Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 100 metre backstroke


The men's 100 metre backstroke event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 17–18 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
Lenny Krayzelburg, a Ukrainian-born American whose swimming career began in the old Soviet system, shattered a new Olympic record to claim a gold medal in the event, slashing 0.14 seconds off an eight-year-old standard set by Jeff Rouse in Barcelona. He seized the lead on the first length, and held off a challenge from Australia's overwhelming favorite Matt Welsh down the final lap to touch the wall first in 53.72. Delighted by the frenzied home crowd, Welsh took home with a silver medal in an Oceanian record of 54.07. Meanwhile, Germany's Stev Theloke stormed home from behind to wrest a bronze in 54.82, edging out another Aussie Josh Watson by almost two-tenths of a second.
Poland's Bartosz Kizierowski finished fifth with a time of 55.04, and was followed in the sixth spot by U.S. swimmer Neil Walker in 55.14. Theloke's teammate Steffen Driesen and Israel's Eithan Urbach closed out the field.

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.
DateEventNameNationalityTimeRecord
18 SeptemberFinalLenny Krayzelburg53.72

Results

Heats

RankHeatLaneNameNationalityTimeNotes
174Lenny Krayzelburg54.38Q
264Matt Welsh54.70Q, OC
355Stev Theloke55.00Q
475Josh Watson55.09Q
551Bartosz Kizierowski55.14Q
654Neil Walker55.34Q
763Steffen Driesen55.39Q
853Gordan Kožulj55.43Q
952Eithan Urbach55.44Q, NR
1073Alexandre Massura55.58Q
1165Rodolfo Falcón55.61Q
1266David Ortega55.80Q
1372Péter Horváth55.81Q
1478Chris Renaud55.85Q
1545Simon Dufour56.01Q
1671Adam Ruckwood56.19Q
1761Derya Büyükuncu56.21
1867Marko Strahija56.26
1942Sergey Ostapchuk56.26
2057Mariusz Siembida56.27
2158Emanuele Merisi56.35
2147Răzvan Florea56.35NR
2356Rogério Romero56.44
2462Darius Grigalionis56.47
2576Mark Versfeld56.50
2677Volodymyr Nikolaychuk56.71
2744Alex Lim56.81
2841Miroslav Machovič56.95
2848Nuno Laurentino56.95
3068Simon Thirsk57.06
3123Sung Min57.12
3232Blaž Medvešek57.26
3337Markus Rogan57.35
3446Ouyang Kunpeng57.47
3534Philipp Gilgen57.50
3633Mattias Ohlin57.51
3735Scott Talbot-Cameron57.86
3812Alexandru Ivlev57.91
3938Ivan Angelov58.03
4043Eduardo Germán Otero58.09
4121Diego Gallo58.18NR
4236Milorad Čavić58.25
4328Dulyarit Phuangthong58.48
4431Haitham Hassan58.67
4524Gary Tan58.69
4622Mehdi Addadi58.74
4713Benjamin Lo-Pinto58.90
4827Mike Fung-A-Wing59.06
4925Konstantin Priahin59.86
5014Germán Martínez59.94
5126Nicholas Neckles1:00.19
5216Pavel Sidorov1:01.02
5317Mauricio Prudencio1:01.15
5415Faisal Al-Mahmeed1:05.17
5511Welbert Samuel1:12.38

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Semifinal 2

Final