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.

Going into the competition, Australia's Cameron McEvoy was the favourite, while defending Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel of the US 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. Manaudou's podium finish made him the first swimmer ever to win four consecutive Olympic medals in the event.

Background Although Caeleb Dressel of the United States was the defending champion in the event, he had missed a period of competition from 2022 to 2023. During this time, Great Britain's Ben Proud and Australia's Cameron McEvoy won the event at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, respectively. Florent Manaudou of France 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. Swimswam and Swimming World opined that McEvoy was most likely to win gold.

Prior to the event, the world record was 20.91, set by César Cielo of Brazil in 2009, and the Olympic record was 21.07, set by the Dressel at the 2020 games.

The event was held at Paris La Défense Arena, which was converted to a swimming pool for the swimming events.

Qualification

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). 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. In total, 40 athletes qualified through achieving the OQT, while 35 athletes qualified through universality places.

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. China's Pan Zhanle qualified but dropped the event.

+ Top 10 fastest qualification times Swimmer Country Time Competition Cameron McEvoy 21.06 2023 World Aquatics Championships Ben Proud 21.25 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships Vladyslav Bukhov 21.38 2024 World Aquatics Championships Caeleb Dressel 21.41 2024 United States Olympic Trials Joshua Liendo 21.48 2024 Canadian Olympic Trials Florent Manaudou 21.52 2024 French Elite Championships Chris Guiliano 21.59 2024 United States Olympic Trials Maxime Grousset 21.66 2024 French Elite Championships Björn Seeliger 21.67 2024 World Aquatics Championships Szebasztián Szabó 2023 World Aquatics Championships

Heats Ten heats took place on 1 August 2024, starting at 11:18. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. McEvoy swam 21.32 seconds to claim the fastest swim of the heats, while Caymanian Jordan Crooks finished in 21.51 to claim second, and Manaudou swam the third fastest time of 21.54.

Thomas Fannon of Ireland claimed a new national record of 21.79 seconds, which bettered Ryan's mark set a month earlier at the European Championships by 0.03 seconds. Crooks also set a national record, beating his own time by 0.22 seconds. David Young set Fiji's national record at 22.71, beating his previous national record of 22.87, Alex Joachim set Saint Vincent and the Grenadines' national record at 23.59, and Mohamed Aan Hussain set the Maldives' national record at 24.22.

+ Results Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 10 4 Cameron McEvoy 21.32 2 10 7 Jordan Crooks 21.51 , NR 3 8 5 Florent Manaudou 21.54 4 10 1 Lorenzo Zazzeri 21.64 5 9 4 Ben Proud 21.70 6 6 7 Tom Fannon 21.79 , NR 8 7 Leonardo Deplano 8 9 8 Ben Armbruster 21.86 10 2 Kristian Gkolomeev 10 8 8 Meiron Cheruti 21.88 11 8 4 Vladyslav Bukhov 21.89 10 6 Gabriel Castaño 13 7 5 Diogo Ribeiro 21.91 10 5 Caeleb Dressel 15 9 5 Josh Liendo 21.92 16 9 3 Maxime Grousset 21.94 17 10 3 Chris Guiliano 21.97 18 9 7 Stergios Bilas 22.00 19 7 1 Martin Kartavi 22.01 7 4 Taiko Torepe-Ormsby 21 9 1 Alberto Mestre 22.02 22 6 2 Jere Hribar 22.08 23 7 3 Renzo Tjon-A-Joe 22.10 24 9 6 Szebasztián Szabó 22.12 10 8 Ian Ho 26 6 6 Mikel Schreuders 22.14 27 8 2 Kenzo Simons 22.15 28 9 2 Ji Yu-chan 22.16 29 8 6 Dylan Carter 22.18 30 7 2 Andrej Barna 22.19 31 8 3 Björn Seeliger 22.21 32 6 5 Jonathan Tan 22.26 33 6 4 Alexander Cohoon 22.31 7 6 Guilherme Caribé 35 7 7 Piotr Ludwiczak 22.34 36 6 3 Miguel Nascimento 22.49 37 6 1 Nicholas Lia 22.51 38 7 8 Artem Selin 22.54 39 6 8 Matej Duša 22.64 40 5 6 David Young 22.71 NR 41 5 5 Kyle Micallef 22.89 42 4 2 Thierry Bollin 22.95 43 5 3 Tobi Sijuade 23.34 44 5 4 Evgenii Somov 23.43 45 5 1 Alex Joachim 23.59 NR 46 4 5 Belly-Cresus Ganira 23.80 NR 47 5 2 Alaa Maso 23.90 48 5 7 Damien Shamambo 24.09 49 5 8 Filipe Gomes 24.11 50 4 4 Mohamed Aan Hussain 24.22 NR 51 4 6 Aaron Ghebre Owusu 24.25 52 4 3 Warren Lawrence 24.67 53 4 7 Jion Hosei 25.67 54 4 1 Houmed Houssein Barkat 26.00 55 4 8 Camil Doua 26.02 56 3 4 Fakhriddin Madkamov 26.23 57 3 3 Elhadj N'Gnane Diallo 26.45 NR 58 3 8 Magnim Jordano Daou 26.56 59 3 5 Souleymane Napare 26.66 3 6 Jose Tati 61 3 2 Ousman Jobe 26.97 62 3 7 Joshua Wyse 27.11 63 3 1 Fahim Anwari 27.14 64 2 5 Phillip Kinono 27.43 65 2 6 Freddy Mayala 27.52 66 1 4 Pedro Rogery 28.34 NR 67 2 7 Higinio Ndong Obama 28.42 68 2 3 Adam Mpali 28.47 69 2 2 Troy Nisbett 28.71 70 2 4 Aristote Ndombe Impelenga 29.04 71 2 1 Jolanio Guterres 30.04 72 1 3 Marouane Mamane Hamissou Abba 30.66 73 1 5 Terence Tengue 30.96 8 1 Shane Ryan

Semifinals Two semifinals took place on 1 August, starting at 20:46. The swimmers with the best eight times in the semifinals advanced to the final. 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, Manaudou and Kristian Gkolomeev of Greece. France's Maxime Grousset also originally qualified with the sixth fastest time, but he withdrew which allowed Josh Liendo of Canada to qualify. Fannon of Ireland set another national record of 21.74 seconds, beating his record set in the heats by 0.05 seconds to finish tenth.

+ Results Rank Heat Lane Swimmer Nation Time Notes 1 2 3 Ben Proud 21.38 2 4 Cameron McEvoy 3 2 6 Leonardo Deplano 21.50 4 1 4 Jordan Crooks 21.54 5 1 1 Caeleb Dressel 21.58 6 1 8 Maxime Grousset 21.60 7 2 2 Kristian Gkolomeev 21.62 8 2 5 Florent Manaudou 21.64 9 2 8 Josh Liendo 21.69 10 1 3 Thomas Fannon 21.74 NR 11 2 7 Vladyslav Bukhov 21.76 12 1 5 Lorenzo Zazzeri 21.83 13 1 2 Meiron Cheruti 21.91 14 1 6 Ben Armbruster 21.94 15 1 7 Gabriel Castaño 21.99 16 2 1 Diogo Ribeiro 22.01

Final

The final took place at 20:30 on 2 August. McEvoy had the fastest reaction time of 0.56 seconds. By 15 metres, Dressel had taken first place with a stronger dive and underwater; McEvoy had dropped to fifth. Proud and Crooks were tied in second.

At 25 metres, McEvoy had overtaken Crooks to take third, and by 45 metres McEvoy was in 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, with Crooks dropping to eighth. Liendo finished fourth, missing out on a medal by 0.02 seconds.

The gold was McEvoy's first Olympic medal in an individual event, and it was Proud's first Olympic medal in any event. 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. The average age of the medalists was 30 years old.

+ Results Rank Lane Swimmer Nation Time 5 Cameron McEvoy 21.25 4 Ben Proud 21.30 1 Florent Manaudou 21.56 4 8 Josh Liendo 21.58 5 7 Kristian Gkolomeev 21.59 6 2 Caeleb Dressel 21.61 7 3 Leonardo Deplano 21.62 8 6 Jordan Crooks 21.64

+ Statistics Name Underwater distance (m) Underwater speed (m/s) 15 metre split (s) 25 metre split (s) Time (s) Stroke rate (strokes/min) Cameron McEvoy 12.04 3.70 5.11 9.59 21.25 63.1 Ben Proud 13.15 3.86 5.02 9.54 21.30 62.1 Florent Manaudou 13.24 3.75 5.10 9.62 21.56 60.4 Josh Liendo 14.34 3.57 5.21 9.83 21.58 60.9 Kristian Gkolomeev 10.19 3.85 5.27 9.82 21.59 59.5 Caeleb Dressel 14.06 3.84 4.97 9.50 21.61 64.0 Leonardo Deplano 11.65 3.81 5.28 9.79 21.62 66.5 Jordan Crooks 14.67 3.79 5.02 9.60 21.64 61.2

Notes

References