1976 жылғы Жазғы Олимпиададағы ерлердің 100 метрге еркін жүзу жарысы

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The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1976 Summer Olympics took place between July 24 and 25. This was the first time in history that the 100m freestyle was swum under 50 seconds. There were 41 competitors from 27 nations. Three of the eight finalists from the 1972 Games returned: bronze medalist Vladimir Bure of the Soviet Union, seventh place finisher Michel Rousseau of France, and eighth place finisher Klaus Steinbach of West Germany. Reigning gold medalist Mark Spitz had retired after the 1972 Games at the age of 22. The new American favorite was Jim Montgomery, who had set the world record at the 1975 AAU championships. His main challenger would have been Jonty Skinner, but apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics. Montgomery had finished third at the 1975 world championships behind Andy Coan (not competing in Montreal) and Bure. Bulgaria, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and the Virgin Islands each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 17th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.

The competition used a three round (heats, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule followed the format introduced in 1952, though with 2 semifinals. Swim offs were used as necessary to break ties. A swimmer's place in the heat was not used to determine advancement; instead, the fastest times from across all heats in a round were used. There were 6 heats, with between 6 and 8 swimmers each. The top 16 swimmers advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals of 8 swimmers each. The top 8 swimmers advanced to the final. 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.

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. Jim Montgomery broke the world record in the first semifinal, posting a 50.39 second time. In the final, he was the first swimmer to break the 50 second barrier, winning in 49.99 seconds for the new world record.

Rank Heat Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 1 Jim Montgomery 50.39 Q (Qualified for final), 2 1 Marcello Guarducci 51.35 Q (Qualified for final) 3 2 Jack Babashoff 51.46 Q (Qualified for final) 4 1 Klaus Steinbach 51.62 Q (Qualified for final) 5 2 Peter Nocke 51.83 Q (Qualified for final) 6 2 Joe Bottom 51.92 Q (Qualified for final) 7 1 Vladimir Bure 51.93 Q (Qualified for final) 8 2 Andrey Krylov 52.32 Q (Qualified for final) 9 2 Michel Rousseau 52.36 10 1 Roberto Pangaro 52.68 11 1 Stephen Pickell 52.89 12 1 René Ecuyer 52.92 13 2 Gary MacDonald 52.96 14 1 Andrei Bogdanov 53.05 15 2 Martin Smith 53.11 16 2 Svante Rasmussen 53.34

Rank Swimmer Nation Time Notes Jim Montgomery 49.99 Jack Babashoff 50.81 Peter Nocke 51.31 4 Klaus Steinbach 51.68 5 Marcello Guarducci 51.70 6 Joe Bottom 51.79 7 Vladimir Bure 52.03 8 Andrey Krylov 52.15