Great Britain's Adam Peaty defeated the field with a new world record to become the country's third gold medalist in this event, since Duncan Goodhew topped the podium in 1980 and Adrian Moorhouse in 1988.

Peaty's time also gave him the largest margin of victory in the event's Olympic history, sparing 1.56 seconds over South Africa's defending champion Cameron van der Burgh, who won a silver in 58.69.

[4] Meanwhile, U.S. swimmer Cody Miller overcame his rib condition to set a new American record of 58.87 for the bronze medal, edging out his teammate Kevin Cordes (59.22) to fourth by 0.35 of a second.

[5][6] Backed by a raucous home crowd, Brazil's João Gomes Júnior managed to pull off a fifth-place finish in 59.31, almost a tenth-second margin ahead of Japan's Yasuhiro Koseki (59.37) and his countryman Felipe França Silva (59.38).

[7] Notable swimmers missed the final roster, including Australia's Jake Packard, Peaty's teammate and 2015 world bronze medalist Ross Murdoch, Lithuania's Giedrius Titenis, and Hungary's Dániel Gyurta, who elected not to do the swimoff with New Zealand's Glenn Snyders (a matching 1:00.26) on the morning prelims.