Swimming at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke

Swimming at the
1956 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
100 m men   women
400 m men   women
1500 m men
Backstroke
100 m men   women
Breaststroke
200 m men   women
Butterfly
100 m   women
200 m men
Freestyle relay
4×100 m   women
4×200 m men  

The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 1956 Olympic Games took place between December 4 and 6. This swimming event used backstroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.

Contents

Medalists

Gold  David Theile
Australia (AUS)
Silver  John Monckton
Australia (AUS)
Bronze  Frank McKinney
United States (USA)

Results

Heats

Four heats were held; the swimmers with the sixteen fastest times advanced to the Semifinals. The athletes that advanced are highlighted.

Heat One

Rank Athlete Country Time
1 Robert Christophe France 1:04.2
2 John Hayres Australia 1:04.4
3 László Magyar Hungary 1:06.1
4 Albert Wiggins United States 1:06.2
5 Haydn Rigby Great Britain 1:06.9
6 Ahmed Nazir Pakistan 1:10.7

Heat Two

Rank Athlete Country Time
1 Graham Sykes Great Britain 1:06.2
2 Kazuo Tomita Japan 1:06.4
3 Gilbert Bozon France 1:06.4
4 Ekkehard Miersch Germany 1:07.5
5 Lincoln Hurring New Zealand 1:07.5
6 Pedro Cayco Philippines 1:11.6

Heat Three

Rank Athlete Country Time
1 David Theile Australia 1:04.3
2 Yoshi Oyakawa United States 1:05.2
3 Keiji Hase Japan 1:06.3
4 John Brockway Great Britain 1:07.7
5 Joo Gonalves Filho Brazil 1:07.9
6 Cheung Kin Man Hong Kong 1:14.0

Heat Four

Rank Athlete Country Time
1 John Monckton Australia 1:03.4
2 Frank McKinney United States 1:06.0
3 Dieter Pfeifer Germany 1:06.7
4 Ladislav Bak Czechoslovakia 1:06.9
5 Grard Coignot France 1:07.5
6 Hideo Ninomiya Japan 1:09.2
7 Lim Heng Chek Malaya 1:12.4

Semifinals

Two heats were held; the swimmers with the eight fastest times advanced to the Finals. The swimmers that advanced are highlighted.

Semifinal One

Rank Athlete Country Time
1 John Monckton Australia 1:04.1
2 David Theile Australia 1:04.8
3 Yoshi Oyakawa United States 1:05.0
4 Graham Sykes Great Britain 1:06.5
5 Kazuo Tomita Japan 1:06.5
6 Dieter Pfeifer Germany 1:07.6
7 László Magyar Hungary 1:07.6
8 Ladislav Bak Czechoslovakia 1:07.9

Semifinal Two

Rank Athlete Country Time
1 Robert Christophe France 1:04.6
2 John Hayres Australia 1:05.0
3 Frank McKinney United States 1:05.3
4 Albert Wiggins United States 1:06.4
5 Gilbert Bozon France 1:06.5
6 Keiji Hase Japan 1:06.5
7 Ekkehard Miersch Germany 1:06.6
8 Haydn Rigby Great Britain 1:07.6

Final

Rank Athlete Country Time Notes
David Theile Australia 1:02.2 WR
John Monckton Australia 1:03.2
Frank McKinney United States 1:04.5
4 Robert Christophe France 1:04.9
5 John Hayres Australia 1:05.0
6 Graham Sykes Great Britain 1:05.6
7 Albert Wiggins United States 1:05.8
8 Yoshi Oyakawa United States 1:06.9

Key: WR = World record

References