Swimming at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships – Men's 100 metre butterfly

25 swimmers participated in 4 heats. The eight fastest times advanced to the final.[1][2]

Rank	Heat	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	-	Joe Bottom	United States	55.94	Q, CR
2	1	-	Hartmut Flöckner	East Germany	56.89	Q, CR
3	3	-	Bruce Robertson	Canada	56.90	Q
4	2	-	Robin Backhaus	United States	56.94	Q
5	3	-	Jorge Delgado	Ecuador	57.35	Q
6	4	-	Ross Seymour	Australia	57.58	Q
7	1	-	Folkert Meeuw	West Germany	57.69	Q
8	1	-	Neil Rogers	Australia	57.98	Q
9	2	-	Hideaki Hara	Japan	58.00
10	3	-	Miguel Lang	Spain	58.47
11	2	-	Brian Phillips	Canada	58.68
12	2	-	Istvan Szentirmay	Hungary	59.09
13	3	-	Jorge Jaramillo	Colombia	59.13
14	2	-	Eduardo Orejuela	Ecuador	59.21
15	1	-	Vladimir Krivtsov	Soviet Union	59.47
16	4	-	Aleksandar Pavličević	Yugoslavia	59.78
17	4	-	Vasil Dobrev	Bulgaria	59.99
18	4	-	Piotr Dłucik	Poland	1:00.34
19	3	-	Eduardo Alijo	Brazil	1:00.39
20	1	-	José Ferraioli	Puerto Rico	1:00.48
21	3	-	Sérgio Waismaun	Brazil	1:00.88
22	1	-	Ramón Volcán	Venezuela	1:01.77
23	3	-	Jean-Jacques Scheuren	Luxembourg	1:02.68
24	2	-	Ali Gharbi	Tunisia	1:05.44
25	4	-	O. Mehmat	Iran	1:09.20
–	-	-	Roland Mattes	East Germany	-	DNS[1]

¹ Roland Mattes had to withdraw from the event following a poolside accident when he slipped and sprained his ankle.[3]

The results of the final are below.[4]

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	3	Bruce Robertson	Canada	55.69	CR
	4	Joe Bottom	United States	56.37
	6	Robin Backhaus	United States	56.42
4	5	Hartmut Flöckner	East Germany	56.75
5	7	Ross Seymour	Australia	57.33
6	2	Jorge Delgado	Ecuador	57.41
7	8	Neil Rogers	Australia	57.58
8	1	Folkert Meeuw	West Germany	57.81