Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre freestyle
| Men's 100 metre freestyle at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
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| Venue | London Aquatics Centre | ||||||||||||
| Date | July 31, 2012 (heats & semifinals) August 1, 2012 (final) |
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| Competitors | 60 from 54 nations | ||||||||||||
| Winning time | 47.52 | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Nathan Adrian |
 United States
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James Magnussen |
 Australia
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Brent Hayden |
 Canada
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The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 31 July and 1 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.
In one of the closest finishes in Olympic history, Nathan Adrian touched out Australia's favorite James Magnussen at the wall by a fingertip to win the event at the Olympics for the Americans for the first time since Matt Biondi topped the podium in 1988. Coming from third at the halfway turn, Adrian powered home on the final stretch, finishing in 47.52 to edge out Magnussen, also known as "The Missile", by a hundredth of a second (0.01). Meanwhile, Magnussen ended the most exhilarating race of his life with a heartbreaking defeat, as he accepted a second straight silver for the Aussies in 47.53, adding more than four tenths of a second from his best time of 47.10 at the 2012 Australian Championships. Canada's Brent Hayden picked up the bronze in 47.80, winning his first Olympic medal and handing the Canadians their first ever medal in the event's history.
After claiming two golds and a silver in the past four days, France's Yannick Agnel could not produce his similar effort with a fourth-place time in 47.84. Meanwhile, Netherlands' Sebastiaan Verschuren pulled off a fifth-place finish in 47.88. Heading into the halfway turn with an early lead, Brazil's world record holder César Cielo dropped to sixth in 47.92. Cuba's Hanser García (48.04) and Russia's Nikita Lobintsev (48.44) also tied for an Olympic medal to round out a historic finale.
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
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