For the second consecutive Games, Japan took two medals in the 100 metre freestyle, this time silver (Masanori Yusa) and bronze (Shigeo Arai).

The United States' seven-Games medal streak in the event ended as the nation's best result was sixth place by Peter Fick.

European champion Ferenc Csik of Hungary was considered a tier below the Americans and Japanese.

[2] Bermuda, Bolivia, the Republic of China, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, and Peru each made their debut in the event.

The United States made its ninth appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.