Swimming at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Swimming events at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Freestyle
50 m		men		women
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m				women
1500 m		men
Backstroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Breaststroke
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Butterfly
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
Individual medley
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
Freestyle relay
4×100 m		men		women
4×200 m		men
Medley relay
4×100 m		men		women

The 1988 Summer Olympics took place in Seoul, South Korea. The swimming competition, held from September 18 to September 25, was notable for the seven medals, including five golds, won by Matt Biondi, the six golds won by Kristin Otto, and the three individual golds won by Janet Evans. 633 participants from 77 countries were competing.

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany (GDR)	11	8	9	28
2	United States (USA)	8	6	4	18
3	Hungary (HUN)	4	2	0	6
4	Soviet Union (URS)	2	2	5	9
5	Australia (AUS)	1	1	1	3
	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	1	1	3
	Great Britain (GBR)	1	1	1	3
	West Germany (FRG)	1	1	1	3
9	Japan (JPN)	1	0	0	1
	Suriname (SUR)	1	0	0	1
11	China (CHN)	0	3	1	4
12	Canada (CAN)	0	1	1	2
	Romania (ROU)	0	1	1	2
14	Costa Rica (CRC)	0	1	0	1
	Denmark (DEN)	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands (NED)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
18	France (FRA)	0	0	2	2
	New Zealand (NZL)	0	0	2	2
20	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1
	Poland (POL)	0	0	1	1
	Spain (ESP)	0	0	1	1

Events

The swimming program for 1988 included two new events, the men's and women's 50 m freestyle, bringing the total number of events to 31.

The following events were contested:

• Freestyle: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m (women), 1500 m (men),
• Backstroke: 100 m, 200 m
• Breaststroke: 100 m, 200 m
• Butterfly: 100 m, 200 m
• Individual Medley: 200 m, 400 m
• Relay: 4×100 m free, 4×200 m free; 4×100 m medley

Competition schedule

All dates are in 1988.

date	Morning session	Afternoon session
Sept.18	no competition	women's 100 freestyle (prelims) men's 100 breaststroke (prelims) women's 400 I.M. (prelims) men's 200 freestyle (prelims)
Sept.19	women's 100 freestyle (finals) men's 100 breaststroke (finals) women's 400 I.M. (finals) men's 200 freestyle (finals)
Sept.20	men's 100 butterfly (prelims) women's 200 freestyle (prelims) men's 400 I.M. (prelims) women's 200 breaststroke (prelims) men's 4x200 Freestyle Relay (prelims)
Sept.21		men's 100 butterfly (finals) women's 200 freestyle (finals) men's 400 I.M. (finals) women's 200 breaststroke (finals) men's 4x200 Freestyle Relay (finals)
Sept.22	women's 400 freestyle (prelims) men's 100 freestyle (prelims) women's 100 backstroke (prelims) men's 200 backstroke (prelims) women's 4x100 Free Relay	women's 400 freestyle (finals) men's 100 freestyle (finals) women's 100 backstroke (finals) men's 200 backstroke (finals) women's 4x100 Freestyle Relay (finals)
Sept.23	men's 400 freestyle (prelims) women's 100 butterfly (prelims) men's 200 breaststroke (prelims) women's 100 breaststroke (prelims) men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay (prelims) women's 800 freestyle (prelims)	men's 400 freestyle (final) women's 100 butterfly (finals) men's 200 breaststroke (finals) women's 100 breaststroke (finals) men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay (finals)
Sept.24	men's 200 butterfly (prelims) women's 200 I.M. (prelims) men's 50 freestyle (prelims) men's 100 backstroke (prelims) women's 4x100 Medley Relay (prelims) men's 1500 freestyle (prelims)	women's 200 I.M. (finals) men's 200 butterfly (finals) men's 50 freestyle (finals) women's 800 freestyle (finals) men's 100 backstroke (finals) women's 4x100 Medley Relay (finals)
Sept.25	women's 200 butterfly (prelims) men's 200 I.M. (prelims) women's 50 freestyle (prelims) men's 4x100 Medley Relay (prelims) women's 200 backstroke (prelims)	men's 200 I.M. (finals) women's 200 butterfly women's 50 freestyle (finals) men's 1500 freestyle (finals) women's 200 backstroke (finals) men's 4x100 Medley Relay (finals)

Medal summary

Men’s events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle	Matt Biondi (USA)	22.14 (WR)	Tom Jager (USA)	22.36	Gennadiy Prigoda (URS)	22.71
100 m freestyle	Matt Biondi (USA)	48.63 (OR)	Chris Jacobs (USA)	49.08	Stéphan Caron (FRA)	49.62
200 m freestyle	Duncan Armstrong (AUS)	1:47.25 (WR)	Anders Holmertz (SWE)	1:47.89	Matt Biondi (USA)	1:47.99
400 m freestyle	Uwe Daßler (GDR)	3:46.95 (WR)	Duncan Armstrong (AUS)	3:47.15	Artur Wojdat (POL)	3:47.34
1500 m freestyle	Vladimir Salnikov (URS)	15:00.40	Stefan Pfeiffer (FRG)	15:02.69	Uwe Daßler (GDR)	15:06.15
100 m backstroke	Daichi Suzuki (JPN)	55.05	David Berkoff (USA)	55.18	Igor Polyansky (URS)	55.20
200 m backstroke	Igor Polyansky (URS)	1:59.37	Frank Baltrusch (GDR)	1:59.60	Paul Kingsman (NZL)	2:00.48
100 m breaststroke	Adrian Moorhouse (GBR)	1:02.04	Károly Güttler (HUN)	1:02.05	Dmitry Volkov (URS)	1:02.20
200 m breaststroke	József Szabó (HUN)	2:13.52	Nick Gillingham (GBR)	2:14.12	Sergio López Miró (ESP)	2:15.21
100 m butterfly	Anthony Nesty (SUR)	53.00 (OR)	Matt Biondi (USA)	53.01	Andy Jameson (GBR)	53.30
200 m butterfly	Michael Gross (FRG)	1:56.94 (OR)	Benny Nielsen (DEN)	1:58.24	Anthony Mosse (NZL)	1:58.28
200 m individual relay	Tamás Darnyi (HUN)	2:00.17 (WR)	Patrick Kühl (GDR)	2:01.61	Vadim Yaroshchuk (URS)	2:02.40
400 m individual medley	Tamás Darnyi (HUN)	4:14.75 (WR)	David Wharton (USA)	4:17.36	Stefano Battistelli (ITA)	4:18.01
4×100 m freestyle relay	United States (USA) Chris Jacobs Troy Dalbey Tom Jager Matt Biondi Doug Gjertsen* Brent Lang* Shaun Jordan*	3:16.53	Soviet Union (URS) Gennadiy Prigoda Yuri Bashkatov Nikolai Yevseyev Volodymyr Tkachenko Raimundas Mažuolis* Oleksiy Boryslavskiy*	3:18.33	East Germany (GDR) Dirk Richter Thomas Flemming Lars Hinneburg Steffen Zesner	3:19.82
4×200 m freestyle relay	United States (USA) Troy Dalbey Matt Cetlinski Doug Gjertsen Matt Biondi Craig Oppel* Dan Jorgensen*	7:12.51	East Germany (GDR) Uwe Daßler Sven Lodziewski Thomas Flemming Steffen Zesner Lars Hinneburg*	7:13.68	West Germany (FRG) Erik Hochstein Thomas Fahrner Rainer Henkel Michael Gross Peter Sitt* Stefan Pfeiffer*	7:14.35
4×100 m medley relay	United States (USA) David Berkoff Richard Schroeder Matt Biondi Chris Jacobs Jay Mortenson* Tom Jager*	3:36.93	Canada (CAN) Mark Tewksbury Victor Davis Tom Ponting Sandy Goss	3:39.28	Soviet Union (URS) Igor Polyansky Dmitry Volkov Vadim Yaroshchuk Gennadiy Prigoda Sergei Zabolotnov* Valeriy Lozik* Konstantin Petrov* Nikolay Yevseyev*	3:39.96

* Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

Women’s events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
50 m freestyle	Kristin Otto (GDR)	25.49 (OR)	Yang Wenyi (CHN)	25.64	Jill Sterkel (USA)	25.71
					Katrin Meissner (GDR)
100 m freestyle	Kristin Otto (GDR)	54.93	Zhuang Yong (CHN)	55.47	Catherine Plewinski (FRA)	55.49
200 m freestyle	Heike Friedrich (GDR)	1:57.65 (OR)	Silvia Poll (CRC)	1:58.67	Manuela Stellmach (GDR)	1:59.01
400 m freestyle	Janet Evans (USA)	4:03.85 (WR)	Heike Friedrich (GDR)	4:05.94	Anke Möhring (GDR)	4:06.62
800 m freestyle	Janet Evans (USA)	8:20.20 (OR)	Astrid Strauss (GDR)	8:22.09	Julie McDonald (AUS)	8:22.93
100 m backstroke	Kristin Otto (GDR)	1:00.89	Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN)	1:01.56	Cornelia Sirch (GDR)	1:01.57
200 m backstroke	Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN)	2:09.29 (OR)	Katrin Zimmermann (GDR)	2:10.61	Cornelia Sirch (GDR)	2:11.45
100 m breaststroke	Tanya Dangalakova (BUL)	1:07.95 (OR)	Antoaneta Frenkeva (BUL)	1:08.74	Silke Hörner (GDR)	1:08.83
200 m breaststroke	Silke Hörner (GDR)	2:26.71 (WR)	Huang Xiaomin (CHN)	2:27.49	Antoaneta Frenkeva (BUL)	2:28.34
100 m butterfly	Kristin Otto (GDR)	59.00 (OR)	Birte Weigang (GDR)	59.45	Hong Qian (CHN)	59.52
200 m butterfly	Kathleen Nord (GDR)	2:09.51	Birte Weigang (GDR)	2:09.91	Mary T. Meagher (USA)	2:10.80
200 m individual medley	Daniela Hunger (GDR)	2:12.59 (OR)	Yelena Dendeberova (URS)	2:13.31	Noemi Lung (ROU)	2:14.85
400 m individual medley	Janet Evans (USA)	4:37.76	Noemi Lung (ROU)	4:39.46	Daniela Hunger (GDR)	4:39.76
4×100 m freestyle relay	East Germany (GDR) Kristin Otto Katrin Meissner Daniela Hunger Manuela Stellmach Sabina Schulze* Heike Friedrich*	3:40.63	Netherlands (NED) Marianne Muis Mildred Muis Conny van Bentum Karin Brienesse Diana van der Plaats*	3:43.39	United States (USA) Mary Wayte Mitzi Kremer Laura Walker Dara Torres Paige Zemina* Jill Sterkel*	3:44.25
4×100 m medley relay	East Germany (GDR) Kristin Otto Silke Hörner Birte Weigang Katrin Meissner Cornelia Sirch* Manuela Stellmach*	4:03.74	United States (USA) Beth Barr Tracey McFarlane Janel Jorgensen Mary Wayte Betsy Mitchell* Mary T. Meagher* Dara Torres*	4:07.90	Canada (CAN) Lori Melien Allison Higson Jane Kerr Andrea Nugent Keltie Duggan* Patricia Noall*	4:10.49

* Swimmers who participated in the heats only and received medals.

References

• 1988 Summer Olympics results: swimming, from http://www.sports-reference.com/; retrieved 2009-12-29.