# Swimming at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre freestyle

The men's 50-metre freestyle event at the 1992 Summer Olympics took place on 30 July at the Piscines Bernat Picornell in Barcelona, Spain.

## 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 | Matt Biondi (USA) | 22.14 | Seoul, South Korea | 24 September 1988 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 30 July | Final A | Alexander Popov | Unified Team | 21.91 | OR |

## 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 | 8 | 4 | Alexander Popov | Unified Team | 22.21 | Q |
| 2 | 10 | 4 | Matt Biondi | United States | 22.32 | Q |
| 3 | 9 | 4 | Tom Jager | United States | 22.45 | Q |
| 4 | 10 | 1 | Gennadiy Prigoda | Unified Team | 22.57 | Q |
| 5 | 9 | 3 | Peter Williams | South Africa | 22.65 | Q |
| 6 | 9 | 6 | Christophe Kalfayan | France | 22.70 | Q |
| 6 | 9 | 5 | Nils Rudolph | Germany | 22.70 | Q |
| 8 | 10 | 5 | Mark Foster | Great Britain | 22.72 | Q |
| 9 | 8 | 5 | Raimundas Mažuolis | Lithuania | 22.77 | q |
| 10 | 9 | 2 | Mark Pinger | Germany | 22.88 | q |
| 11 | 10 | 3 | Pär Lindström | Sweden | 22.92 | q |
| 11 | 10 | 7 | René Gusperti | Italy | 22.92 | q |
| 13 | 8 | 3 | Darren Lange | Australia | 23.01 | q |
| 13 | 8 | 6 | Stéphan Caron | France | 23.01 | q, WD |
| 15 | 8 | 2 | Gustavo Borges | Brazil | 23.10 | q |
| 15 | 10 | 2 | Angus Waddell | Australia | 23.10 | q |
| 17 | 8 | 7 | Dano Halsall | Switzerland | 23.15 | q |
| 18 | 8 | 8 | Krzysztof Cwalina | Poland | 23.20 | |
| 19 | 10 | 6 | Mike Fibbens | Great Britain | 23.27 | |
| 20 | 6 | 5 | Stavros Michaelides | Cyprus | 23.34 | |
| 21 | 9 | 1 | Allan Murray | Bahamas | 23.35 | |
| 22 | 9 | 8 | Darryl Cronjé | South Africa | 23.39 | |
| 23 | 1 | 6 | Mladen Kapor | Independent Olympic Participants | 23.42 | |
| 24 | 7 | 2 | Ricardo Busquets | Puerto Rico | 23.44 | |
| 25 | 7 | 4 | Stéfan Voléry | Switzerland | 23.47 | |
| 26 | 7 | 5 | Nikos Paleokrassas | Greece | 23.51 | |
| 27 | 7 | 8 | Rodrigo González | Mexico | 23.52 | |
| 28 | 7 | 3 | Nikos Steliou | Greece | 23.55 | |
| 29 | 10 | 8 | Franz Mortensen | Denmark | 23.61 | |
| 30 | 5 | 5 | Janne Blomqvist | Finland | 23.63 | |
| 31 | 8 | 1 | Indrek Sei | Estonia | 23.68 | |
| 32 | 7 | 7 | Yoav Bruck | Israel | 23.72 | |
| 33 | 6 | 2 | Enrico Linscheer | Suriname | 23.74 | |
| 34 | 4 | 7 | Todd Torres | Puerto Rico | 23.79 | |
| 34 | 7 | 1 | Nicholas Sanders | New Zealand | 23.79 | |
| 36 | 7 | 6 | Paulo Trindade | Portugal | 23.81 | |
| 37 | 6 | 1 | Mark Weldon | New Zealand | 23.87 | |
| 37 | 6 | 4 | Mohamed El-Azoul | Egypt | 23.87 | |
| 39 | 6 | 3 | Michael Wright | Hong Kong | 23.90 | |
| 40 | 5 | 3 | Stephen Clarke | Canada | 23.95 | |
| 41 | 5 | 7 | Teófilo Ferreira | Brazil | 24.13 | |
| 41 | 6 | 8 | Musa Bakare | Nigeria | 24.13 | |
| 43 | 5 | 4 | Pedro Lima | Angola | 24.14 | |
| 44 | 5 | 1 | Geribryan Mewett | Bermuda | 24.20 | |
| 45 | 5 | 2 | Ian Steed Raynor | Bermuda | 24.23 | |
| 46 | 3 | 5 | Ivor Le Roux | Zimbabwe | 24.32 | |
| 47 | 4 | 1 | Toshiaki Kurasawa | Japan | 24.61 | |
| 48 | 4 | 3 | Laurent Alfred | Virgin Islands | 24.66 | |
| 49 | 1 | 7 | Mouhamed Diop | Senegal | 24.69 | |
| 50 | 6 | 6 | Frank Leskaj | Albania | 24.72 | |
| 51 | 4 | 8 | Rhoderick McGown | Zimbabwe | 24.75 | |
| 52 | 4 | 6 | Patrick Sagisi | Guam | 24.78 | |
| 53 | 5 | 8 | Marc Verbeeck | Belgium | 24.85 | |
| 54 | 2 | 4 | Adrian Romero | Guam | 25.12 | |
| 55 | 3 | 4 | Plutarco Castellanos | Honduras | 25.27 | |
| 56 | 4 | 2 | Kenneth Yeo | Singapore | 25.29 | |
| 57 | 1 | 2 | Bruno N'Diaye | Senegal | 25.35 | |
| 58 | 2 | 3 | Ivan Roberts | Seychelles | 25.44 | |
| 59 | 3 | 3 | Wu Tat Cheung | Hong Kong | 25.45 | |
| 60 | 3 | 2 | Andrés Sedano | Guatemala | 25.53 | |
| 61 | 3 | 6 | Émile Lahoud | Lebanon | 25.76 | |
| 62 | 2 | 5 | Mohamed Bin Abid | United Arab Emirates | 25.79 | |
| 63 | 3 | 1 | Gustavo Bucaro | Guatemala | 25.84 | |
| 64 | 3 | 7 | Ahmad Faraj | United Arab Emirates | 25.91 | |
| 65 | 2 | 7 | Carl Probert | Fiji | 26.31 | |
| 66 | 2 | 2 | Filippo Piva | San Marino | 26.41 | |
| 67 | 2 | 6 | Roberto Pellandra | San Marino | 26.51 | |
| 68 | 2 | 1 | Kenny Roberts | Seychelles | 26.78 | |
| 69 | 1 | 1 | Gilles Coudray | Republic of the Congo | 28.11 | |
| 70 | 1 | 4 | Foy Gordon Chung | Fiji | 28.75 | |
| 71 | 1 | 5 | Ahmed Imthiyaz | Maldives | 29.27 | |
| 72 | 1 | 3 | Mohamed Rasheed | Maldives | 30.37 | |
| | 5 | 6 | Yves Clausse | Luxembourg | DSQ | |
| | 4 | 5 | José Mossiane | Mozambique | DSQ | |
| | 4 | 4 | Tsutomu Nakano | Japan | DSQ | |
| | 9 | 7 | Joakim Holmqvist | Sweden | DNS | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time |
| 9 | 2 | Darren Lange | Australia | 22.69 |
| 10 | 4 | Raimundas Mažuolis | Lithuania | 22.71 |
| 11 | 5 | Mark Pinger | Germany | 22.88 |
| 11 | 6 | Pär Lindström | Sweden | 22.88 |
| 13 | 1 | Gustavo Borges | Brazil | 23.01 |
| 14 | 3 | René Gusperti | Italy | 23.04 |
| 15 | 7 | Angus Waddell | Australia | 23.06 |
| 16 | 8 | Dano Halsall | Switzerland | 23.18 |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 4 | Alexander Popov | Unified Team | 21.91 | OR |
| | 5 | Matt Biondi | United States | 22.09 | |
| | 3 | Tom Jager | United States | 22.30 | |
| 4 | 2 | Peter Williams | South Africa | 22.50 | |
| 4 | 1 | Christophe Kalfayan | France | 22.50 | |
| 6 | 8 | Mark Foster | Great Britain | 22.52 | |
| 7 | 6 | Gennadiy Prigoda | Unified Team | 22.54 | |
| 8 | 7 | Nils Rudolph | Germany | 22.73 | |