# Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre freestyle

The men's 50 metre freestyle event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 25 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Tom Jager (USA) | 21.81 | Nashville, United States | 24 March 1990 |
| Olympic record | Alexander Popov (EUN) | 21.91 | Barcelona, Spain | 30 July 1992 |

## Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds: heats and finals. The swimmers with the best 8 times in the heats advanced to final A, where they competed for the top 8 places. The swimmers with the next 8 times in the heats swam in final B, for ninth through the sixteenth place. Swim-offs were used as necessary to determine advancement.

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 9 | 4 | Alexander Popov | Russia | 22.22 | Q |
| 2 | 8 | 4 | Gary Hall, Jr. | United States | 22.36 | Q |
| 3 | 7 | 1 | Jiang Chengji | China | 22.55 | Q, AS |
| 4 | 8 | 2 | Brendon Dedekind | South Africa | 22.60 | Q |
| 5 | 6 | 1 | Ricardo Busquets | Puerto Rico | 22.61 | Q, NR |
| 6 | 9 | 5 | David Fox | United States | 22.64 | Q |
| 7 | 7 | 3 | Bengt Zikarsky | Germany | 22.68 | QSO |
| 7 | 7 | 8 | Francisco Sánchez | Venezuela | 22.68 | QSO, NR |
| 7 | 8 | 5 | Fernando Scherer | Brazil | 22.68 | QSO |
| 10 | 8 | 6 | Mark Foster | Great Britain | 22.73 | q |
| 11 | 9 | 8 | Allan Murray | Bahamas | 22.75 | q, NR |
| 12 | 8 | 1 | Yuriy Vlasov | Ukraine | 22.77 | q |
| 13 | 9 | 2 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 22.82 | q |
| 14 | 8 | 3 | Christophe Kalfayan | France | 22.83 | q |
| 15 | 7 | 6 | René Gusperti | Italy | 22.85 | q |
| 16 | 9 | 3 | Gustavo Borges | Brazil | 22.86 | q |
| 17 | 7 | 2 | Pavlo Khnykin | Ukraine | 22.91 | |
| 18 | 7 | 7 | Raimundas Mažuolis | Lithuania | 22.98 | |
| 18 | 9 | 6 | Chris Fydler | Australia | 22.98 | |
| 20 | 8 | 7 | Vladimir Predkin | Russia | 23.03 | |
| 21 | 7 | 5 | Alexander Lüderitz | Germany | 23.06 | |
| 22 | 9 | 1 | Aleh Rukhlevich | Belarus | 23.12 | |
| 23 | 7 | 4 | José Meolans | Argentina | 23.21 | |
| 24 | 9 | 7 | Yoav Bruck | Israel | 23.22 | |
| 25 | 6 | 4 | Felipe Delgado | Ecuador | 23.26 | |
| 26 | 6 | 2 | Sergey Borisenko | Kazakhstan | 23.29 | |
| 26 | 6 | 8 | Indrek Sei | Estonia | 23.29 | NR |
| 28 | 6 | 7 | Bartosz Kizierowski | Poland | 23.34 | |
| 29 | 5 | 5 | Sion Brinn | Jamaica | 23.35 | NR |
| 30 | 6 | 6 | Juan Benavides | Spain | 23.36 | |
| 31 | 5 | 8 | Stavros Michaelides | Cyprus | 23.37 | |
| 32 | 5 | 6 | Enrico Linscheer | Suriname | 23.45 | |
| 33 | 6 | 3 | Pär Lindström | Sweden | 23.47 | |
| 34 | 6 | 5 | Georgios Giziotis | Greece | 23.56 | |
| 35 | 4 | 8 | Yukihiro Matsushita | Japan | 23.60 | |
| 36 | 4 | 4 | Salim Iles | Algeria | 23.61 | NR |
| 36 | 4 | 5 | Janne Blomqvist | Finland | 23.61 | |
| 36 | 8 | 8 | Dzmitry Kalinouski | Belarus | 23.61 | |
| 39 | 5 | 4 | Hugues Legault | Canada | 23.63 | |
| 40 | 3 | 3 | Nicholas Tongue | New Zealand | 23.73 | |
| 40 | 5 | 1 | Paulo Trindade | Portugal | 23.73 | |
| 42 | 3 | 4 | Arthur Li Kai Yien | Hong Kong | 23.77 | |
| 43 | 3 | 5 | Maxim Cazmirciuc | Moldova | 23.78 | |
| 44 | 5 | 7 | Richard Sam Bera | Indonesia | 23.80 | |
| 45 | 4 | 3 | Ravil Nachaev | Uzbekistan | 23.93 | |
| 46 | 3 | 6 | Darrick Bollinger | Guam | 23.97 | |
| 47 | 4 | 6 | Tamer Hamed | Egypt | 24.02 | |
| 48 | 5 | 3 | Nicholas O'Hare | Ireland | 24.03 | |
| 49 | 4 | 7 | Sebastian Xavier | India | 24.15 | |
| 50 | 4 | 2 | Alen Lončar | Croatia | 24.17 | |
| 51 | 3 | 2 | Kaan Berberoğlu | Turkey | 24.37 | |
| 52 | 4 | 1 | Vitaly Vasilyev | Kyrgyzstan | 24.54 | |
| 53 | 2 | 6 | Khemo Rivera | Virgin Islands | 24.62 | NR |
| 54 | 2 | 3 | Howard Hinds | Netherlands Antilles | 24.63 | |
| 55 | 3 | 1 | Tamás Kerékjártó | Hungary | 24.67 | |
| 56 | 2 | 5 | Huang Chih-yung | Chinese Taipei | 24.89 | |
| 57 | 2 | 2 | Alfredo Carrillo | Paraguay | 24.91 | |
| 58 | 3 | 8 | Sng Ju Wei | Singapore | 25.04 | |
| 59 | 3 | 7 | Emin Guliyev | Azerbaijan | 25.23 | |
| 60 | 1 | 4 | Woodrow Lawrence | Dominica | 27.88 | |
| 61 | 1 | 5 | Moosa Nazim | Maldives | 28.37 | |
| 62 | 1 | 3 | René Makosso | Republic of the Congo | 30.00 | |
| 63 | 2 | 1 | Michael Collier | Sierra Leone | 34.21 | |
| | 5 | 2 | Alexandru Ioanovici | Romania | DSQ | |
| | 2 | 4 | Musa Bakare | Nigeria | DNS | |

### Swim-off

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Fernando Scherer | Brazil | 22.71 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Francisco Sánchez | Venezuela | 22.74 | Q |
| | 4 | Bengt Zikarsky | Germany | DSQ | q |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 9 | 2 | Pieter van den Hoogenband | Netherlands | 22.67 | NR |
| 10 | 4 | Bengt Zikarsky | Germany | 22.73 | |
| 11 | 6 | Yuriy Vlasov | Ukraine | 22.82 | |
| 12 | 3 | Allan Murray | Bahamas | 22.92 | |
| 12 | 8 | Gustavo Borges | Brazil | 22.92 | |
| 14 | 1 | René Gusperti | Italy | 22.96 | |
| 14 | 7 | Christophe Kalfayan | France | 22.96 | |
| 16 | 5 | Mark Foster | Great Britain | 23.01 | |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Alexander Popov | Russia | 22.13 | |
| | 5 | Gary Hall, Jr. | United States | 22.26 | |
| | 1 | Fernando Scherer | Brazil | 22.29 | SA |
| 4 | 3 | Jiang Chengji | China | 22.33 | AS |
| 5 | 6 | Brendon Dedekind | South Africa | 22.59 | |
| 6 | 7 | David Fox | United States | 22.68 | |
| 7 | 8 | Francisco Sánchez | Venezuela | 22.72 | |
| 8 | 2 | Ricardo Busquets | Puerto Rico | 22.73 | |