# Swimming at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre freestyle

The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Summer Olympics took place on 21–22 September at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Sydney, Australia.
U.S. swimmers Gary Hall, Jr. and Anthony Ervin, who trained together at the Phoenix Swim Club, tied for the gold; they finished with a matching time of 21.98, edging out Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband in 22.03.
Italy's Lorenzo Vismara finished fourth in 22.11, while Poland's Bartosz Kizierowski was a fraction behind the leading pack in sixth at 22.22. Russia's double defending champion Alexander Popov finished outside the medals in sixth place with a time of 22.24. Great Britain's four-time Olympian Mark Foster (22.41) and Ukraine's Oleksandr Volynets (22.51) rounded out the finale. Earlier in the prelims, Volynets made a surprise packet with a ninth fastest time and a Ukrainian record of 22.52 to lead the sixth heat.
Ervin stopped swimming competitively in 2003, auctioned off his gold medal on eBay to aid survivors of the 2004 tsunami, but returned from retirement to claim his place on his second Olympics, in London, twelve years after his first. Both men would later continue to win another gold in this event outright (Hall, Jr. in 2004 and Ervin in 2016), edging out the runner-up by 0.01 second in their respective races.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Alexander Popov (RUS) | 21.64 | Moscow, Russia | 16 June 2000 |
| Olympic record | Alexander Popov (EUN) | 21.91 | Barcelona, Spain | 30 July 1992 |

## Competition format

In a change from previous Games, the competition consisted of three rounds: heats, semifinals, and a final. The swimmers with the best 16 times in the heats advanced to the semifinals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the semifinals advanced to the final. Swim-offs were used as necessary to break ties for advancement to the next round.

## Results
### Heats

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 9 | 6 | Bartosz Kizierowski | Poland | 22.05 | Q, NR |
| 2 | 9 | 4 | Gary Hall, Jr. | United States | 22.14 | Q |
| 3 | 10 | 4 | Alexander Popov | Russia | 22.15 | Q |
| 4 | 8 | 4 | Anthony Ervin | United States | 22.24 | Q |
| 5 | 10 | 5 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 22.32 | Q |
| 6 | 8 | 6 | Ricardo Busquets | Puerto Rico | 22.42 | Q |
| 7 | 10 | 6 | Brett Hawke | Australia | 22.45 | Q |
| 8 | 9 | 5 | Brendon Dedekind | South Africa | 22.48 | Q |
| 9 | 6 | 2 | Oleksandr Volynets | Ukraine | 22.52 | Q, NR |
| 10 | 10 | 3 | Roland Mark Schoeman | South Africa | 22.53 | Q |
| 10 | 8 | 7 | Stefan Nystrand | Sweden | 22.53 | Q, NR |
| 12 | 9 | 2 | Johan Kenkhuis | Netherlands | 22.61 | Q |
| 13 | 8 | 5 | Lorenzo Vismara | Italy | 22.62 | Q |
| 14 | 8 | 3 | Mark Foster | Great Britain | 22.65 | Q |
| 15 | 9 | 8 | Denis Pimankov | Russia | 22.74 | Q |
| 16 | 10 | 2 | Chris Fydler | Australia | 22.80 | Q |
| 17 | 7 | 4 | Jiang Chengji | China | 22.82 | |
| 17 | 6 | 6 | Kim Min-suk | South Korea | 22.82 | NR |
| 19 | 10 | 8 | Julio Santos | Ecuador | 22.83 | |
| 20 | 9 | 3 | Fernando Scherer | Brazil | 22.88 | |
| 21 | 8 | 2 | José Meolans | Argentina | 22.89 | |
| 22 | 8 | 1 | Salim Iles | Algeria | 22.95 | |
| 23 | 10 | 7 | Edvaldo Silva Filho | Brazil | 22.96 | |
| 23 | 8 | 8 | Eduardo Lorente | Spain | 22.96 | |
| 25 | 6 | 8 | Peter Mankoč | Slovenia | 23.02 | |
| 26 | 7 | 6 | Attila Zubor | Hungary | 23.03 | |
| 27 | 6 | 7 | Stavros Michaelides | Cyprus | 23.05 | |
| 28 | 7 | 1 | Stephan Kunzelmann | Germany | 23.08 | |
| 29 | 10 | 1 | Indrek Sei | Estonia | 23.11 | |
| 30 | 5 | 1 | Ravil Nachaev | Uzbekistan | 23.12 | |
| 31 | 7 | 2 | Christophe Bühler | Switzerland | 23.15 | |
| 32 | 7 | 7 | Marijan Kanjer | Croatia | 23.16 | |
| 33 | 7 | 5 | Marcos Hernández | Cuba | 23.20 | |
| 34 | 7 | 3 | Dzmitry Kalinouski | Belarus | 23.21 | |
| 34 | 6 | 5 | Yoav Bruck | Israel | 23.21 | |
| 36 | 7 | 8 | Pedro Silva | Portugal | 23.27 | |
| 37 | 5 | 4 | Allan Murray | Bahamas | 23.34 | |
| 38 | 6 | 1 | Rolandas Gimbutis | Lithuania | 23.36 | |
| 39 | 6 | 4 | Thierry Wouters | Belgium | 23.44 | |
| 40 | 4 | 1 | Sergey Borisenko | Kazakhstan | 23.46 | |
| 41 | 4 | 4 | Sergey Ashihmin | Kyrgyzstan | 23.53 | |
| 42 | 5 | 7 | Richard Sam Bera | Indonesia | 23.56 | |
| 43 | 5 | 8 | Nebojša Bikić | FR Yugoslavia | 23.57 | |
| 44 | 5 | 2 | Camilo Becerra | Colombia | 23.63 | |
| 45 | 3 | 4 | Estebán Blanco | Costa Rica | 23.72 | NR |
| 46 | 5 | 6 | Tamer Hamed | Egypt | 23.77 | |
| 47 | 4 | 8 | Serghei Stolearenco | Moldova | 23.84 | |
| 48 | 4 | 3 | Paul Kutscher | Uruguay | 23.90 | |
| 49 | 4 | 7 | Luis López Hartinger | Peru | 24.00 | |
| 49 | 4 | 6 | Leslie Kwok | Singapore | 24.00 | |
| 51 | 4 | 2 | Huang Chih-yung | Chinese Taipei | 24.01 | |
| 52 | 3 | 5 | Howard Hinds | Netherlands Antilles | 24.07 | |
| 53 | 4 | 5 | Harbeth Fu Wing | Hong Kong | 24.20 | |
| 54 | 3 | 8 | Zurab Beridze | Georgia | 24.28 | |
| 55 | 5 | 3 | Rodrigo Olivares | Chile | 24.50 | |
| 56 | 3 | 1 | Ayoub Al-Mas | United Arab Emirates | 24.91 | |
| 57 | 3 | 3 | Omar Hughes | Grenada | 25.07 | |
| 58 | 3 | 2 | Dmitri Margaryan | Armenia | 25.29 | |
| 59 | 2 | 6 | Jamie Peterkin | Saint Lucia | 25.33 | |
| 60 | 3 | 7 | Emin Guliyev | Azerbaijan | 25.36 | |
| 61 | 1 | 1 | Wael Ghassan | Qatar | 25.43 | |
| 62 | 2 | 4 | Davy Bisslik | Aruba | 25.57 | |
| 63 | 3 | 6 | João Aguiar | Angola | 25.70 | |
| 64 | 2 | 5 | Muhammad Ahmed | Iraq | 25.84 | |
| 65 | 2 | 3 | Ilidio Matusse | Mozambique | 26.28 | |
| 66 | 2 | 8 | Hem Kiri | Cambodia | 26.41 | |
| 67 | 2 | 1 | Kenneth Maronie | Dominica | 26.85 | |
| 68 | 2 | 7 | Khalid Al-Kulaibi | Oman | 26.96 | |
| 69 | 1 | 5 | Chitra Bahadur Gurung | Nepal | 27.02 | |
| 70 | 2 | 2 | Sikhounxay Ounkhamphanyavong | Laos | 27.03 | |
| 71 | 1 | 4 | Anlloyd Samuel | Palau | 27.24 | |
| 72 | 1 | 3 | Stephenson Wallace | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 27.84 | |
| 73 | 1 | 6 | Hassan Mubah | Maldives | 28.86 | |
| 74 | 1 | 2 | Bakary Sereme | Mali | 29.69 | |
| 75 | 1 | 8 | Samson Ndayishimiye | Rwanda | 38.76 | |
| | 1 | 7 | Mohamed Abdul Hamid | Sudan | DSQ | |
| | 6 | 3 | Craig Hutchison | Canada | DSQ | |
| | 5 | 5 | Francisco Sánchez | Venezuela | DNS | |
| | 9 | 1 | Romain Barnier | France | DNS | |
| | 9 | 7 | Lars Frölander | Sweden | DNS | |

### Semifinals

| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nation | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | 4 | Gary Hall, Jr. | United States | 22.07 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 22.11 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | Anthony Ervin | United States | 22.13 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | 5 | Alexander Popov | Russia | 22.17 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | 1 | Lorenzo Vismara | Italy | 22.30 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | 1 | Mark Foster | Great Britain | 22.32 | Q |
| 7 | 2 | 4 | Bartosz Kizierowski | Poland | 22.35 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 2 | Oleksandr Volynets | Ukraine | 22.36 | Q, NR |
| 9 | 1 | 6 | Brendon Dedekind | South Africa | 22.39 | |
| 10 | 1 | 8 | Chris Fydler | Australia | 22.41 | |
| 10 | 2 | 7 | Roland Mark Schoeman | South Africa | 22.41 | |
| 12 | 1 | 7 | Johan Kenkhuis | Netherlands | 22.47 | |
| 13 | 2 | 6 | Brett Hawke | Australia | 22.49 | |
| 13 | 1 | 2 | Stefan Nystrand | Sweden | 22.49 | NR |
| 15 | 1 | 3 | Ricardo Busquets | Puerto Rico | 22.51 | |
| 16 | 2 | 8 | Denis Pimankov | Russia | 22.89 | |

### Final

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nation | Time |
| | 4 | Gary Hall, Jr. | United States | 21.98 |
| | 3 | Anthony Ervin | United States | 21.98 |
| | 5 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 22.03 |
| 4 | 2 | Lorenzo Vismara | Italy | 22.11 |
| 5 | 1 | Bartosz Kizierowski | Poland | 22.22 |
| 6 | 6 | Alexander Popov | Russia | 22.24 |
| 7 | 7 | Mark Foster | Great Britain | 22.41 |
| 8 | 8 | Oleksandr Volynets | Ukraine | 22.51 |