The Last Five Men’s 100 Free Olympic Champions Have All Come From Lane 5

Tip of the hat to reader BOBFROMTHEISLAND for this stat.

Location, location, location. It’s everything in real estate and it’s everything in the Olympic final of the men’s 100 freestyle.

Since 2004, the Olympic champion in the men’s 100 freestyle has come from lane five. That streak includes the likes of Caeleb Dressel (Tokyo), Kyle Chalmers (Rio), Nathan Adrian (London), Alain Bernard (Beijing), and Pieter van den Hoogenband (Athens). For all except van den Hoogenband, the win marked each’s first individual Olympic gold.

The lane five streak is now 20 years old and you have to go back even further in history to find an Olympic champion in this race who didn’t swim in either middle lane for the final. In 1984, Rowdy Gaines won his title from lane three—practically outside smoke in this race.

The streak is an interesting phenomenon, though it isn’t a surprise that positioning is crucial in the 100 freestyle. Especially in this modern era of the sport, the men who race this event are often bigger and more muscly than their non-sprinter teammates. This means that the wave created by the field is bigger and tougher to battle through. At the 2023 World Championships, Chalmers won his first long-course world title in this event from lane five. But silver went to Jack Alexy in lane eight and bronze to Maxime Grousset in lane one, who both had an open lane’s clear water on one side.

Positioning in this race is on everyone’s mind more than ever this year because of swimmers like former world record holder David Popovici. In his own words, Popovici is a “skinny legend” and bucks the trend of the biggest men having the most success in this event. He’s had his best swims in this event when the field is without his bigger-built rivals. If he gets caught in the wash of his competitors, it could neuter one of his biggest assets in this race—his backhalf speed.

So, one of the major factors for the 100 freestyle final in Paris is who is in what lane. And in such a stacked field, there will not be much wiggle room for even the top competitors to try and snag their preferred lane the way we sometimes see with distance swimmers.

Being one of the two golden-buoyed middle lanes marks you as one of the favorites for the final, or at least someone who’s shown strong form through the rounds. That’s reflected in how the last five Olympic 100 freestyle finals have played out. The majority of our last five winners were in podium position at the turn. Dressel was first to 50 meters in Tokyo, Bernard was second, and Adrian was third.

Van den Hoogenband was sixth at the turn but Chalmers had an even more impressive second half. Then 18 years old, Chalmers turned in seventh place (23.14) before storming home in 24.44 to take gold. Chalmers is also known for his closing speed—he was again seventh at the turn in Fukuoka en route to the world title—underling that there is more than one way to win gold in this event. But in what is perhaps the deepest 100 free Olympic field in history, does one need Chalmers’ size to successfully execute a back-half strategy?

The clock is ticking down to the men’s 100 freestyle final on July 31st and lane five is calling. With the current world record holder, former world record holder, and 2016 champion in the race we’ll certainly be on world record watch, but we’ll also be looking to see if the lane five streak extends to six.