The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held from 30 July to 1 August 2021 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. It was the event's tenth appearance, first held in 1904 (as 50 yards) and then at every edition since 1988. The event is nicknamed the "splash and dash" event.
The winning margin was 0.48 seconds which as of 2023 is the only time this event has been won by more than 0.25 seconds at the Olympics.
Summary
U.S. swimmer Caeleb Dressel led from start to finish as he surged to an Olympic record time of 21.07, only 0.03 off his personal best time. By doing so, Dressel became the third male swimmer in history (joining Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz) to win three individual titles at a single Games.
At 0.48 seconds behind Dressel, Florent Manaudou claimed his second successive Olympic silver in this event following his triumph in 2012. Brazil's Bruno Fratus finished in 21.57 to win the bronze and his first career Olympic medal at the age of 32. Meanwhile, Dressel's teammate Michael Andrew narrowly missed the podium by two hundredths of a second.
Great Britain's Ben Proud and Greece's Kristian Gkolomeev came equal fifth in 21.72, while Lorenzo Zazzeri of Italy and Thom De Boer of the Netherlands rounded out the finalists.
The medals for competition were presented by Anant Singh, South African IOC member, and the gifts were presented by Husain Al-Musallam, FINA President.
Records Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
The following record was established during the competition:
Date Event Swimmer Nation Time Record August 1 Final Caeleb Dressel 21.07
Qualification
The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event is 22.01 seconds. Up to two swimmers per National Olympic Committee (NOC) can automatically qualify by swimming that time at an approved qualification event. The Olympic Selection Time is 22.67 seconds. Up to one swimmer per NOC meeting that time is eligible for selection, allocated by world ranking until the maximum quota for all swimming events is reached. NOCs without a male swimmer qualified in any event can also use their universality place.
Competition format
The competition consists of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advance to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advance to the final. Swim-offs are used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.
Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
DateTimeRound Friday, 30 July 2021 19:00 Heats Saturday, 31 July 2021 11:11 Semifinals Sunday, 1 August 2021 10:30 Final
Results Heats The swimmers with the top 16 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the semifinals.
Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 10 4 Caeleb Dressel 21.32 2 10 3 Florent Manaudou 21.65 3 9 5 Kristian Gkolomeev 21.66 4 8 4 Bruno Fratus 21.67 5 7 4 Vladyslav Bukhov 21.73 6 8 3 Thom de Boer 21.75 7 8 7 Jesse Puts 21.84 8 8 2 Brent Hayden 21.85 9 10 7 Lorenzo Zazzeri 21.86 10 9 1 Kliment Kolesnikov 21.88 11 8 5 Michael Andrew 21.89 12 9 4 Vladimir Morozov 21.92 13 10 5 Benjamin Proud 21.93 14 9 8 Alberto Mestre 21.96 15 8 6 Maxime Grousset 21.97 10 6 Paweł Juraszek 17 9 7 Meiron Cheruti 22.01 18 8 1 Joshua Liendo 22.03 19 7 7 Santo Condorelli 22.14 8 8 Nikola Miljenić 9 2 Yu Hexin 22 7 8 Heiko Gigler 22.17 23 9 6 Björn Seeliger 22.19 24 7 6 Ali Khalafalla 22.22 10 8 Brad Tandy 26 9 3 Ari-Pekka Liukkonen 22.25 10 2 Maxim Lobanovskij 28 6 4 Andrej Barna 22.29 29 10 1 Cameron McEvoy 22.31 30 7 1 Gabriel Castaño 22.32 31 7 2 Konrad Czerniak 22.33 32 7 3 Ian Ho 22.45 33 6 7 Dylan Carter 22.46 6 8 Brett Fraser 35 6 1 Enzo Martínez 22.52 36 6 5 Renzo Tjon-A-Joe 22.56 37 7 5 Oussama Sahnoune 22.61 38 6 3 Santiago Grassi 22.67 39 6 6 Hwang Sun-woo 22.74 40 6 2 David Popovici 22.77 41 5 5 Luke Gebbie 22.84 42 5 4 Emir Muratović 22.91 43 5 3 Artur Barseghyan 23.14 44 5 2 Alaa Maso 23.30 45 5 6 Nikolas Antoniou 23.38 46 5 7 Ghirmai Efrem 23.94 47 5 8 Filipe Gomes 24.00 48 5 1 Myagmaryn Delgerkhüü 24.63 49 4 5 Shane Cadogan 24.71 50 4 4 Alassane Seydou Lancina 24.75 51 4 3 Mohammed Ariful Islam 24.81 52 4 6 Puch Hem 24.91 53 4 7 Marc Dansou 24.99 54 4 8 Adama Ouedraogo 25.22 NR 55 4 1 Eloi Maniraguha 25.38 56 4 2 Shaquille Moosa 25.54 57 3 6 Mawupemon Otogbe 25.68 58 3 5 Troy Pina 25.97 59 3 4 Santisouk Inthavong 26.04 60 3 3 Olimjon Ishanov 26.12 61 3 2 Mamadou Bah 26.52 62 3 8 Abdelmalik Muktar 26.65 63 3 7 Simanga Dlamini 26.94 64 2 2 Charly Ndjoume 27.22 65 2 6 Houssein Gaber Ibrahim 27.41 66 2 5 Ebrima Buaro 27.44 67 2 4 Shawn Dingilius-Wallace 27.46 68 1 5 Adam Girard de Langlade Mpali 27.66 69 2 3 Fahim Anwari 27.67 70 2 7 Phillip Kinono 27.86 71 3 1 Joshua Wyse 27.90 72 1 4 José da Silva Viegas 28.59 73 1 3 Diosdado Miko Eyanga 31.03
Semifinals The swimmers with the best 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final.
Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 2 4 Caeleb Dressel 21.42 2 1 4 Florent Manaudou 21.53 3 1 5 Bruno Fratus 21.60 2 5 Kristian Gkolomeev 5 2 1 Benjamin Proud 21.67 2 7 Michael Andrew 7 2 2 Lorenzo Zazzeri 21.75 8 1 3 Thom de Boer 21.78 9 1 2 Kliment Kolesnikov 21.82 1 6 Brent Hayden 11 2 3 Vladyslav Bukhov 21.83 12 2 6 Jesse Puts 21.87 2 8 Maxime Grousset 14 1 8 Paweł Juraszek 21.88 15 1 1 Alberto Mestre 22.22 16 1 7 Vladimir Morozov 22.25
Final
Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 4 Caeleb Dressel 21.07 5 Florent Manaudou 21.55 3 Bruno Fratus 21.57 4 7 Michael Andrew 21.60 5 2 Benjamin Proud 21.72 6 Kristian Gkolomeev 7 1 Lorenzo Zazzeri 21.78 8 8 Thom de Boer 21.79
References