The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1992 Summer Olympics took place on 28 July at the Piscines Bernat Picornell in Barcelona, Spain.

Stéphan Caron of France repeated as bronze medalist, the eighth man to win multiple medals in the event.

[2] Five of the eight finalists from the 1988 Games returned: gold medalist Matt Biondi of the United States, bronze medalist Stéphan Caron of France, fourth-place finisher Gennadiy Prigoda of the Soviet Union (now competing for the Unified Team), sixth-place finisher Andrew Baildon of Australia, and eighth-place finisher Tommy Werner of Sweden.

[2] Albania, Lithuania, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and the Seychelles each made their debut in the event; some former Soviet republics competed as the Unified Team and competitors from Yugoslavia competed as Independent Olympic Participants.

An equipment error resulted in the scoreboard initially displaying Caron as the second-place swimmer and Borges as last.

Looking at the correct finish, the officials gave Borges a time of 49.43, good for the silver medal.