Competitors 86 from 78 nations Start date 2004 | Winning time 21.93 | |
Dates August 19, 2004 (heats &
semifinals)
August 20, 2004 (final) Location Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre, Marousi, Greece Venue Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre | ||
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 by a hundredth-second margin in 21.94. South Africa's Roland Mark Schoeman completed his full set of medals by adding a bronze in 22.02, just 0.03 of a second off his time from the semifinals (21.99).
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 less than a tenth of a second. 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.