Swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay and fourth in their respective 100 m events. The British team included the 100 m breaststroke gold medallist (Duncan Goodhew), and fifth-place finisher in the 100 m backstroke (Gary Abraham). Sweden's butterflyer (Pär Arvidsson) and backstroker (Bengt Baron) had won their respective 100 m events, and their freestyle swimmer (Per Holmertz) had come second in the 100 m, while their lowest ranked swimmer, the breaststroker (Peter Berggren), had come ninth in the 100 m event. The Australians were regarded as an outside chance for a medal, but were not seen as the main threats, as they were ranked seventh coming
1958 Asian Games medal table at the Games, and athletes from 11 of these nations won at least one gold medal. Indian national record holder in 200– and 400 metres, Milkha Singh, won gold medals in both the events and set a new Asian Games record in 400 metres. 1956 Melbourne Olympics silver medallist in 400– and 1500 metres freestyle events, Tsuyoshi Yamanaka, won gold medals in these two events. The Japanese 4×100 metres medley relay team of Keiji Hase (backstroke), Masaru Furukawa (breaststroke), Manabu Koga (freestyle) and Takashi Ishimoto (butterfly) won the gold medal with a time of 4:17.2 and broke the world record.