Quick Facts Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the V Olympiad, Venue ...

Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the V Olympiad
100 metre freestyle at the 1912 Games
Venue	Djurgårdsbrunnsviken
Dates	July 6–10
Competitors	34 from 12 nations
Winning time	1:03.4
Medalists
Duke Kahanamoku  United States Cecil Healy  Australasia Ken Huszagh  United States
← 1908 1920 →

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The men's 100 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme.^[1] It was the fourth appearance of the event, which had not been featured at the 1900 Games. The competition was held from Saturday July 6, 1912, to Wednesday July 10, 1912. Thirty-four swimmers from twelve nations competed. The event was won by Duke Kahanamoku of the United States, the nation's second consecutive victory in the event (tying Hungary for most all-time). Cecil Healy took silver, the only medal in the event for Australasia, the short-lived joint team of Australia and New Zealand. Another American, Ken Huszagh, took bronze.

This was the fourth appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle (including the 100 yard event in 1904 but excluding the Intercalated Games in 1906). 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.^[2]

One of the four finalists from 1908 returned: bronze medalist Harald Julin of Sweden. Charles Daniels, the defending gold medalist who had also won at the 1906 Intercalated Games and taken silver at the 1904 Olympics, had retired. The favorite was Kurt Bretting of Germany, who had broken Daniels' world record earlier in 1912. An intriguing entrant was the Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, rumored to have posted phenomenal times which were unverified because of the distance from the American mainland.^[2]

Germany, Norway, and Russia each made their debut in the event. Hungary and the United States each made their fourth appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

The rules for the swimming events provided that each event would consist of heats, a final, and "a sufficient number of intermediate heats in proportion to the number of competitors."^[3] This led to confusion, as the organizers declared that there should be two intermediate rounds (for a total of four rounds) while the American team believed that there would only be one before the final and consequently did not appear for the semifinals. After some negotiation, a four-round competition was held, with a special heat in the third round for competitors who had missed races due to the confusion.

For each round, the top two swimmers in each heat advanced to the next round, along with the fastest third-place swimmer. In the case of a tie, all tied swimmers would advance (swim-offs would only be used in the final). Each race consisted of a single length of the 100-meter course, and any stroke could be used.

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1912 Summer Olympics.

More information World Record, Olympic Record ...

World Record	1:02.4	Kurt Bretting	Brussels (BEL)	April 6, 1912
Olympic Record	1:05.6	Charles Daniels	London (GBR)	July 20, 1908
	1:02.8(*)	Zoltán Halmay	St. Louis (USA)	September 5, 1904

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(*) 100 yards (= 91.44 m)

In the fourth heat Perry McGillivray set a new Olympic record with 1:04.8 minutes. In the fifth heat Duke Kahanamoku bettered the Olympic record of 1:02.6 minutes. Finally Duke Kahanamoku improved the Olympic record with a time of 1:02.4 minutes in the third semifinal heat.