The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held from 1 to 2 August 2024 at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.[1] Since an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of one length of the pool.
Going into the competition, Australia's Cameron McEvoy was the favourite, while defending Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel of the USA and Ben Proud of Great Britain were also among the top contenders. In the final, McEvoy won gold, followed by Proud with silver and Florent Manaudou of France winning bronze. National records for Ireland, Fiji and the Cayman Islands were set during the event, and Manaudou's podium finish made him the first swimmer ever to win four consecutive Olympic medals in the event.
Background
Caeleb Dressel of the USA was the defending champion in the event, and held the Olympic record of 21.07 seconds.[2] However, Dressel had missed a period of competition from 2022 to 2023.[3] During this time, Great Britain's Ben Proud and Australia's Cameron McEvoy won the event at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships respectively.[2] France's Florent Manaudou had featured on the podium at the last three Olympics in the event, and according to swimswam, was in good form going into the event.[2]Swimswam and Swimming World opined that McEvoy was most likely to win gold.[2][4]
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter a maximum of two qualified athletes in each individual event, but only if both of them had attained the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).[5] For this event, the OQT was 21.96 seconds. World Aquatics then filled the rest of the event places with athletes qualifying through universality; NOCs were given one event entry for each gender, which could be used by any athlete regardless of qualification time, providing the spaces had not already been taken by athletes from that nation who had achieved the OQT.[5][6] In total, 40 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, while 35 athletes qualified through universality places.[6]Shane Ryan of Ireland achieved the OQT at the 2024 European Aquatics Championships but was not able to start as it was not one of Swim Ireland's designated Olympic qualifying events.[7]
Ten heats took place on 1 August 2024, starting at 11:18.[a][8] The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals.[9] McEvoy swam 21.32 seconds to claim the fastest swim of the heats.[10][8] The CaymanianJordan Crooks finished in 21.51 seconds to claim second, and Manaudou swam the third fastest time of 21.54 seconds.[11]Thomas Fannon of Ireland claimed a new national record of 21.79 seconds, which bettered Shane Ryan's mark set a month earlier at the European Championships by 0.03 seconds.[12] Crooks also set a national record, beating his own time by 0.22 seconds.[13] The final national record of the heats came from David Young, who set Fiji's record at 22.71, beating his previous national record of 22.87.[14][15]
Two semifinals took place on 1 August, starting at 20:46.[16] The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final.[9] Proud and McEvoy both finished in 21.38 seconds to take the joint fastest seed, while Leonardo Deplano of Italy clocked 21.50 seconds for the third fastest time. Also among the qualifiers were Crooks, Dressel, Manadou and Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece.[17] France's Maxime Grousset also originally qualified with the sixth fastest time, but he withdrew which allowed Josh Liendo of Canada to qualify.[18] Fannon of Ireland set another national record of 21.74 seconds, beating his national record set in the heats by 0.05 seconds to finish tenth.[19]
The final took place at 20:30 on 2 August.[21] McEvoy had the fastest reaction time of 0.56 seconds, however by 15 metres Dressel had taken first place with a stronger dive and underwater; McEvoy had dropped to fifth. Proud and Crooks were second and third respectively.[22]
At 25 metres, the order of the top three was the same, but by 45 metres McEvoy had elevated himself from fourth to first. Proud retained his second place position, and was 0.26 seconds ahead of Crooks in third. Over the last five metres, McEvoy and Proud retained their positions to win gold and silver, while Manaudou overtook Crooks to claim the bronze and Crooks dropped to eighth.[22][23] Liendo finished fourth, missing out on a medal by 0.02 seconds.[24]
The gold was McEvoy's first Olympic medal in an individual event, and it was Proud's first Olympic medal in any event.[23] Manaudou's podium finish made him the first swimmer ever to win four consecutive Olympic medals in the event, which he achieved in front of his home crowd.[25] The average age of the medalists was 30 years old.[26]
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