1:03.1
6	Robert Cook	23x15px Bermuda	1:04.1

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Rex Aubrey	Australia	58.2
2	Alex Jany	France	58.9
3	Lev Balandin	23x15px Soviet Union	58.9
4	John Durr	23x15px South Africa	1:00.0
5	Cheung Kin Man	23x15px Hong Kong	1:00.3
6	Hernán Avilés	Chile	1:02.8
7	Walter Bardgett	23x15px Bermuda	1:04.4

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Dick Cleveland	United States	57.8
2	Hiroshi Suzuki	Japan	58.0
3	Carlo Pedersoli	Italy	58.8
4	Federico Zwanck	Argentina	1:01.2
5	Haroldo Lara	Brazil	1:01.2
6	Fernando Madeira	Portugal	1:02.6
7	Isaac Monsoor	India	1:10.8

Heat 5

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Ronald Gora	United States	58.0
2	György Ipacs	Hungary	59.1
3	Juan Lanz	Mexico	1:00.9
4	Michel Vandamme	France	1:00.9
5	Pentti Ikonen	Finland	1:01.1
6	Oscar Saiz	23x15px Venezuela	1:01.7
7	Abdel Aziz El-Shafei	23x15px Egypt	1:02.0

Heat 6

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Göran Larsson	Sweden	57.5
2	Clarke Scholes	United States	58.3
3	Nicasio Silverio	Cuba	1:00.0
4	Roberto Queralt	23x15px Spain	1:01.6
5	Aram Boghossian	Brazil	1:02.0
6	Mauno Valkeinen	Finland	1:02.5
7	Nguyễn Văn Phan	Vietnam	1:05.0

Heat 7

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Jack Wardrop	Great Britain	58.9
2	Lucien Beaumont	23x15px Canada	1:00.4
3	Alberto Isaac	Mexico	1:01.4
4	Marcello Trabucco	Argentina	1:01.5
5	Dorri El-Said	23x15px Egypt	1:02.3
6	Guilherme Patroni	Portugal	1:03.7
7	Michel Currat	Switzerland	1:07.2

Heat 8

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Toru Goto	Japan	58.3
2	Joris Tjebbes	Netherlands	59.1
3	Endel Edasi	23x15px Soviet Union	1:00.1
4	Dennis Ford	23x15px South Africa	1:01.3
5	Per Olsen	Norway	1:02.1
6	Alfonso Buonocore	Italy	1:02.3
7	Geoffrey Marks	Ceylon	1:04.1

Heat 9

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Géza Kádas	Hungary	58.4
2	Thomas Welsh	Great Britain	59.5
3	Vladimir Skomarovsky	23x15px Soviet Union	1:00.0
4	Peter Salmon	23x15px Canada	1:01.0
5	Lars Svantesson	Sweden	1:01.4
6	José Valdes	Guatemala	1:04.5

Semifinals

8 fastest swimmers advanced to final.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Clarke Scholes	United States	57.1
2	Göran Larsson	Sweden	57.8
3	Yoshihiro Hamaguchi	Japan	58.3	→tie break
4	Aldo Eminente	France	58.3	→tie break
5	Carlo Pedersoli	Italy	58.9
6	Jack Wardrop	Great Britain	59.4
7	Endel Edasi	23x15px Soviet Union	59.8
8	Nicasio Silverio	Cuba	59.9

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Géza Kádas	Hungary	57.8
2	Hiroshi Suzuki	Japan	58.0
3	Dick Cleveland	United States	58.6
4	Lev Balandin	23x15px Soviet Union	58.8
5	Joris Tjebbes	Netherlands	59.8
6	John Durr	23x15px South Africa	1:00.2
7	Thomas Welsh	Great Britain	1:00.3
8	Cheung Kin Man	23x15px Hong Kong	1:00.9

Semifinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Note
1	Ronald Gora	United States	57.7
2	Rex Aubrey	Australia	57.8
3	Toru Goto	Japan	58.3	→tie break
4	Alex Jany	France	58.9
5	Lucien Beaumont	23x15px Canada	59.3
6	György Ipacs	Hungary	59.4
7	Ronald Roberts	Great Britain	59.5
8	Vladimir Skomarovsky	23x15px Soviet Union	1:01.1

Tie Break

Because there were 3 swimmers with the same swim time, a tie-breaking heat was held. Two fastest swimmer advanced to the final.

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Toru Goto	Japan	58.5
2	Aldo Eminente	France	58.8
3	Yoshihiro Hamaguchi	Japan	59.1

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
	Clarke Scholes	United States	57.4
	Hiroshi Suzuki	Japan	57.4
	Göran Larsson	Sweden	58.2
4	Toru Goto	Japan	58.5
5	Géza Kádas	Hungary	58.6
6	Rex Aubrey	Australia	58.7
7	Aldo Eminente	France	58.7
8	Ronald Gora	United States	58.8