Swimming at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's 100-metre backstroke

Italy's Thomas Ceccon won the event at the 2022 World Championships with a world record of 51.60, which had not been broken since. At the 2023 World Championships, the US' Ryan Murphy won gold ahead of Ceccon in second. Hunter Armstrong of the US placed in the top three at the 2022 and 2023 Championships, and won the event at the 2024 Championships in Ceccon and Murphy's absence. Defending Olympic champion Evgeny Rylov and defending Olympic silver medallist Kliment Kolesnikov, both from Russia, did not return to compete. World Aquatics required Russian athletes to have not shown any support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine to be able to compete as neutral athletes at the Games. Rylov had participated in a pro-war rally so was not eligible, and Kolesnikov said the conditions were "unacceptable" and chose not to compete. The event was held at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. == Qualification ==

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT). For this event, the OQT was 53.74 seconds. World Aquatics then considered athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT. Finally, the rest of the spaces were filled by athletes who had met the Olympic Consideration Time (OCT), which was 54.01 for this event. In total, 30 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 14 athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT. == Heats ==

Six heats (preliminary rounds) took place on 28 July 2024, starting at 11:43. Hungary's Hubert Kós swam the fastest qualifying time of 52.78, which broke his own national record. == Semifinals ==

Two semifinals took place on 28 July, starting at 21:32. South Africa's Pieter Coetze qualified with a new African record of 52.63, which beat his previous record by 0.15 seconds. == Final ==

The final took place at 21:27 on 29 July. Murphy won bronze with 52.39, which was 0.02 seconds ahead of Christou in fourth. Coetze broke his African record again with 52.58, placing him in fifth. After the swim Ceccon said he had changed his "tactical approach" since losing to Murphy at the 2023 Championships, and that his swim was "proof that sometimes you can lose, but you can learn from that". His win gave Italy their first gold medal in the event. == Notes ==