The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 25 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.

Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to final A, where they competed for the top 8 places. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the heats swam in final B, for ninth through the sixteenth place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.

Results

Heats Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).

Rank Heat Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 9 4 Alexander Popov 22.22 Q 2 8 4 Gary Hall, Jr. 22.36 Q 3 7 1 Jiang Chengji 22.55 Q, AS 4 8 2 Brendon Dedekind 22.60 Q 5 6 1 Ricardo Busquets 22.61 Q, NR 6 9 5 David Fox 22.64 Q 7 7 3 Bengt Zikarsky 22.68 7 8 Francisco Sánchez , NR 8 5 Fernando Scherer 10 8 6 Mark Foster 22.73 q 11 9 8 Allan Murray 22.75 q, NR 12 8 1 Yuriy Vlasov 22.77 q 13 9 2 Pieter van den Hoogenband 22.82 q 14 8 3 Christophe Kalfayan 22.83 q 15 7 6 René Gusperti 22.85 q 16 9 3 Gustavo Borges 22.86 q 17 7 2 Pavlo Khnykin 22.91 18 7 7 Raimundas Mažuolis 22.98 9 6 Chris Fydler 20 8 7 Vladimir Predkin 23.03 21 7 5 Alexander Lüderitz 23.06 22 9 1 Aleh Rukhlevich 23.12 23 7 4 José Meolans 23.21 24 9 7 Yoav Bruck 23.22 25 6 4 Felipe Delgado 23.26 26 6 2 Sergey Borisenko 23.29 6 8 Indrek Sei NR 28 6 7 Bartosz Kizierowski 23.34 29 5 5 Sion Brinn 23.35 NR 30 6 6 Juan Benavides 23.36 31 5 8 Stavros Michaelides 23.37 32 5 6 Enrico Linscheer 23.45 33 6 3 Pär Lindström 23.47 34 6 5 Georgios Giziotis 23.56 35 4 8 Yukihiro Matsushita 23.60 36 4 4 Salim Iles 23.61 NR 4 5 Janne Blomqvist 8 8 Dzmitry Kalinouski 39 5 4 Hugues Legault 23.63 40 3 3 Nicholas Tongue 23.73 5 1 Paulo Trindade 42 3 4 Arthur Li Kai Yien 23.77 43 3 5 Maxim Cazmirciuc 23.78 44 5 7 Richard Sam Bera 23.80 45 4 3 Ravil Nachaev 23.93 46 3 6 Darrick Bollinger 23.97 47 4 6 Tamer Hamed 24.02 48 5 3 Nicholas O'Hare 24.03 49 4 7 Sebastian Xavier 24.15 50 4 2 Alen Lončar 24.17 51 3 2 Kaan Berberoğlu 24.37 52 4 1 Vitaly Vasilyev 24.54 53 2 6 Khemo Rivera 24.62 NR 54 2 3 Howard Hinds 24.63 55 3 1 Tamás Kerékjártó 24.67 56 2 5 Huang Chih-yung 24.89 57 2 2 Alfredo Carrillo 24.91 58 3 8 Sng Ju Wei 25.04 59 3 7 Emin Guliyev 25.23 60 1 4 Woodrow Lawrence 27.88 61 1 5 Moosa Nazim 28.37 62 1 3 René Makosso 30.00 63 2 1 Michael Collier 34.21 5 2 Alexandru Ioanovici 2 4 Musa Bakare

Swim-off Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 Fernando Scherer 22.71 Q 2 5 Francisco Sánchez 22.74 Q 4 Bengt Zikarsky q

Finals

Final B Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 9 2 Pieter van den Hoogenband 22.67 NR 10 4 Bengt Zikarsky 22.73 11 6 Yuriy Vlasov 22.82 12 3 Allan Murray 22.92 8 Gustavo Borges 14 1 René Gusperti 22.96 7 Christophe Kalfayan 16 5 Mark Foster 23.01

Final A Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 4 Alexander Popov 22.13 5 Gary Hall, Jr. 22.26 1 Fernando Scherer 22.29 SA 4 3 Jiang Chengji 22.33 AS 5 6 Brendon Dedekind 22.59 6 7 David Fox 22.68 7 8 Francisco Sánchez 22.72 8 2 Ricardo Busquets 22.73

References

External links Official Report USA Swimming