Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke

Men's 100 metre backstroke at the Games of the V Olympiad
Venue	Djurgårdsbrunnsviken
Dates	July 9–13
Competitors	18 from 7 nations
Medalists
Harry Hebner  United States Otto Fahr  Germany Paul Kellner  Germany

Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m		men		women
400 m		men
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men
Breaststroke
200 m		men
400 m		men
Freestyle relay
4×100 m				women
4×200 m		men

The men's 100 metre backstroke was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the second appearance of the event, which had been introduced in 1908. In 1904 a 100 yard event was held. The competition was held from Tuesday July 9, 1912 to Saturday July 13, 1912.

Eighteen swimmers from seven nations competed.

Records

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

World Record	1:15.6	Otto Fahr	Magdeburg (GER)	April 29, 1912
Olympic Record	1:24.6	Arno Bieberstein	London (GBR)	July 17, 1908

The Olympic record fell during the very first heat. Harry Hebner's 1:21.0 in the first heat stood until Hebner raced again. In the first semifinal, he bettered his own new record with a 1:20.8. He was unable to match that pace in the final, but still took the win with a finish that was over 1 second faster than the second-place swimmer.

Results

Quarterfinals

The top two in each heat advanced along with the fastest loser overall.

Quarterfinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Harry Hebner (USA)	1:21.0	QS OR
2	Otto Groß (GER)	1:24.0	QS
3	Åke Bergman (SWE)	1:33.8
—	Oscar Schiele (GER)	DQ

Quarterfinal 2

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Otto Fahr (GER)	1:22.0	QS
2	George Webster (GBR)	1:29.4	QS
3	Hugo Lundevall (SWE)	1:46.8
—	János Wenk (HUN)	DQ

Quarterfinal 3

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	András Baronyi (HUN)	1:22.0	QS
2	Paul Kellner (GER)	1:26.0	QS
3	Harry Svendsen (NOR)	1:47.2
—	Oscar Grégoire (BEL)	DQ

Quarterfinal 4

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Herbert Haresnape (GBR)	1:27.0	QS
2	Erich Schultze (GER)	1:27.2	QS
3	Gunnar Sundman (SWE)	1:31.2	qs
4	John Johnsen (NOR)	1:34.2

Quarterfinal 5

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	László Szentgróthy (HUN)	1:26.6	QS
2	Frank Sandon (GBR)	1:31.8	QS

Semifinals

The top two from each heat and the faster of the two third place swimmers advanced.

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Harry Hebner (USA)	1:20.8	QF OR
2	Otto Fahr (GER)	1:21.8	QF
3	András Baronyi (HUN)	1:26.2	qf
4	László Szentgróthy (HUN)	1:26.4
5	Erich Schultze (GER)
6	George Webster (GBR)

Semifinal 1

Place	Swimmer	Time	Qual.
1	Otto Groß (GER)	1:26.0	QF
2	Paul Kellner (GER)	1:26.2	QF
3	Herbert Haresnape (GBR)	1:26.8
4	Frank Sandon (GBR)	1:32.2
—	Gunnar Sundman (SWE)	1:35.0

Final

Place	Swimmer	Time
1	Harry Hebner (USA)	1:21.2
2	Otto Fahr (GER)	1:22.4
3	Paul Kellner (GER)	1:24.0
4	András Baronyi (HUN)	1:25.2
5	Otto Groß (GER)	1:25.8