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	Men's 100 metre freestyle; at the Games of the I Olympiad
Venue	Bay of Zea
Date	April 11
Competitors	6 from 4 nations
Winning time	1:22.2 OR
Medalists
	Alfréd Hajós; Hungary
	Otto Herschmann; Austria
	1904 (100 yd)»

The men's 100 metre freestyle was a swimming event in the 1896 Summer Olympics.^[1] 6 swimmers were in the race. The 2 swimmers from Austria-Hungary finished first and second. The time and place of the other swimmers was not recorded.

The race was very close. Alfréd Hajós of Hungary beat Otto Herschmann of Austria by half a metre. The other swimmers were very far behind. In the awards ceremony, the Hungarian flag was shown. However, the band played the Austrian anthem (Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser) until Hajós started to sing the Hungarian anthem (Himnusz).^[2]

Background

This was 100 metre freestyle race. This event has been at every Summer Olympics except for 1900 and 1904. In 1900, the shortest freestyle race was 200 metres. In 1904, the race was in yards rather than metres.^[2]

Competition

The competition had a single race. All swimmers swam at the same time. The swimmers would be taken into the Bay by a ship. From the boat, they would race towards the shore. There were Buoys that marked the starting line. Pumpkins marked the course. A red flag showed where the finish line of the race was.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Schedule

The 100 metres freestyle was the first swimming events.^[3]

Date		Time	Round
Gregorian	Julian	Time	Round
Saturday, 11 April 1896	Saturday, 30 March 1896	11:00	Final

Results

Rank	Swimmer	Nation	Time
	Alfréd Hajós	Hungary	1:22.2
	Otto Herschmann	Austria	1:22.8
3–6	Georgios Anninos	Greece	Unknown
	Efstathios Chorafas	Greece	Unknown
	Alexandros Chrysafos	Greece	Unknown
	Gardner Williams	United States	Unknown

Records

These were the world records and olympic records before the 1896 Summer Olympics.

World record	Unknown^*	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Olympic record	N/A	*N/A*	N/A	N/A

^* unofficial

The record was created after the competition:

Date	Event	Athlete	Nation	Distance (m)	Record
April 11	Final	Alfréd Hajós	Hungary	1:22.2	OR

References

↑ "Olympedia – Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics". www.olympedia.org. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 "100 metres Freestyle, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Official Report, part 2, p. 96.
↑ "Athens 1896 Swimming 100m Freestyle Men Result". Olympics.com. Retrieved 2021-09-03.

Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J. & Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at [1] Archived 2008-05-27 at the Wayback Machine)
Mallon, Bill & Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at [2] Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine)
Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.