While the Paris Olympics are now in the rear view mirror, the competition brought us two of the closest finishes we have ever seen in Olympic swimming. With that in mind, we’re now taking a look at some of the closest finishes that we’ve ever witnessed on the Olympic swimming stage.
Of course, there are many ways you can go about quantifying this: you can look at the time differential across the podium (from 1st to 3rd); you can look at the time differential between 1st and 8th place; or you can take a ratio of either of these prior methods over the total time swum to get some percentage.
I’m a fan of simplicity, though, and so we’ll go with the first method and look at the gap (in seconds) from 1st to 3rd place — just so we don’t get too complicated with the numbers. Let’s cap the time differential at 0.20 seconds for now…
Thank you to Daniel Takata for verifying the data.
Paris 2024: Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Podium Spread: 0.02s
*Note: The top 4 were separated by just 0.08s — with Germany’s Melvin Imoudu in 4th (59.11).
Rio 2016: Women’s 50 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.04s
*Note: The top 6 were separated by just 0.12s — with Great Britain’s Francesca Halsall in 4th (24.13), Australia’s Cate Campbell in 5th (24.15), and the Netherlands’ Ranomi Kromowidjojo in 6th (24.19).
Sydney 2000: Men’s 50 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.05s
*Note: The top 6 were separated by just 0.26s — with Italy’s Lorenzo Visrama in 4th (22.11), Poland’s Bartosz Kizierowski in 5th (22.22), and Russia’s Alexander Popov in 6th (22.24).
Paris 2024: Men’s 200 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.07s
*Note: The top 4 were separated by just 0.15s — with Great Britain’s Duncan Scott in 4th (1:44.87).
Athens 2004: Men’s 50 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.09s
*Note: The top 5 were separated by just 0.18s — with Sweden’s Stefan Nystrand in 4th (22.08) and the U.S.’s Jason Lezak in 5th (22.11).
Rio 2016: Men’s 50 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.09s
Barcelona 1992: Men’s 100 Butterfly
Podium Spread: 0.09s
Atlanta 1996: Women’s 100 Butterfly
Podium Spread: 0.10s
Athens 2004: Men’s 100 Butterfly
Podium Spread: 0.11s
Beijing 2008: Women’s 50 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.11s
*Note: The top 5 were separated by just 0.20s — with Australia’s Lisbeth Trickett in 4th (24.25) and the Netherlands’ Marleen Veldhuis in 5th (24.26).
Tokyo 2020: Women’s 100 Butterfly
Podium Spread: 0.13s
*Note: The top 4 were separated by just 0.14s — with the U.S.’s Torri Huske in 4th (55.73).
Seoul 1988: Men’s 100 Backstroke
Podium Spread: 0.15s
Los Angeles 1984: Women’s 100 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.16s
*Note: This is just one of two instances in the history of the women’s 100 freestyle where we saw a dead heat in an Olympic final — the other being Rio 2016.
Atlanta 1996: Men’s 50 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.16s
*Note: The top 4 were separated by just 0.20s — with China’s Jiang Chengji in 4th (22.33).
Seoul 1988: Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Podium Spread: 0.16s
*Note: This is the smallest margin of victory ever in an Olympic 100m breaststroke final.
Paris 2024: Women’s 100 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.17s
*Note: The top 4 were separated by just 0.18s — with Australia’s Molly O’Callaghan in 4th (52.34).
Beijing 2008: Men’s 50 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.19s
*Note: While the top 3 were decided by 0.19, the rest of the field was decided by just a tenth (21.62 earned 4th, while 21.72 earned 8th).
Melbourne 1956: Women’s 100 Backstroke
Podium Spread: 0.20s
- Gold: 1:12.9, Judy Grinham (Great Britain)
- Silver: 1:12.9, Carin Cone (U.S.)
- Bronze: 1:13.1, Margaret Edwards (Great Britain)
Rome 1960: Men’s 100 Freestyle
Podium Spread: 0.20s
*Note: This race also happens to be one of the most controversial race results and is often credited as one of the races that paved the way for touchpads. You can find more details about this race here.
Here’s a quick recap on these close races…
- Most Common Podium Spread: 0.09s and 0.17s (3 times each)
- Most Common Event: 50 freestyle (7 times)
- Most Common Event NOT the 50 Freestyle: 100 butterfly (5 times)
- Smallest Margin of Victory: 0.00s (dead heat)
On the whole, who doesn’t like close races — especially those races that have you at the edge of your seat, with all the medals truly up for grabs as the swimmers duel it out in the last 5 meters? Speaking on behalf of myself, I personally live for close races.
