The men's 100 metre breaststroke event at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 9–11 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima set a new world record of 58.91 to defend his Olympic title in the event. Alexander Dale Oen powered home with a silver in 59.20, earning a first Olympic medal for Norway in swimming. Coming from seventh place in the final turn, France's Hugues Duboscq managed to repeat a bronze from Athens four years earlier, in a time of 59.37. U.S. swimmer and defending silver medalist Brendan Hansen pulled off a fourth-place effort in 59.57, two-tenths of a second (0.20) behind Duboscq.

Australia's Brenton Rickard finished fifth with a time of 59.74, and was followed in sixth spot by Russia's Roman Sloudnov, bronze medalist in Sydney (2000), in a national record of 59.87. Ukraine's Igor Borysik (1:00.20) and American Mark Gangloff (1:00.24) rounded out the finale.

Earlier, Dale Oen set a new Olympic record of 59.41 in the prelims, and eventually lowered it to 59.16 in the semifinals by the next morning's session. He continued to claim the title at the 2011 FINA World Championships, but his life came to a tragic end on April 30, 2012. Shortly after training at altitude in Arizona, Dale Oen was found unconscious in his apartment shower, and died suddenly from a cardiac arrest at Flagstaff Medical Centre.

Controversy Iran's Mohammad Alirezaei was due to race against Israel's Tom Be'eri in the fourth heat of the 100 metre breaststroke, but pulled out, apparently under the orders from officials of the Iranian delegation. Efraim Zinger, Olympic Committee of Israel General Secretary, criticized the withdrawal saying "Politics takes precedence over sport with the Iranians and the Olympic spirit is as far from them as east is far from west". Giselle Davies, director of communications for the IOC, said that Alirezaei withdrew because of sickness and submitted his case in writing to his Federation. At the 2004 Games in Athens, Iran's Arash Miresmaeili, a two-time world judo champion, refused to compete against Israel's Ehud Vaks in the opening round of the 66 kg competition, later admitting that he made his decision to show solidarity for the Palestinian cause.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date Event Name Nationality Time Record August 9 Heat 7 Alexander Dale Oen 59.41 August 10 Semifinal 2 Alexander Dale Oen 59.16 August 11 Final Kosuke Kitajima 58.91

Results

Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes1 7 4 Alexander Dale Oen 59.41 Q, 2 8 4 Kosuke Kitajima 59.52 Q3 9 5 Hugues Duboscq 59.67 Q4 7 5 Brenton Rickard 59.89 Q, OC5 7 7 Cameron van der Burgh 59.96 Q, AF6 9 7 Giedrius Titenis 1:00.11 Q7 9 3 Roman Sloudnov 1:00.20 Q8 8 2 Igor Borysik 1:00.31 Q9 6 3 Damir Dugonjič 1:00.35 Q10 7 3 Christian Sprenger 1:00.36 Q11 9 4 Brendan Hansen 1:00.65 Q12 7 6 Oleg Lisogor 1:00.65 Q13 9 2 Yuta Suenaga 1:00.67 Q14 8 7 Mihail Alexandrov 1:00.69 Q15 8 5 Chris Cook 1:00.70 Q16 8 3 Mark Gangloff 1:00.71 Q17 6 5 Vladislav Polyakov 1:00.80 18 4 4 Hunor Mate 1:00.93 NR19 8 8 Richárd Bodor 1:00.97 20 5 5 Mike Brown 1:00.98 8 6 Glenn Snyders 22 7 1 Felipe França Silva 1:01.04 23 7 2 Henrique Barbosa 1:01.11 24 6 7 Matjaž Markič 1:01.31 7 8 Dániel Gyurta 26 9 8 Thijs van Valkengoed 1:01.32 27 9 1 Kristopher Gilchrist 1:01.34 28 6 1 Mathieu Bois 1:01.45 29 6 6 Jiří Jedlička 1:01.56 30 5 2 Andrew Bree 1:01.76 31 5 1 Valentin Preda 1:01.77 5 3 Jonas Andersson 33 3 1 Daniel Velez 1:01.80 NR34 8 1 Dmitry Komornikov 1:01.82 35 5 4 Yevgeniy Ryzhkov 1:01.83 6 4 Borja Iradier 37 6 2 Melquíades Álvarez 1:01.89 38 3 2 Sandeep Sejwal 1:02.19 39 4 5 Demir Atasoy 1:02.25 40 4 2 Čaba Silađi 1:02.31 41 3 3 Genaro Prono 1:02.32 42 4 7 Tom Be'eri 1:02.42 NR 5 6 Vanja Rogulj 44 5 7 Sofiane Daid 1:02.45 45 4 6 Martti Aljand 1:02.46 NR46 4 8 Xue Ruipeng 1:02.48 47 4 3 Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson 1:02.50 48 3 6 Malick Fall 1:02.51 49 5 8 Viktar Vabishchevich 1:03.29 50 9 6 Romanos Alyfantis 1:03.39 51 3 5 Alwin de Prins 1:03.64 52 3 4 Sergio Andres Ferreyra 1:03.65 53 2 3 Édgar Crespo 1:03.72 54 2 4 Sergiu Postica 1:03.83 55 3 8 Andrei Cross 1:04.57 56 3 7 Ivan Demyanenko 1:05.14 57 2 6 Wael Koubrousli 1:06.22 58 2 5 Nguyen Huu Viet 1:06.36 59 2 2 Erik Rajohnson 1:08.42 60 2 7 Boldbaataryn Bütekh-Uils 1:10.80 61 1 4 Osama Mohammed Ye Alarag 1:10.83 62 1 5 Mohammed Al-Habsi 1:12.28 63 1 3 Petero Okotai 1:20.20 6 8 Alessandro Terrin 4 1 Mohammad Alirezaei

Semifinals

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Kosuke Kitajima 59.55 Q 2 5 Brenton Rickard 59.65 Q, OC 3 8 Mark Gangloff 1:00.44 Q 4 6 Igor Borysik 1:00.55 Q 5 7 Oleg Lisogor 1:00.56 6 1 Mihail Alexandrov 1:00.61 NR 7 3 Giedrius Titenis 1:00.66 8 2 Christian Sprenger 1:00.76

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 4 Alexander Dale Oen 59.16 Q, 2 5 Hugues Duboscq 59.83 Q 3 7 Brendan Hansen 59.94 Q 4 6 Roman Sloudnov 1:00.10 Q 5 3 Cameron van der Burgh 1:00.57 6 1 Yuta Suenaga 1:00.67 7 8 Chris Cook 1:00.81 8 2 Damir Dugonjič 1:00.92

Final Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 5 Kosuke Kitajima 58.91 4 Alexander Dale Oen 59.20 6 Hugues Duboscq 59.37 42 Brendan Hansen 59.57 53 Brenton Rickard 59.74 67 Roman Sloudnov 59.87 NR78 Igor Borysik 1:00.20 81 Mark Gangloff 1:00.24

References

External links Official Olympic Report