Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Men's 50 metre freestyle

Infobox Olympic event
event = Men's 50 metre freestyle
games = 2008 Summer


caption = The medal ceremony of the 50m final.
venue = Beijing National Aquatics Center
dates = August 14 (heats) August 16 (final)
competitors = TBD
nations = TBD
gold = César Cielo Filho
goldNOC = BRA
silver = Amaury Leveaux
silverNOC = FRA
bronze = Alain Bernard
bronzeNOC = FRA

The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place between August 14 and 16, at the Beijing National Aquatics Center. This swimming event is freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consists entirely of a single length of the pool.

Thirteen heats were held, with most containing the maximum number of swimmers (eight). The heat in which a swimmer competed did not formally matter for advancement, as the swimmers with the top sixteen times from the entire field qualified for the semifinals. Two semifinal heats of eight swimmers each were held. The swimmers with the eight fastest times again advanced to the finals; there, they all competed in a single final heat to earn final placements.

The qualifying norms for the 2008 event were 22.35 seconds (A norm) and 23.13 seconds (B norm). NOCs with two or more swimmers meeting the A standard could enter any two such swimmers; otherwise, they could enter a single swimmer meeting the B standard.

Records

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

World Olympic Record
world_athlete = flagathlete|Eamon Sullivan|AUS
world_mark = 21.28
world_place = Sydney, Australia
world_date = 28 March 2008
world_ref = [cite news|title=Sullivan snaps 50m record again|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/28/2202317.htm|publisher="ABC News"|date=2008-02-28|accessdate=2008-08-06]
olympic_athlete = flagIOCathlete|Alexander Popov|EUN|1992 Summer
olympic_mark = 21.91
olympic_place = Barcelona, Spain
olympic_date = 30 July 1992
olympic_ref = -

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

Heat 3

Heat 6

Heat 9

Heat 12

emifinal 2

Final

References