Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre butterfly

The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 11–12 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.^[1]

Men's 100 metre butterfly at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Aquatics Stadium
Dates	11 August 2016 (heats & semifinals) 12 August 2016 (final)
Competitors	43 from 32 nations
Winning time	50.39 OR
Medalists
Joseph Schooling  Singapore Michael Phelps  United States Chad le Clos  South Africa László Cseh  Hungary
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Summary

Michael Phelps fell short of his attempt to fulfill an Olympic four-peat in the sprint butterfly event, due to a brilliant performance of Joseph Schooling, who became Singapore's first ever Olympic gold medalist. The Singapore National Olympic Council awarded Schooling S$1 million (about US$740,000) under the Multi-Million Dollar Award Programme (MAP).^[2] Singapore's unique "rewards for sports excellence" were the world's largest Olympic cash prize.^[3] Leading from the start, Schooling defeated the field of experienced sprinters, including all-time medal leader and his personal hero Phelps, to establish a new Olympic record of 50.39 for a gold-medal triumph.^[4][5] Schooling did not only erase Phelps' eight-year-old record by 0.19 seconds, but also produced the fastest time of the event in textile.^[6]

Three-quarters of a second later, Phelps touched the wall at the same moment as two of his rivals Chad le Clos of South Africa and four-time Olympian László Cseh of Hungary, leaving them with a matching 51.14 in a historic three-way tie for the silver.^[7][8] Despite missing out an Olympic title defense, Phelps continued to extend his Olympic résumé with a twenty-seventh career medal.

Separated by the leader of the field by almost a second, Chinese swimmer and 2014 Youth Olympic champion Li Zhuhao picked up the fifth spot with a junior world record of 51.26. Meanwhile, France's Mehdy Metella (51.58), Phelps' teammate Tom Shields (51.73), and Russia's Aleksandr Sadovnikov (51.84) closed out the championship field.^[8]

Notable swimmers failed to reach the top eight roster, featuring Schooling's countryman Quah Zheng Wen; London 2012 finalists Steffen Deibler (Germany), Joeri Verlinden (Netherlands), and Konrad Czerniak (Poland); Canada's Santo Condorelli, who produced a surprising top 16 finish from an unseeded prelims heat; and Papua New Guinea's Ryan Pini, who missed another chance to reproduce a top eight feat from Beijing 2008 in his fourth Olympic appearance.^[9][10]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were:

World record	Michael Phelps (USA)	49.82	Rome, Italy	1 August 2009	[11][12]
Olympic record	Michael Phelps (USA)	50.58	Beijing, China	16 August 2008	[13]

The following records were established during the competition:

Date	Event	Name	Nationality	Time	Record
12 August	Final	Joseph Schooling	Singapore	50.39	OR

Competition format

The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.^[1]

Results

Heats

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	6	5	Joseph Schooling	Singapore	51.41	Q
2	4	4	László Cseh	Hungary	51.52	Q
3	5	5	Tom Shields	United States	51.58	Q
4	6	4	Michael Phelps	United States	51.60	Q
5	5	3	Mehdy Metella	France	51.71	Q
6	4	3	Piero Codia	Italy	51.72	Q
7	5	4	Chad le Clos	South Africa	51.75	Q
8	3	5	James Guy	Great Britain	51.78	Q
	6	3	Li Zhuhao	China		Q
10	4	5	Konrad Czerniak	Poland	51.81	Q
	5	7	David Morgan	Australia		Q
12	6	1	Grant Irvine	Australia	51.84	Q
13	6	2	Aleksandr Sadovnikov	Russia	51.91	Q
14	2	4	Santo Condorelli	Canada	51.99	Q
15	4	6	Evgeny Koptelov	Russia	52.01	Q
16	3	7	Quah Zheng Wen	Singapore	52.08	Q
17	4	7	Jérémy Stravius	France	52.10
18	4	1	Steffen Deibler	Germany	52.14
19	3	8	Luis Martínez	Guatemala	52.22
20	6	7	Takuro Fujii	Japan	52.36
21	3	4	Henrique Martins	Brazil	52.42
22	5	1	Joeri Verlinden	Netherlands	52.48
23	3	2	Liubomyr Lemeshko	Ukraine	52.51
24	4	8	Santiago Grassi	Argentina	52.56
25	5	2	Matteo Rivolta	Italy	52.67
26	5	8	Bence Pulai	Hungary	52.73
27	3	1	Zhang Qibin	China	52.84
28	4	2	Pavel Sankovich	Belarus	53.00
29	6	8	Albert Subirats	Venezuela	53.23
30	2	5	Ryan Pini	Papua New Guinea	53.24
	6	6	Yauhen Tsurkin	Belarus
32	3	6	Long Yuan Gutiérrez	Mexico	53.34
33	5	6	Paweł Korzeniowski	Poland	53.71
34	3	3	Marcos Macedo	Brazil	53.87
35	2	3	Glenn Victor Sutanto	Indonesia	54.25
36	2	6	Abbas Qali	Independent Olympic Athletes	54.63
37	2	8	Anthonny Sitraka Ralefy	Madagascar	54.72
38	2	1	Ralph Goveia	Zambia	54.84
39	2	2	Allan Gutiérrez Castro	Honduras	55.20
40	2	7	Rami Anis	Refugee Olympic Team	56.23
41	1	4	Oumar Toure	Mali	57.56
42	1	5	Hannibal Gaskin	Guyana	58.57
43	1	3	Thint Myaat	Myanmar	1:02.54

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	László Cseh	Hungary	51.57	Q
2	5	Michael Phelps	United States	51.58	Q
3	2	Konrad Czerniak	Poland	51.80
4	3	Piero Codia	Italy	51.82
5	1	Santo Condorelli	Canada	51.83
6	7	Grant Irvine	Australia	51.87
7	6	James Guy	Great Britain	52.10
8	8	Quah Zheng Wen	Singapore	52.26

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Joseph Schooling	Singapore	50.83	Q, AS
2	6	Chad le Clos	South Africa	51.43	Q
3	2	Li Zhuhao	China	51.51	Q
4	5	Tom Shields	United States	51.61	Q
5	1	Aleksandr Sadovnikov	Russia	51.71	Q
6	3	Mehdy Metella	France	51.73	Q
7	7	David Morgan	Australia	51.75
8	8	Evgeny Koptelov	Russia	52.50

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	4	Joseph Schooling	Singapore	50.39	OR, AS
	2	Michael Phelps	United States	51.14
	5	Chad le Clos	South Africa
	6	László Cseh	Hungary
5	3	Li Zhuhao	China	51.26
6	8	Mehdy Metella	France	51.58
7	7	Tom Shields	United States	51.73
8	1	Aleksandr Sadovnikov	Russia	51.84