The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 11–12 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
Summary Sixteen years after he tied for the gold with Gary Hall, Jr., U.S. swimmer Anthony Ervin, aged 35, reclaimed his title in the program's shortest race to become the oldest male champion in Olympic swimming history. He threw down a gold-medal time of 21.40 to touch out the defending titleholder Florent Manaudou of France by a hundredth of a second. Manaudou was quick off the blocks, but could not catch Ervin near the wall to finish with a silver in 21.41. Meanwhile, Ervin's teammate Nathan Adrian swam to another bronze-medal feat at the Games with a 21.49.
Separated the top three by almost two tenths of a second, Great Britain's Benjamin Proud finished off the podium with a fourth-place time in 21.68, while Ukraine's Andriy Govorov, who led a vast field of swimmers earlier in the heats, slipped shortly to fifth in 21.74. Brazil's hometown favorite Bruno Fratus, fourth-place finalist from London 2012, and South Africa's Brad Tandy shared the sixth spot in a matching 21.79, with Lithuanian swimmer Simonas Bilis (22.08) closing out the field.
Other notable swimmers featured Australia's Cameron McEvoy, Russia's Vladimir Morozov, Manaudou's brother-in-law and countryman Frédérick Bousquet, and Trinidad and Tobago's George Bovell, who scored a twenty-seventh place finish in his fifth Olympic appearance.
Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
Qualification
The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event was 22.27 seconds. Up to two swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) could automatically qualify by swimming that time at an approved qualification event. The Olympic Selection Time was 23.05 seconds. Up to one swimmer per NOC meeting that time was eligible for selection, allocated by world ranking until the maximum quota for all swimming events was reached. NOCs without a male swimmer qualified in any event could also use their universality place.
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 Heats
The swimmers with the top 16 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the semifinals.
Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes 1 11 3 Andriy Govorov 21.49 , NR 2 10 4 Nathan Adrian 21.61 3 10 5 Anthony Ervin 21.63 4 11 4 Florent Manaudou 21.72 5 9 4 Cameron McEvoy 21.80 6 9 5 Vladimir Morozov 21.81 7 10 3 Benjamin Proud 21.83 10 7 Santo Condorelli 9 9 2 Luca Dotto 21.87 10 10 6 Kristian Gkolomeev 21.93 11 5 Bruno Fratus 12 9 6 Brad Tandy 21.94 13 11 6 Ítalo Duarte 21.96 14 9 7 Shinri Shioura 22.01 11 8 Simonas Bilis , NR 16 10 8 Norbert Trandafir 22.10 17 11 2 Krisztián Takács 22.12 18 10 2 Katsumi Nakamura 22.13 19 9 3 Damian Wierling 22.18 20 8 2 Yu Hexin 22.20 21 7 8 Renzo Tjon-A-Joe 22.23 NR 8 4 Filip Wypych 23 7 2 Ali Khalafalla 22.25 =NR 11 7 Ari-Pekka Liukkonen 25 7 1 Oussama Sahnoune 22.27 9 1 Frédérick Bousquet 27 8 7 George Bovell 22.30 28 8 3 Aleksei Brianskiy 22.33 29 7 7 Douglas Erasmus 22.37 30 8 8 Ning Zetao 22.38 31 7 6 Federico Grabich 22.44 32 6 4 Geoffrey Cheah 22.46 33 8 5 Odysseus Meladinis 22.47 10 1 Matthew Abood 35 7 3 Yuri Kisil 22.50 9 8 Paweł Juraszek 37 11 1 Federico Bocchia 22.54 38 8 1 François Heersbrandt 22.58 39 7 4 Jasper Aerents 22.61 40 6 5 Mario Todorović 22.65 41 1 3 Sidni Hoxha 22.80 NR 8 6 Ziv Kalontarov 43 6 6 Shane Ryan 22.88 44 6 3 Cristian Quintero 22.92 45 6 2 Jordan Augier 23.28 46 6 7 José Alberto Quintanilla 23.35 47 6 1 Vahan Mkhitaryan 23.50 48 5 6 Abdoul Niane 23.66 49 4 4 Hilal Hemed Hilal 23.70 NR 50 6 8 Anthony Barbar 23.77 51 5 4 Meli Malani 23.88 5 5 Maksim Inić 53 5 3 Ahmad Attellesey 23.89 54 5 7 Mahfizur Rahman Sagor 23.92 55 5 8 Abeiku Jackson 24.30 56 1 7 Adam Viktora 24.32 57 5 1 Lum Zhaveli 24.53 58 4 5 Farhan Farhan 24.61 59 4 3 Samson Opuakpo 24.85 60 5 2 Batsaikhany Dulguun 24.90 61 2 1 Nikolas Sylvester 25.64 NR 62 4 8 Olim Qurbonov 25.77 63 4 7 Giordan Harris 25.81 64 4 6 Joshua Tibatemwa 25.98 65 3 5 Dionisio Augustine 26.17 66 4 1 Billy-Scott Irakose 26.36 67 2 7 Tindwende Sawadogo 26.38 68 4 2 Eloi Imaniraguha 26.43 69 3 8 Santisouk Inthavong 26.54 NR 70 2 4 Albachir Mouctar 26.56 NR 71 3 4 Ibrahim Nishwan 26.72 72 3 6 Shawn Dingilius-Wallace 26.78 73 2 5 Osman Kamara 26.90 74 2 2 Bourhan Abro 27.13 75 1 5 Maël Ambonguilat 27.21 NR 76 3 1 Athoumane Solihi 27.31 77 3 2 Jules Bessan 27.32 78 3 3 Amadou Camara 27.35 79 3 7 Pap Jonga 27.48 80 2 6 Eméric Kpegba 27.67 81 2 3 Abdelaziz Mohamed Ahmed 27.71 82 2 8 Dienov Andres Koka 28.00 83 1 4 Brave Lifa 28.54 84 1 2 Christian Nassif 30.00 85 1 6 Frantz Dorsainvil 30.86
Semifinals
The swimmers with the best 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final.
Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes 1 1 5 Florent Manaudou 21.32 2 2 4 Andriy Govorov 21.46 , NR 2 5 Anthony Ervin 4 1 4 Nathan Adrian 21.47 5 2 6 Benjamin Proud 21.54 , NR 6 2 7 Bruno Fratus 21.71 2 8 Simonas Bilis , NR 8 1 7 Brad Tandy 21.80 9 2 2 Luca Dotto 21.84 10 1 3 Vladimir Morozov 21.88 11 2 3 Cameron McEvoy 21.89 12 1 6 Santo Condorelli 21.97 13 1 2 Kristian Gkolomeev 21.98 14 1 8 Norbert Trandafir 21.99 15 2 1 Ítalo Duarte 22.05 16 1 1 Shinri Shioura 22.18
Final Rank Lane Name Nation Time Notes 3 Anthony Ervin 21.40 4 Florent Manaudou 21.41 6 Nathan Adrian 21.49 4 2 Benjamin Proud 21.68 5 5 Andriy Govorov 21.74 6 7 Bruno Fratus 21.79 8 Brad Tandy 8 1 Simonas Bilis 22.08
References