The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 19 and 20.
United States' Gary Hall Jr. defended his Olympic title in the event in 21.93, just two hundredths of a second off the record set by Alexander Popov in 1992. The silver medal was awarded to Croatia's Duje Draganja, who placed behind Hall in 21.94. South Africa's Roland Schoeman completed his full set of medals by adding a bronze in 22.02.
Defending bronze medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands (22.56), and dual Olympic champion Alexander Popov of Russia (22.58) missed the semifinals. By the following year, Popov announced his retirement from swimming, and became a full-time member of the International Olympic Committee.
Eleven first round heats were raced, comprising a total of 86 swimmers. The fastest 16 swimmers from this group qualified to move on to the semifinals stage. After the heats had been raced, the cut-off time was 22.53 seconds. The 16 swimmers who advanced then raced in two semifinals of eight swimmers each, the results being pooled and the fastest eight swimmers advancing to the final. The cut-off time to proceed into the final was 22.19 seconds.
Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
Competition format
The competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.
Results
The swimmers with the top 16 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the semifinals.
Heats Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes 1 11 4 Gary Hall Jr. 22.04 2 10 8 Frédérick Bousquet 22.24 3 9 3 Bartosz Kizierowski 22.26 11 8 Salim Iles , NR 5 8 5 Duje Draganja 22.28 6 9 6 Julien Sicot 22.30 7 9 4 Jason Lezak 22.33 8 11 5 Roland Schoeman 22.41 11 2 Oleksandr Volynets 10 9 2 Brett Hawke 22.42 11 1 Stefan Nystrand 12 8 4 Ricardo Busquets 22.45 13 8 2 Karel Novy 22.51 14 9 5 Javier Noriega 22.52 10 7 Fernando Scherer 16 11 6 Lyndon Ferns 22.53 17 11 3 Pieter van den Hoogenband 22.56 18 10 3 Johan Kenkhuis 22.58 10 4 Alexander Popov 8 6 Rafed El-Masri 21 7 1 Rolandas Gimbutis 22.59 22 10 2 Lorenzo Vismara 22.70 23 10 5 Eduardo Lorente 22.71 24 7 3 Apostolos Tsagkarakis 22.72 25 9 1 Michele Scarica 22.80 26 11 7 Ashley Callus 22.82 27 9 7 José Meolans 22.90 28 10 6 Vyacheslav Shyrshov 22.96 29 9 8 Andrey Kapralov 22.97 30 10 1 Matthew Rose 23.01 31 7 6 Milorad Čavić 23.05 32 6 2 Krisztián Takács 23.12 33 6 1 Stanislau Neviarouski 23.13 34 8 7 Marcos Hernández 23.19 35 7 2 Lee Chung-hee 23.20 36 7 7 Camilo Becerra 23.23 7 4 Pedro Silva 5 7 Ravil Nachaev 39 6 8 Kaan Tayla 23.26 40 5 4 Carl Probert 23.31 41 7 5 Jere Hård 23.33 42 7 3 Chen Zuo 23.41 43 6 3 Julio Santos 23.43 5 6 Joshua Laban 45 6 4 Chrysanthos Papachrysanthou 23.51 46 5 1 Allen Ong 23.52 6 6 Arwut Chinnapasaen 48 6 7 Wang Shao-an 23.54 49 6 5 Danil Haustov 23.56 50 4 4 José Mafio 23.58 51 4 5 Jevon Atkinson 23.61 52 5 2 Raichin Antonov 23.67 53 4 6 Rodrigo Díaz 23.69 54 5 5 Örn Arnarson 23.84 55 5 8 Oleg Shteynikov 23.88 56 4 3 Terrence Haynes 23.90 57 4 8 Abed Rahman Kaaki 24.68 58 4 2 Gregory Arkhurst 24.82 4 7 Mauricio Prudencio 60 4 1 Alois Dansou 24.86 61 1 4 Emile Rony Bakale 25.07 62 3 5 Chris Hackel 25.33 63 1 3 Ahmed Mohamed Jewel 25.47 64 3 4 Cole Shade Sule 26.16 65 3 3 Johnathan Steele 26.40 66 3 6 Kreshnik Gjata 26.61 5 3 Semen Danilov 68 2 4 Anderson Bonabart 26.75 69 1 2 Ibrahim Maliki 26.81 70 3 8 Hem Kiri 27.49 71 3 2 Khaled Ghezzawi 27.55 72 2 3 Hojamamed Hojamamedov 27.68 73 3 1 Hassan Mubah 27.71 74 1 7 Donnie Defreitas 27.72 75 3 7 Edgar Luberenga 27.77 76 1 5 Abdourahamane Diawara 28.10 77 2 5 Bounthanom Vongphachanh 28.17 78 2 7 Leonce Sekama 28.99 79 1 6 David Keita 29.96 80 2 2 Mohamed Saad 29.97 81 2 6 Mamadou Ouedraogo 30.36 82 2 8 Malique Williams 32.86 83 2 1 Yona Walesi 34.11 8 1 Luis Rojas 8 3 Peter Mankoč 8 8 George Bovell
Semifinals
The swimmers with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final.
Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes 1 1 6 Roland Schoeman 21.99 , AF 2 1 2 Brett Hawke 22.07 , OC 3 2 6 Jason Lezak 22.12 4 1 5 Salim Iles 22.16 , NR 5 2 2 Gary Hall Jr. 22.18 2 4 Stefan Nystrand 2 7 Oleksandr Volynets 8 2 3 Duje Draganja 22.19 9 2 5 Bartosz Kizierowski 22.22 10 1 3 Julien Sicot 22.26 11 2 8 Fernando Scherer 22.27 12 1 4 Frédérick Bousquet 22.29 13 1 1 Javier Noriega 22.36 14 1 8 Lyndon Ferns 22.46 15 1 7 Ricardo Busquets 22.52 16 2 1 Karel Novy 22.63
Final Rank Lane Name Nation Time Notes 2 Gary Hall Jr. 21.93 8 Duje Draganja 21.94 4 Roland Schoeman 22.02 4 1 Stefan Nystrand 22.08 5 3 Jason Lezak 22.11 6 5 Brett Hawke 22.18 7 7 Oleksandr Volynets 22.26 8 6 Salim Iles 22.37
References
External links Official Olympic Report