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

Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the XV Olympiad
Clarke Scholes
Venue	Helsinki Swimming Stadium
Dates	26–27 July
Competitors	61 from 33 nations
Winning time	57.4
Medalists
Clarke Scholes  United States Hiroshi Suzuki  Japan Göran Larsson  Sweden
← 1948 1956 →

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The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1952 Summer Olympics took place between 26 and 27 July at the Helsinki Swimming Stadium.^[1] There were 61 competitors from 33 nations.^[2] Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by Clarke Scholes of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and seventh overall victory in the men's 100 metre freestyle (most of any nation). Japan, absent from the 1948 Games after World War II, returned to the podium in the event with Hiroshi Suzuki's silver. Göran Larsson earned Sweden's first medal in the event since 1908 with his bronze.

This was the 11th appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1900 (when the shortest freestyle was the 200 metres),^[3] though the 1904 version was measured in yards rather than metres.^[4]

Two of the eight finalists from the 1948 Games returned: bronze medalist Géza Kádas of Hungary and fifth-place finisher (and European champion) Alex Jany of France. There was no clear front-runner this year; Dick Cleveland was the closest to a favorite.^[2]

Ceylon, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Israel, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Venezuela, and Vietnam each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 11th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

The competition used a three-round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was new, introducing a major change from the format used from 1912 to 1948. A swimmer's place in the heat was no longer used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 9 heats of 6 or 7 swimmers each. The top 24 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 3 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties.

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.

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1952 Summer Olympics.

World record	Alan Ford (USA)	55.4	New Haven, United States	29 June 1948
Olympic record	Wally Ris (USA)	57.3	London, United Kingdom	31 July 1948

Clarke Scholes broke the Olympic record in the first semifinal with 57.1 seconds.