First Ten Olympic Swimming Gold Medalists In Men's 100-Meter Backstroke

The backstroke swimming style dates from the remote past and is more or less as ancient as the forward crawl. As its name suggests, backstroke is swum like an upside down forward crawl (note that both backstroke and forward crawl are considered long-axis swimming strokes).

Backstroke had its debut in Olympics during the Games of the II Olympiad (the 1900 Summer Olympics held in Paris, France), with an event in men's 200-meter individual race. This event was won by Ernst Hoppenberg of Germany. At the following Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904, the men's backstroke event was cut by more than a half to 100 yards (91.44 meters), which was won by Walter Brack of Germany.

At the 1908 London Olympics, the men's 100-meter backstroke was added to the swimming events. The following is a list of the Gold Medalists in the first 10 Olympics in which this event was held.

1. Arno Bieberstein of Germany (1908 London Olympics). In the finals, he outsprinted Ludvig Dam of Denmark, with a time of 1 minute and 24.6 seconds.

2. Harry Joseph Hebner of the USA (1912 Stockholm Olympics). He clocked 1 minute and 21.2 seconds in the finals, beating Otto Fahr of Germany by 1.2 seconds.

3. Warren Paoa Kealoha of the USA (1920 Antwerp Olympics). He beat fellow American swimmer Raymond Kegeris in the finals, with a time of 1 minute and 15.2 seconds.

4. Warren Paoa Kealoha of the USA (1924 Paris Olympics). This makes him the first back-to-back Olympic Gold Medalist in this event. He beat yet another American swimmer (Paul Wyatt) in the finals, clocking 1 minute and 13.2 seconds.

5. George Harold Kojac of the USA (1928 Amsterdam Olympics). This event actually had three American swimmers finishing 1-2-3 (Walter Laufer won the Silver Medal and Paul Wyatt the Bronze). Kojac won in the finals in 1:08.2.

6. Masaji Kiyokawa of Japan (1932 Los Angeles Olympics). He is the first Asian to have won this event, prior to the successes of Yoshinobu Oyakawa (who actually represented the USA) in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and Daichi Suzuki also of Japan in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Masaji won in the finals over fellow Japanese swimmer Toshio Irie, clocking 1 minute and 8.6 seconds. Interestingly, if the previous Olympics had a 1-2-3 American finish in this event, here it was a 1-2-3 Japanese finish, with Kentaro Kawatsu winning the Bronze Medal.

7. Adolf Gustav Kiefer of the USA (1936 Berlin Olympics). He is the fourth American swimmer to win this Olympic swimming event. In the final race, he outclocked Al Vande Weghe (also of the USA) by 1.8 seconds, winning the Gold Medal in 1 minute and 5.9 seconds.

8. Allen McIntyre Stack of the USA (1948 London Olympics). He won in the finals over fellow American swimmer Robert Cowell by the slimmest of margins - a mere tenth of a second. His winning time was 1 minute and 6.4 seconds.

9. Yoshinobu Oyakawa of the USA (1952 Helsinki Olympics). His winning time was 1 minute 5.4 seconds, beating Gilbert Bozon of France by eight-tenths of a second.

10. David Egmont Theile of Australia (1956 Melbourne Olympics). He is the first and so far the only Australian swimmer to have won this Olympic swimming event. He won over fellow Australian swimmer John Monckton, with a time of 1 minute and 2.2 seconds. Actually, Theile is the second back-to-back Gold Medalist in this event, having also won the Gold in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Note that the 1916 Summer Olympics, which was supposed to be held in Berlin, Germany, was cancelled because of the war at that time. Likewise, there were no Olympic Games held in 1940 and 1944 (with Tokyo and London as the supposed sites, respectively) due to the outbreak of the Second World War.