The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 2–3 August at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom.

France's Florent Manaudou stunned the entire field to join his sister Laure Manaudou on top of the podium for the Olympic sprint freestyle title. Swimming in lane seven, the dark horse threw down a scorching time and a textile best of 21.34 to hold off U.S. swimmer Cullen Jones and the event's Brazilian world record holder and defending Olympic champion César Cielo by two-tenths of a second, a sizable chunk in the Olympic swimming's shortest race. Jones took home the silver in 21.54 to match his semifinal time in the process, while Cielo missed his chance to defend the title with a bronze medal in 21.59.

Cielo's teammate Bruno Fratus finished outside the podium by almost a fingertip with a fourth-place time in 21.61. After twelve years of absence as a 31-year-old, U.S. swimmer Anthony Ervin, who previously tied with Gary Hall, Jr. for the gold in 2000, managed to pull off a fifth-place finish in 21.78. Ervin was followed in sixth and seventh by four-time Olympians Roland Mark Schoeman of South Africa (21.80) and George Bovell of Trinidad and Tobago (21.82). Plagued by injury, Australia's Eamon Sullivan struggled to mount a sprint challenge in a high-calibre race as he finished eighth in 21.98.

Earlier in the semifinals, Australia's top sprinter James Magnussen missed the star-studded roster with an eleventh-place time in 22.00. Other notable swimmers featured Swedish veteran Stefan Nystrand (22.32) and France's Amaury Leveaux (22.35), the defending silver medalist, both of whom fell short of the semifinal field by a small fraction of a second on the morning prelims.

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

Qualification

The Olympic Qualifying Time for the event was 22.11 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 22.88 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 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.

Results

Heats

The swimmers with the top 16 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the semifinals.

Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes 1 6 3 George Bovell 21.77 2 8 4 César Cielo 21.80 3 8 5 Bruno Fratus 21.82 4 6 4 Anthony Ervin 21.83 5 7 1 Roland Schoeman 21.92 6 7 4 Cullen Jones 21.95 7 6 5 Andrey Grechin 22.09 7 7 Andriy Govorov 8 3 Florent Manaudou 10 7 5 James Magnussen 22.11 11 8 6 Luca Dotto 22.12 8 7 Gideon Louw 13 8 8 Brent Hayden 22.15 14 6 6 Krisztián Takács 22.19 15 6 8 Norbert Trandafir 22.22 , NR 16 7 3 Eamon Sullivan 22.27 17 6 2 Stefan Nystrand 22.32 18 7 6 Amaury Leveaux 22.35 19 7 2 Marco Orsi 22.36 20 6 7 Adam Brown 22.39 21 8 2 Sergey Fesikov 22.42 22 5 3 Jasper Aerents 22.43 23 6 1 Hanser García 22.45 24 4 4 Roy-Allan Burch 22.47 NR 25 7 8 Ari-Pekka Liukkonen 22.57 26 5 1 Shi Yang 22.64 27 5 4 David Dunford 22.72 28 5 7 Mario Todorović 22.75 29 4 5 Barry Murphy 22.76 30 8 1 Ioannis Kalargaris 22.80 31 5 8 Árni Már Árnason 22.81 NR 32 5 5 Brett Fraser 22.91 33 5 6 Kacper Majchrzak 23.00 34 4 3 Shehab Younis 23.16 35 5 2 Federico Grabich 23.30 36 4 6 Luke Hall 23.48 NR 37 4 2 Kareem Ennab 24.09 38 4 7 Chakyl Camal 24.43 39 4 1 Mahfizur Rahman Sagor 24.64 40 3 6 Kerson Hadley 24.82 41 3 4 Adama Ouedraogo 25.26 NR 42 4 8 Zachary Payne 25.26 43 3 5 Emile Bakale 25.64 44 3 2 Kouassi Brou 25.82 45 3 3 Tolga Akcayli 26.27 46 3 1 Giordan Harris 26.88 47 3 8 Prasiddha Jung Shah 26.93 48 3 7 Hemthon Ponloeu 27.03 49 2 2 Abdourahman Osman 27.25 50 2 6 Mohamed Elkhedr 27.26 51 2 3 Ching Maou Wei 27.30 52 2 7 Jackson Niyomugabo 27.38 53 2 5 Ganzi Mugula 27.58 54 2 4 Paul Edingue Ekane 27.87 55 1 5 Christian Nassif 28.04 56 1 4 Phathana Inthavong 28.17 57 2 1 Mulualem Girma Teshale 28.99 58 1 3 Wilfried Tevoedjre 29.77

Semifinals

The swimmers with the top 8 times, regardless of heat, advanced to the final.

Rank Heat Lane Name Nation Time Notes1 1 3 Cullen Jones 21.54 1 4 César Cielo 3 1 5 Anthony Ervin 21.62 4 2 5 Bruno Fratus 21.63 5 2 4 George Bovell 21.77 6 2 2 Florent Manaudou 21.80 7 1 8 Eamon Sullivan 21.88 8 2 3 Roland Schoeman 21.88 9 1 7 Gideon Louw 21.92 10 2 6 Andrey Grechin 21.98 11 1 2 James Magnussen 22.00 12 1 1 Krisztián Takács 22.01 13 2 7 Luca Dotto 22.09 14 1 6 Andriy Govorov 22.12 15 2 1 Brent Hayden 22.12 16 2 8 Norbert Trandafir 22.30

Final Rank Lane Name Nation Time Notes 7 Florent Manaudou 21.34 5 Cullen Jones 21.54 4 César Cielo 21.59 4 6 Bruno Fratus 21.61 5 3 Anthony Ervin 21.78 6 8 Roland Mark Schoeman 21.80 7 2 George Bovell 21.82 8 1 Eamon Sullivan 21.98

References

External links