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

Defending Olympic champion Peaty had taken a break from swimming and suffered a broken foot since his win at the 2020 Olympics. Nonetheless, he won bronze at the 2024 World Championships and registered the second fastest Olympic qualifying time of 57.94 at the 2024 British National Championships. China's Qin Haiyang had the fastest qualifying time of 57.69, which won him the gold medal at the 2023 World Championships. Other competitors included Italian Nicolò Martinenghi, who won bronze at the previous Olympics and won gold at the 2022 World Championships; Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands, who won silver at the previous Olympics; and Nic Fink of the United States, who won the event at the 2022 World Short Course Championships and at the 2024 World Championships. Both SwimSwam and Swimming World predicted Qin would win gold and Peaty would take second. SwimSwam predicted Fink would take third, while Swimming World predicted it would be Martinenghi. Prior to the event, the world and Olympic records were held by Adam Peaty of Great Britain, with times of 56.88 (2019) and 57.13 (2016), respectively. == 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 59.49 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 59.79 for this event. In total, 21 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, 15 athletes qualified through universality places and two athletes qualified through achieving the OCT. == Heats ==

The event was held at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events. Five heats (preliminary rounds) took place on 27 July 2024, starting at 11:00. The Netherlands' Caspar Corbeau won the third heat to qualify with the fastest time of 59.04. Peaty qualified second with 59.18, while Martinenghi, Kamminga, Qin and Fink also qualified. Israel's Ron Polonsky qualified for the semifinal with a new national record of 1:00.00, which beat his previous national record of 1:00.07. == Semifinals ==

Two semifinals took place on 27 July, starting at 21:12. Peaty won the first semifinal to qualify for the final with the fastest time of 58.86, while Qin won the second semifinal to qualify with the second fastest time of 58.93. Kamminga, Fink, Corbeau, Martinenghi and Lucas Metzerath of Germany also qualified. Germany's Melvin Imoudu and Italy's Ludovico Viberti tied for the eighth fastest time as they both swam 59.38, which meant they raced in a swim-off to determine who reached the final. Swim-off The swim-off took place at 22:24 on 27 July. == Final ==

The final took place at 21:44 on 28 July. Qin led at the halfway (50 metre) mark, followed by Peaty and then Martinenghi. Over the rest of the race, Martinenghi moved up to first to win the gold with 59.03. Imoudu finished fourth with 59.11, while Qin dropped to seventh by the end of the race. SwimSwam called the finish of the race a "frantic frenzy to the wall", since the first six swimmers finished within 0.29 seconds of each other. Peaty's silver made him the first swimmer to win three Olympic medals in the event, while it was Martinenghi's second medal in the event. In his post race interview, Martinenghi said winning the gold was "probably the best feeling of [his] life". In Peaty's post race interview, he cried and said "I’m not crying because I’ve come second. I’m crying because it took so much to get here." A day after the race he tested positive for COVID-19, and shortly after that he announced his break from competitive swimming, saying "it’s just hurt too much this time". The winning time of 59.03 was almost two seconds slower than the winning time at the previous Olympics, which induced discussion over whether the Paris Olympic pool was "slow". The time was slower than the winning time in the event at every Olympics since 2004. == Notes ==